Government leaders are working to transform the customer experience for the communities they serve. Practical steps include: Encouraging cross-department collaboration to ensure consistent communication and the best results for citizens. Training staff to embrace flexibility and prioritize residents’ needs. Streamlining technology to automate tasks and provide residents with easy, digital access to services. Creating clear feedback channels to track results— and recognizing and celebrating staff who deliver outstanding service.
Local leaders in Volusia, St. Johns and Flagler County counties are committed to delivering an exceptional customer experience. They employ a variety of strategies, tools and tactics to help their organizations concentrate on the concerns of constituents.
Flagler County School Board Chair Will Furry believes that having the right blend of leadership, team and culture is critical to achieving a superior customer experience.“ Leadership sets the vision and tone; the team carries it out and the culture sustains it,” he said.“ In
Will Furry education, this means putting children first and when leadership, faculty and culture align, government doesn’ t just meet expectations, they exceed them. We’ ve learned that providing this type of innovative strategy builds culture and leadership with people feeling both empowered and respected.”
“ Government leaders must lead by example by communicating strongly with their community,” St. Johns County Commissioner Sarah Arnold said.“ Letting people know how to access the services they are looking for— where to call for help; which website to go to. Getting people the information they need in a format they pay attention to is critical. By having email lists, regular updates to the website or community meetings on important issues, governments can reach their constituents wherever they get their information.”
Governments also track specific data to identify their areas of strength, along with their opportunities
for improvement. Quanita May, a city commissioner for Daytona Beach, said this works for her community.“ In Daytona Beach, our approach to the customer experience is rooted in collecting feedback, measuring results and accountability. To improve our research, we are investing in kiosks where residents can quickly access city resources, file service requests and get clear answers without unnecessary delays. We’ ve attained an 86 % rating with residents being either happy or very happy with our services.”
Prioritizing the needs of all community stakeholders( both residents and business owners) is a challenging job. Commissioner Arnold believes the biggest challenge is attracting and retaining top talent.“ Hiring the right candidates and keeping staff is so important,” Commissioner May said,“ Like many growing cities, Daytona Beach faces limited resources and competing priorities. By focusing on communication, collaboration and consistency, we can overcome these barriers.” From Commissioner Furry’ s point of view, resistance to change, communication and rising expectations in a competitive environment are ongoing challenges.“ They can be overcome by prioritizing services to meet community needs, strong persuasive leadership and viewing competition as an opportunity to improve.” Providing a community with such diverse and crucial services as water, education, road repairs and timely emergency services will always remain normal expectations. However, normal is not sufficient for Volusia, St. Johns and Flagler counties where kindness and compassion and citizen-centric customer service seek to go above and beyond.“ It’ s taking the time to genuinely listen to those you serve, by being an ambassador and an advocate,” Dr. Saviak said.“ Regardless of the specific function of an agency or department, excellence in customer service is always the final product.”
Sarah Arnold
Quanita May
Marsha Lidskin has enjoyed a 40-year career in communications. She ' s written newsletters, speeches and articles and implemented community relations projects for nursing homes, school and park districts and municipal government.
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2025 | 21 |