Search past winners/finalists


  • MESA logo

Salt Lake County Government

How to EnterCompany: Salt Lake County Government, Salt Lake City, UT
Company Description: SALT LAKE COUNTY is a diverse community of 16 cities and 6 townships. County government serves almost 1 million residents providing public safety, health services, and cultural and recreation opportunities while also managing property, growth and development issues.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Awards Department Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year - Public Services & Education

Nomination Title: Salt Lake County Government

Tell the story about what this nominated department achieved since the beginning of July 2010 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Peter Corroon, the Mayor of Salt Lake County, created a vision for Salt Lake
County government to become recognized for the Quality Customer Service
provided both internally and externally. The County enlisted Nigel Bristow of
Targeted Learning to focus on improving customer service and finding new ways
to enhance customer service. Targeted Learning instills that good customer
service requires active listening, apologizing effectively, receiving and
giving feedback, and learning how to disagree agreeably. With these four
objectives, employees can improve communication and provide quality customer
service. The Targeted Learning team also developed a plan to determine the
base level of the customer service provided by employees which included secret
shopping and surveys – receiving responses from 11,000 current customers. The
six-question survey showed impressive results that 94.5% of external customers
were essentially happy or thought county employees provided great service.
Secret shopping showed overall county employees are happy and feel valued.

A “No Wrong Door to County Government” initiative was implemented and has
proved successful. The purpose of the initiative was to help customers
throughout the county by ensuring no request was forgotten or disregarded. “No
Wrong Door to County Government” challenged employees to strive for excellence
and provide positive results. For example, employees of Salt Lake County
Sanitation were contacted by a customer who had accidentally thrown a wallet
in the garbage. At the end of the day, all of the Sanitation employees sifted
through the garbage to find the wallet and return it to the customer.

To enhance employees’ customer service skills, workshops that included 2-4
hours of professional training educated over 1,700 county employees during
2011. In addition to external training, the county established an Employee’s
University for in-house training. The University offers two certified
programs, a Supervisory Certificate Program and a Management Certificate
Program. Both programs provide pertinent information inspiring employees to
learn and excel. Many classes are also offered to employees online for easy,
efficient instruction and improvement.

A communication team was established to encourage use of new websites
developed to provide up-to-date information. This team created these user-
friendly websites for employees and customers. The websites are designed to
inspire users to feel welcome and informed. All Employees who have the
capability can also use the new “employeeCONNECT” website to access
information at home and work.

The county also offers a “Healthy Lifestyles” program which is a leading
benefit to employees. This program allows employees to earn points by
committing to be healthy and fit. At the end of the annual program, points
earned by an employee are converted to a monetary reward for maintaining a
healthy lifestyle. To enhance the “Healthy Lifestyles” program, employees and
their immediate family members were offered a low cost membership to the gyms
located throughout the county.

Essentially, Mayor Corroon worked to ignite positive working conditions for
employees as well as educating them about the importance of quality customer
service. Mayor Corroon has taken Salt Lake County employees to the forefront
of becoming Nationwide Customer Service Representatives.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://news.slco.org/2011/elected/20111018.html
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=14594370&itype=storyID
http://news.slco.org/2010/elected/20101006.html
http://news.slco.org/2011/elected/20110121.html
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=13376226&itype=storyID
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700209151/Christmas-Box-House
-teacher-provides-a-safe-haven.html

http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=16521404&itype=storyID
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=17308192&itype=storyID
http://news.slco.org/2011/elected/20110214.html
http://news.slco.org/2010/pw/20100802.html
http://news.slco.org/2010/elected/20100817.html
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=15381380&itype=storyID
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=16955388&itype=storyID

 

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated customer service organization:

 

Since becoming Salt Lake County Mayor in the 2004 election, Peter Corroon has
worked to foster open, honest and ethical government.

Salt Lake County is seeing rapid growth and emphasizes "planning, not
politics" to manage this growth. His fiscally conservative policies will make
county government both more efficient and more environmentally sound.

Mayor Corroon believes that government should be accessible to all citizens.
He regularly holds open-door meetings for the public.

He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh; M.S. in Real Estate Finance and Investment, New York University;
and a J. D. from Golden Gate University.

Mayor Corroon and his wife, Amy, have three children