The Government Customer Support Excellence Awards recognizes public sector help desks, contact centers, and other types of customer portals at all levels of Government. All Government contact centers and other customer portals, both internal and external, are eligible and invited to enter, and there is no cost to do so. The nomination process is designed to be simple and user-friendly.

Categories: Teamwork Excellence, Technical Excellence, Customer Focus Excellence, and Overall Excellence

Winners will be announced at the Government Customer Support Conference 2009 and invited to share their lessons learned in effective public sector customer support in the GCS 2010 program.

To nominate your Government contact center, email all of the following information to Daryl.L.Covey@NOAA.GOV and GCS@HTHTS.COM no later than December 1st, 2008.

1. Name and telephone number of nominator [Nominator must be a Government employee]

2. Full name and parent organization of contact center or other portal being nominated [No acronyms please!]

3. Name, title, email address, and phone number of contact center or portal manager

4. Background information (include all which are applicable):

• Number of people in the group you are nominating

• Who are your primary customers

• Approximate size of your primary customer base

• What type of service (web portal, help desk, call center, etc.) are you?

• Contacts handled by type (calls, emails, web hits, chat, etc.) per month

• Logging/tracking systems in use and monthly volume for each

5. A nomination narrative not exceeding the equivalent of one printed page in 12 point font which concisely addresses the following:

a. How your help desk, call center, or other customer contact portal cultivates and applies one or  more of the three key traits listed above.

b. The positive impacts on your staff, service quality and customers which result.

The narrative for Item 5.b. is the most important part of your application, because it describes your successes and results. You should consider including, if applicable,

• How you measure customer satisfaction

• How you evaluate teamwork

• How you measure innovation or technical strength

• How you measure your success in serving customers

• Quantifiable, comparative data to illustrate your success.

• The most positive impacts of changes you have implemented

• Non-quantifiable improvements you have seen in personnel and/or feedback from customers

NOTE: The most common shortfall noted in nominations from past years has been the failure to adequately describe and substantiate resulting positive impacts on staff and/or customers.

The Government Customer Support Excellence Awards are presented on behalf of the Government Customer Support Community of Practice [see www.fedhelpdesk.osf.noaa.gov] for the sole purpose of fostering the sharing and implementation of effective practices in the support of Government's customers, both internal and external. Winners and other finalists are selected by a panel of judges representing both public and private sectors for the categories of teamwork excellence, technical excellence, customer focus excellence, and overall excellence. Any questions related to these awards should be directed to the email addresses above.

* "Technical Excellence" here can refer to either your application of customer support technology or your technical expertise related to the technology or service which you support or the structure and effectiveness of the processes used to support your customers.