Last week I had the privilege of being part of a group that was asked to comment to the White House about how the federal government could improve its customer service.  I didn’t see this as a political opportunity, but instead an opportunity to take the lessons we’ve learned over the last 15 years about customer service and share those with the government.

Besides, when you get a call from the White House, it’s hard to say no to at least offering up your two-cents.  And let’s face it, we’d all be better off if government services were delivered as efficiently as possible.

I’m not saying the comments we gave will be a cure-all, but it’s nice to have even a tiny part in trying to help.

My group focused on improving customer service. The short version of our message was to recommend that the government do a better job of listening to its customers and helping them interact with them in whatever way works best for them. 

While it really was something for a girl from Fort Wayne to be sitting just feet away from the President of the United States and listening to him say that he thought that I (and the rest of my business colleagues) could help the nation, it wasn’t the only high point of the trip for me.

Like most kids do, I looked up to my father a lot (still do, actually) when I was growing up.  He was a driver for the United Parcel Service. My second exciting moment in DC? I got to meet the CEO of UPS, Scott Davis!  Like me, he’d been asked to attend the White House Forum on Modernization. We weren’t in the same breakout group, but he was very nice and even smiled when I told him that my dad used to work for his company.

The folks in DC have said they’ll be asking us to share more about what works in the private sector and could work for government. If you have ideas, feel free to share them.