ABSTRACT
The customer orientation appears to provide "a face for employees' public service values," offering an outlet for the values they place on serving the public and the community. The arguments begin from the premise that "citizens are not customers" of government, as Frederickson has asserted. Despite the magnitude of customer-like contacting of governments, the very idea of viewing the public as customers arouses strong objections from many public administration scholars and practitioners. As the criticisms make clear, it would be dangerous to assert too close a resemblance between consumers as customers of private businesses and members of the public as customers of government. Research on the Georgia Department of Transportation illustrates what customer service can mean to different stakeholders, including both commonalities across different stakeholders and differences between them. Public servants who deal with the public need to understand the guidelines for high-quality customer service and to know how to put the guidelines into practice.
