Free Essay About A Staff Report

Executive summary

In any business environment, customer service is crucial. In order to attract more customers, these services need to be improved. Customer service is broadly known as the services provided to customers before, during and after purchasing and using goods and services. To meets customer expectations, there is a need for good customer services. There are always complaints whenever there is a bad customer service. This is a bad indication since it leads to losing of sales. Whenever there is a bad customer service, customers may opt to take their business to a competitor hence facing stiff competition. For a customer service to be good, bonds with customers must be developed, thus leading to a long term relationship. It is not ease to achieve good customer services. Investments are required to deliver consistent standards.

Providing education to the community aimed at environmental sustainability.

Reliable water, garbage and recycling services.
Healthy streams, rivers, marshlands and Bay water.
Cleanair, land and energy policy development.
These initiatives ensure that customer services are improved in the city.
Reasons
Natural and Energy protection: The primary aim of improving customer services is to protect natural and energy resources and promote enhanced air quality, conservation of water and energy resources.
Recycling and garbage services: For the city to improve customer services, it has to collect, process and dispose of waste to utilize the diversion from landfills and protect public health,the environment, and safety.
Wastewater management: The city manages wastewater by discharging into the South San Francisco Bay and for beneficial reuse thus environment and public healthis protected at large.
Stormwater management: The health of the South Bay Watershed is protected by San Jose City; this is via the regulatory programs that controls and prevents pollution from entering the storm sewer system and waterways.
Recycled water. The city develops, operates, and maintains a recycled water system that ensures that there is reduced effluent to the Bay and, therefore, providing a reliable and high-quality alternative water supply.
Water utility: The city municipal system has grown from a relatively small water utility to the fourth largest water retailer in the County f Santa Clara. It serves around 100,000 customers.

Methods

Seminars and trainings.
The Environmental Service Department organizes seminars and trainings to enlighten the community the importance of keeping the city clean. This technique helps the city to improve the customer service in the city.

Bans.

For example, the San Jose City banned the single-use carryout bags and EPS items food ware packaging. This emerged as the best practice for the city and is used as the main strategy for keeping the city clean. This is achieved by ensuring that litter is reduced, and water quality is protected.

Community involvement.

The city involves the community to clean the city. This has been a successful strategy for improving the customer services in the city. By involving the community, it will make efforts to ensure that the city cleans. It is seen as a community responsibility for cleaning the city.

Introduction of new strategies.

The city introduced new strategies make sure that the city is clean. For example, San Jose city introduced the use of Bring Your Bag. This Ordinance has been a success in affecting community norms towards shopping with reusable bags. This reduced single-use plastic bag litter in city creeds and streets. Bythereducing the use of single-use carryout bags and EPS, helps San Jose city’s stormwater permit requirement to eradicate trash from the storm drain system from entering local creeks and enhance water quality, reducing litter in the city streets and lowers the cost of litter control.

How neighboring cities improve customer services

In Santa Clara city, it improves customer services in the city by collecting water runoff and channeling it to infiltration area or open waterway. Stormwater systems include Gutters, drains, underground pipes, and ditches. There is limited stormwater infrastructure thus water runs into roadside ditches and absorbs into the ground. This helps to improve the customer services in the city.
In Santa Clara City, Lane County maintains drainage systems in the road right of way. The city also conducts a leaf pick-up program for curbed streets in the city.
The city of Eugene public works maintains drainage system in both the right of way and outside the right 0f way. The City of Eugene public works carries out a leaf pick-up program for both improved and unimproved streets in the city.
In Santa Clara city, residents and businesses pay a monthly stormwater fee that is considered the major source of funding the city storm water system. This is important since it helps to improve the customer service in the city.
Wastewater services are provided by the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission to the entire Eugene area. This Commission contract with the City of Eugene Public Works to provide treatment services to either unincorporated and city residents in River Road and Santa Clara. This improves the customer service in the city.

Background information

Improving customer services has become a significant role in San Jose city. This was due to environmental problems in San Jose creeks and neighborhood. Thiswas brought by the use of single use plastic bags and polystyrene (EPS) foam food service ware. Many of the local waterways have been formally listed as impaired by trash under the federal clean water act. This led to the regulatory actions that amount to the reduction of trash reaching the waterways.
The city took steps to address these issues when the city’s Bring Your Own Bag Ordinance became effective, on January 1, 2012. Bring Your Bag ordinance prohibited customers from using single-use carryout bags except for recycled content paper bag. The staff reported the initial results of the ban indicating a large successful transition for residents and businesses using and providing reusable bags. This helped in cleaning the city hence appealing to its customers. This improved the customer service in San Jose city.
San Jose city’s enforcement approach for the Bring, Your Own Bag Ordinance emphasized retailer education consistent with the approach for other storm water inspection programs.
As in the case of single-use plastic bags, EPS leads to a litter concern. Eps foam coats and it travels from land to inland waterways and out to the ocean. The foam quickly breaks into small pieces thatare commonly mistaken for food.
As the San Jose City implemented the Bring Your Own Bag Ordinance, many cities in California have followed and adopted the model and similar ordinances. Also, the cities are moving forward with actions to ban EPS ware. In 2012, council directed the staff to support a regional approach actively to adopt prohibition to eliminate EPS. All this was carried out to ensure that the city is clean. By avoiding pollution in San Jose city, there will be a favorable environment for the customers. This improves the customer services in the city.

Analysis

Integrated waste management
The RecyclePlus is a program that provides curbside pickup for 12 types of recyclables. The imposition of a volume-based fee scale for garbage collection. The city purchases various types of recycled products through the city’s close the loop program. It provides incentives to encourage the establishment of businesses that use recycled products in their processes.

Air quality

There is a ban of building materials containing ozone-depletion agents. The providers of air conditioning services are required to recycle the refrigerant.

Water reclamation

Bring Your Bag ordinance implementation results.
The staff anticipated that following the implementation of the ordinance; there is a possibility of a measurable reduction in the found number of bags in the litter in the city creeks, storm drain system, and the neighborhood. The decline in bags was expected to carry over into a reduction in the volume of waste that would have to be recycled or sent to landfills.
Measuring the impact of the ordinanceon litter reduction, San Jose City conducted litter survey of trash collected from creeks and rivers and neighboring sidewalks. It was found that there is a significant change before and after the ordinance. After the ordinance, there was a massive reduction in the number of bags found in litter in the city.
Figure 1: Commercial and Residential Waste Disposal 2013
Source: Sanjoseca.gov (2015)
Figure 2: Composition of overall disposal wastage

Findings

It was found that the Environmental Service Department plays a very important role in improving the customer service in the city of San Jose. The department improves the customer service in the city by ensuring that there is:
Natural and Energy protection: The main aim of improving customer services is to protect natural and energy resources and promote enhanced air quality, conservation of water and energy resources.
Recycling and garbage services: For the city to improve customer services, it has to collect, process and dispose of waste to utilize the diversion from landfills and protect public health, the environment and safety.
Wastewater management: The city manages wastewater by discharging into the South San Francisco Bay and for beneficial reuse, public health, and the environment is protected at large.
Stormwater management: The health of the South Bay Watershed is protected via the regulatory programs that control and preventsgarbages fromentering the storm sewer system and waterways.
Recycled water. The city develops, operates, and maintains a recycled water system that leads to the reduction and effluent to the Bay thus providing a reliable and high-quality alternative water supply.
Water utility: The city municipal system has grown from a relatively small water utility to the fourth largest water retailer in the County f Santa Clara. It serves around 100,000 customers.

Therefore, the Environment Service Department is dedicated to ensuring good customer relations with the city.

Recommendations
The Environmental Service Department should be financed to ensure improvement in the general cleaning of San Jose city. This leads to the improvement of the customer service in the city.
The community should be included in the cleaning of San Jose city. It should be seen as a community task and not for only Environmental Service Department. This will increase the ease of cleaning the city thus improving the customer service.
Seminars and trainings should be initiated to increase awareness to the people of the San Jose city of the importance of Environmental Service Department. People should know the importance of keeping the city clean.
Rules and regulation governing the cleaning of the city should be public. The people of the city should be aware of the rules, and more importantly they should be aware of penalties for breaking those rules.
The city council should increase the fines for those people who break the rules. This will help since people will fear the high fines thus following the rules. This help to maintain the city clean thus improving customer service in San Jose.
The government should provide support to San Jose City to ensure there is some improvement in customer service. The support can be either financial support or moral support. It can decide to reward those people that contribute in keeping the city clean. This will motivate others to ensure that the city is clean. By doing this; there will be customer service improvement in the city.

Outcome

This report explains to the Committee on customer service improvement in San Jose City. A lot of staff surveys, observation, and enforcement efforts show that Environmental Service Department plays a very crucial role in making sure that there is improvement in customer service in San Jose city. The report provides the reasons for improving customer service; methods used to improve the customer service and the information on how the neighboring cities of San Jose city deal with the improvement of customer services. Santa Clara city is used as an example of the neighboring cities to give the comparison to San Jose city.

Reference

Sanjoseca.gov, (2015).San Jose, CA - Official Websites - Department & Office. Retrieved 4 March 2015, from http://www.sanjoseca.gov/depts.asp