My initial thoughts on customer service are:
- good customer service is something people remember you by
- good customer service is so important it can increase your profits
- customer service isn't about a one off experience, good service delivery has to be consistent
The reason I am looking into this now is because I have put customer service on my PPDP as something I want to see how I can improve my customer service skills. Recently I found a book on our "New Books Added to the Library Catalogue" about customer service. It's called "Wow! that's what i call service", its by Don Hales and Derek Williams and has some really good examples of how some employees in different industries have gone the extra mile to help somebody (customer). It is inspiring, and when I get positive feedback, I am always willing to go even further the next time.
Thinking about it, when have I offered good customer service? Hmm, I can think of examples of situations where I got really positive feedback from customers which means that I must have done something to impress them. We tend to get good feedback on our email enquiries and get many "thank you for your prompt response" emails. That is one way of measuring our service. We had a student who was visually impaired and needed a long list of publications in format that her software could read out for her so I made an extra effort to request the books through the publishers (and as many may know, publishers aren't the easiest people to deal with on this planet.....) and I gathered articles and changed their format and copy and pasted things to make all these document readable for her. It was a task that took a couple of months and although there was one book which I just could not get hold of in electronic copy, she was happy for the fact I put so much effort in for her. Another time, I hand delivered some photocopies to a student who needed these papers for an important conference she was leaving for at 5am the day after. Her office was only 2 minutes walk from my house and I would have to drive past it anyway, so I arranged with her to drop by after work and deliver the documents myself. She was a happy customer, telling me how much she appreciated my dedication and she was very amazed the my organisation would go this far for it's members. Doesn't that just make you smile dear reader? :)
I do feel that everything I do when speaking or emailing or talking to a customer/member/visitor/participant can become a positive experience. There are the unhappy members who are misrable from the time you say hello to them, but you can turn that around and even though you may not be able to help them, you can change their mood and make them leave happier than when they phoned. It is important to try, it is not only my job to dig out things a provide people information, it's to hand over a document with a smile on my face. Moods are contagious you know......
Just now, while writing this, I have taken a call from a member and I ended the conversation with a "thank you, that is very kind of you", because he said to me:
"You know what, you are a star, you have been a great help, I did not know about that source, thank you very much, what is your name?"
"My name is Maninder, that is spelled M-A-N-I-N-D-E-R" I said
"Thank you very much Maninder, it has been a absolute pleasure speaking to you".
Hopefully he will remember that I provided him good service with a smile and he will know he can contact us when he needs help in the future.
Going home now with a smile on my face :o)
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