n most places, city government would not be included on a short list of organizations associated with excellent customer service. Governments may — perhaps unfairly — be associated with poor service. That is, unless you live in Elberton, Ga., now that many city employees have completed an intensive course on customer satisfaction.

"It's all changed," said Scott Wilson, city manager of the Northeast Georgia town. "Now I hear city employees answering the phone and saying, "I don't know the answer to your question, but let me find out and phone you back."

In an era of deregulation and increased choices, city governments are facing some stiff competition from private companies. For example, although the city of Elberton is the only provider of gas, water and electrical utility services, within the next few years residents will be able to choose from several providers.

"It's a different world. We need customer service now in local government," Wilson said. "Local government no longer has a monopoly on some of the services it offers."

Elberton's city employees have always been a basically friendly bunch. But sometimes they weren't all that helpful, Wilson said. Some employees didn't understand their jobs required better communication.

"The deregulation movement is coming to local government," said James Harris, instructor from Athens Area Technical Institute. "City officials and employees are having to become more responsive."

Harris, who taught the year-long Certified Customer Service Specialist (CCSS) course at the Elbert County campus of Athens Tech, spent 12 hours each week teaching 16 Elberton city employees a wide variety of skills that will help them treat citizens like the valued customers they are.

The class included a wide assortment of city employees, ranging from clerks and secretaries to the building inspector and the fire chief.

Going "back to school" was not easy for some of them. First, they had to pass a rigorous placement test. And then they had to commit to spending 154 hours in training that covered everything from telephone answering skills to dealing calmly with irate customers.

"Each class period we would share the bad stuff in city work and how we could handle it better — nasty letters, people demanding services, complaints and phone calls," Harris said. "And the city's participants weren't satisfied until they did their very best."

Harris tailored the curriculum — which usually is offered to businesses — to meet the needs of the local government.

"I gave the students the opportunity to choose which areas they wanted to explore," Harris said. "A lot of them said they needed help in writing, in grammar use, sentence structure and letter writing."

The joint effort was rewarding for instructor and students alike.

"I have never had a class that has meant so much to me in all my years of teaching at UGA, Athens Tech and throughout Northeast Georgia," Harris said.

Wilson sees the CCSS program as building more responsive employees. "It's a gradual process," he said, "and if we start now with the CCSS program, perhaps in five years, 90 percent of our employees will have absorbed its lessons."

Obviously, some employees already have.

In May, an Elberton woman bought a gas grill for cookouts from the city of Elberton, which is a supplier of natural gas and gas appliances.

"Two hours before her big party, she set it up for the first time and it wouldn't work," Wilson said. "She was absolutely in a panic and called the city to fix the grill. An employee went out, finding that a part was defective. It wasn't in our stock, so he went to the hardware store, bought a temporary replacement, got the grill in shape for the cook-out and then ordered the replacement part to repair the grill permanently."

The program has resulted in improved customer service in other areas of city government as well.

Fire inspectors and building inspectors are constantly out in the community, said Wilson. "These inspectors hear about a lot of city service problems and with CCSS training, they know to make a note of these problems and see that the proper department takes care of them," he said.

The CCSS program changes the way employees look at their jobs, according to Wilson. "For instance, we have to replace many utility poles on private property," he said. "Previous to our CCSS program, the crew would go out, put in a new pole and tamp the dirt down around it. Now they do that, but they also plant grass seed in the dirt around the pole."

Benefits to students also were apparent.

Fire Chief Wayne Guest said the Fire Department was having a tough time dealing with change in the department and within the city environment. The CCSS program helped him find productive solutions to changing work situations.

Elberton Building Inspector Haley Fortson said the course "brought reality back to the 'hired help."'

"You know, we really are the hired help for the citizens," he said.

Employees received a cash bonus upon completing the CCSS course-and it's money and time well spent, Wilson said. "If they were using only half of what they learned, we would have been able to tell a difference."

Nowadays, Elberton's city government aims for the top of the "excellence in customer service" list.