Edward M. Mazze, professor of business at the University of Rhode Island, has the opinion piece "Customer manifesto for public employees" in today's Providence Journal. While I agree with him that giving good customer support is important it is addressing the issue of access to information with a past solution. Customer support should start with self-service and then, should that fail, continue with personal interaction.
Most people today use internet tools to initially address their problems. They are comfortable using self-service because it has proved to be successful. When I need a fishing license my first step is to use Google and search for "rhode island state finishing license." The page it takes me too, DEM's Regulations, is a little confusing but soon I am led to the answer. If the regulations pages doesn't answer my question, it should offer me the choice of using personal support for immediate resolution or to allow me to open a ticket for later resolution.
Making your site Google friendly is far more cost-effective than hiring and training support staff for front-line customer service.
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