I was excited to join Governor Hogan and my fellow cabinet secretaries last week for the unveiling of a new customer service initiative, which promises responsive, courteous and accountable service across all state agencies. This initiative will place a renewed focus on customer service by improving training for all state team members, but more importantly, it will institute new service performance metrics so we can track our progress. Every state agency will also develop and maintain a plan to continually improve customer service delivery and ensure we are responding to citizens in a timely and courteous manner.

I am very proud that one of our own Commerce team members, Managing Director of Administration and Technology Greg Derwart, will be part of a three-member panel tasked with reviewing the agency's plans and making recommendations for improvement. Greg has been a big part of customer service efforts both at Commerce and within our Commerce Cabinet work group, and I'm thrilled that he will be working to ensure this initiative is a success.

Outstanding customer service is at the very heart of the work here at Commerce. Over the last year, Commerce has undergone a cultural shift that makes providing excellent service to our customers - the businesses of Maryland - our top priority. To that end, we have put more team members in customer-facing positions, added industry experts in our high-growth sectors like life sciences and cyber security, and created a position to connect economic development with our rich higher education assets. I look forward to building on this positive foundation and ensuring all Commerce team members are living up to the Customer Service Promise.

We're interested in hearing from you, so please visit the dedicated customer service website to learn more or to submit a comment or suggestion.

-Mike