There’s an old, old joke about “I’m here from the government and I’ve come to help you.”  The joke is that people who work for government traditionally aren’t thought of as being very helpful or customer service-oriented.

Centralized customer service systems – 311 and other similar centers -- demonstrate that old joke isn’t true, and now Huffington Post has recognized the director of the Philly311 Customer Contact Center, Rosetta Carrington Lue, as one of its Top 100 Most Social Customer Service Pros. She was the only public sector employee on the list.

Lue is the City of Philadelphia’s Chief Customer Service Officer, and her focus is on making Philadelphia more responsive and accessible to its citizens.  In addition to directing the Philly311 Customer Contact Center, Lue has instituted several new citizen engagement efforts – including one focused exclusively on youth -- to educate citizens on how their government works for them and to get their feedback on how to make the city a better place to live.  Philly311 runs a proactive social media campaign that provides information to citizens before they even ask. It’s not only about the government being there to help them, but the government being there to listen to what citizens need and to respond to those needs.

Lue and her peers in local governments throughout North America are making great strides making government something citizens can depend on to work for them!