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Communicating About Customer Service
Steve Adubato, Ph.D.
Jerry Pagano is a Newark educator who spent many years moonlighting
as a head waiter in an Ironbound restaurant. Jerry is big on interpersonal
communication and customer service. He believes you can't provide
quality customer service without caring enough to listen to your
customer. Jerry is also a golfer who plays on public courses. Recently
he had an experience on a public course that provides a graphic
example of how not to treat customers.
Jerry says; "The condition of the course and the attitude
of those who work there communicated an awful lot about how they
view customers." Jerry said the tee boxes and greens were beaten
up and not maintained. The water stations had no water, which is
kind of rough when it is 90 degrees outside. They had few if any
rangers to make sure especially slow players kept moving. A four
and a half-hour round wound up taking five and a half-hours. When
Jerry asked one of the rangers he happened to see if he could try
to move things along, the ranger responded, "Who do you think
you are?" Jerry said, "I'm a customer. I'm just asking
you to do your job." A few other things Jerry noticed were
that the halfway house (or snack bar) didn't open until 10:00 a.m.
The only problem is that golfers begin playing at 6 a.m. So much
for customer service. Jerry also said the people behind the counter
didn't smile and just took his money without even looking at him.
"They really seemed unhappy to be working there."
Jerry's bad experience points out a persistent problem when it
comes to how certain organizations fail to see that they are in
the business of customer service. It can be a public golf course,
the DMV or a department store chain. You can talk about quality
customer service until you are blue in the face (or have the catchiest
slogan about how much you care) but if the people in your organization
don't appreciate customers and want to please them, it's a sham.
If employees see those they interact with as nothing but an inconvenience,
their attitude as well as their verbal and non-verbal communication
will show it.
While this pervasive problem can happen anywhere, it seems particularly
bad in the public sector. When was the last time you had to go to
a DMV or unemployment office? Did you ever ask yourself why you
feel like anything but a valued customer? It's because for the most
part, those in charge of these organizations don't see you as a
customer. They figure you have no other choice but to be there.
What are you going to do if you don't like the way you are being
treated at the DMV? Go to a different DMV office around the corner?
There is only one.
Much of poor customer service comes from organizational leaders
communicating negative messages. If those at the top provide no
customer service training or monitor their employees communication
style with an eye toward improving it, why should frontline people
really care? Employees who go the extra yard with customers need
to be rewarded and recognized. Examples of first-rate customer service
need to be applauded and modeled. When bosses fail to do this, employees
are demotivated. If organizational leaders don't do customer surveys
or seek feedback on how to improve these interactions, the message
sent is that those things aren't important.
No matter what business you are in, ask yourself the following
question on a regular basis: "What message am I communicating
both in my words and actions when it comes to our customers?"
To ignore this question is risky indeed.
Dr. Steve Adubato coaches and speaks on the subjects of communication
and leadership and is the author of the book "Speak from the
Heart." Write to him at The Star-Ledger, 1 Star-Ledger Plaza,
Newark, NJ 07102, visit his Web site at www.stand-deliver.com,
or e-mail him at sadubato@aol.com.
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