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Same Place, Different Experiences - 9/26/23


Meredith was getting discharged from the clinic, when the nurse came in, gave her a packet of information including the discharge instructions, explained the next steps, and asked if Meredith had any questions.  Freida, across the hall, was told that she could leave when ready.  However, Freida had to Read more

What Annoys the Customer? - 9/19/23


Domino’s Pizza had TV commercials years ago where they promoted how they trained their employees to “Avoid the Noid.”  The “Noid” was basically an annoying person or thing that would disrupt the delivery driver, possibly making the driver drop the pizza on the way to your door.  The goal Read more

Lift It Up - 9/12/23


I worked with a great client for several years who was in a leadership role in the education industry, and she was the executive champion for a culture-strengthening initiative.  We were the outside firm helping to develop the overall strategy and facilitate the teams addressing the various aspects of Read more

Addressing the Horror Story that Wasn’t - 9/5/23


You may have seen the commercials for one of those garden hoses that fits in your pocket.  When you put it on the valve outside your home and turn on the water, it expands to 50 feet.  When you’re done and turn off the water, it contracts and fits Read more

Be There ALWAYS for the Customer - 8/29/23


In healthcare, the patient experience mantras often include the phrase Always, such as: We have an always culture.  This gets at frequency of action.  Instead of service excellence being a most-of-the-time occurrence, some-of-the-time occurrence, an occasional or rare occurrence, the idea in an Always Culture is that the organization Read more

Respect, Regardless of Rank - 8/22/23


I was reading a management book written by a former naval officer.  He was given a leadership role over a ship that had been underperforming and had low morale.  One thing he did to turn around the performance, to improve morale, was instill in everyone onboard the principle that Read more

Move on to the Next One - 8/15/23


The ultimate game in professional American football is the Super Bowl.  In this past year’s Super Bowl, James Bradberry of the Philadelphia Eagles was called for a penalty with less than two minutes to go in the game.  The penalty gave the other team a first down; the other Read more

How to Rise to the Occasion - 8/8/23


In the movie Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Mr. Magorium – played by Dustin Hoffman – tells his protégé that “Your life is an occasion.  Rise to it.” He’s conveying a big picture life lesson – don’t let fear and apprehension keep you from living. Rising to the occasion is also something Read more

Thanks for Reading - 8/1/23


My company, Customer Service Solutions, Inc., just celebrated our 25th Anniversary!  We love the work we do for our clients, and we definitely love our clients.  We’ve developed many friendships over the years, and we’ve tried to provide consistently high quality and personal support for whatever may be their Read more

Share the Why to Value the Customer - 7/25/23


We encourage our clients to explain “The Why behind the What” to the customer.  Usually we suggest that staff explain Why so that the customer understands the reason for a change or can buy-in to a particular solution. However, explaining the Why is also effective when you’re doing some very Read more

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Educating Educators on Customer Service

Posted on October 2, 2013 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

Assuming something is rarely a wise course of action. If you’re a manager, you know how to manage. If you’re in a leadership position, you have great leadership attributes. If you serve the public, you are great at customer service.

For anyone who’s known bad managers, bad leaders, or people in government who are poor in customer service, you know why those assumptions are wrong.

The new Superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District understands the need to avoid those assumptions, as well. In the article Will “High-Quality Customer Service” For San Diego Principals Mean High-Quality Schools?, Cindy Marten (the new Superintendent) views her role as one of supporting principals, and part of that support involves viewing principals as customers. Marten notes “We’re providing high-quality customer service for our principals, and the reason why we’re doing that on behalf of the principals is that we expect high quality service for our principals to have with their teachers and with the community members, and you can’t deliver high-quality customer service by yourself — you’re not an island.”

In any business, before you change behaviors, you have to set expectations with staff about what are those desired behaviors. Marten is setting expectations with central office staff that they view and treat the principals and schools as customers – being proactive and responsive to needs. The thinking is two-fold: First, help the central office staff to see that they’re impacting student success by impacting the schools’ success. Second, help principals to realize that the high level of customer service provided to them by the central office should be mirrored by the principals in interactions with the parents and teachers.

The statement “you’re not an island” is one we’ve used a lot in our client conversations. Don’t feel like you have the entire weight of the world on your shoulders when addressing a customer’s needs – tap into others. But also realize that others are impacted by your actions, others are stakeholders in your encounters and decisions; so think about the downstream effects to co-workers and customers of what you do today.

When you want to change a culture to be more customer-focused, start by setting the right expectations of staff in their dealings with each other.

Did you like this post? Here are other K-12 education-related posts:

Learn about our CSS Education services at: http://cssamerica.com/cssed.htm


Transferring to a Competitor Can Mean Success

Posted on September 25, 2013 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

There are not many industries where transferring a customer to a competitor is considered the right thing to do. There are even fewer where encouraging a customer to go to a competitor is common. And even less frequent than both of those occurrences is where one organization plans for a customer to leave them after a couple years to go to a competitor.

Now we’re not talking about a typical competitive relationship in this case; here, we’re talking about community colleges and 4-year universities. Where community colleges and universities often do compete for students, more and more universities are suggesting to some students to consider the community college route and transfer to a university after two years.

But the situation we’re describing in this post is where the community college – from Day 1 – should begin helping students to think longer-term – Where are you going after the second year here? What can we do in 2-3 years at our community college to get you positioned for an effective transfer to a 4-year university?

In the article MCCC Boasts High Student Transfer Rate, Monroe County Community College was recognized by CNNMoney for its high student transfer rate. That’s right…community colleges are considered successful if they transfer a high rate of students to a four-year institution. This Student Success-related metric is becoming more discussed and more used in determining future funding of community colleges. It’s because the educational system as a whole is being encouraged to better utilize community colleges as a lower cost way of getting (or at least) beginning a process toward a degree.

Beginning with the end in mind is not just good Covey phrasing. If community colleges want to be successful, they have to proactively work with students to create a plan to achieve that higher ed vision. They have to help individual students to understand what needs to be done in year one at the community college to graduate from the University in year four or five.

It’s not simply about getting the student admitted, getting them registered, or getting them into a program (and those processes aren’t often “simple” anyway). It’s about viewing each student as an individual, understanding their vision (or helping them create one), and – even when that vision goes beyond the college to the university – getting them on track to succeed.

Know if the Vision is the Transfer.

Learn about our CSS Education services at: http://cssamerica.com/cssed.htm

Interested in improving your educational organization’s customer satisfaction? See our other blog posts at: http://serviceadvice.cssamerica.com/category/education/


Should Schools Clap for Parents?

Posted on September 9, 2013 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

Imagine being a customer walking down an aisle in your home improvement store, and employees are lining the aisle…clapping for you! You know what I call that? Unrealistic.

Maybe you’re a customer walking down a hallway at a hotel, and employees are lining the hallway…clapping for you! You know what I call that? A reality.

That’s what happened to school employees at a Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta, GA. According to the article Enota 1 of 4 honored by state for welcoming families, “A line of Ritz-Carlton employees stretched down the hotel hallway, and applause erupted as a group of public school educators walked by.” Apparently, the hotel occasionally uses the “wall of applause” to convey appreciation for its customers.

So if employees clapped for you, how would you feel (besides “awkward”)? Would you feel appreciated? Valued? Special?

The article notes that “With research showing a clear link between parent engagement and student success, education officials say it’s essential that parents are involved, and they must make sure families feel welcome at schools that can sometimes feel like fortresses.”

Many schools are becoming even notorious for loading down parents with early school year paperwork, requests to follow teachers and the school on Twitter, Facebook, e-mail distribution lists, etc. Demands on parents are increasing, and much of this is for the better (to encourage more parental involvement, better communications, safety, etc.). But when you ask your “customer” to do more, at some point you need to show appreciation for that involvement, for that effort, for that reciprocal communication.

Think about what you ask of your customers, particularly if that customer has few alternatives for your services (K-12 schools and local government, for example).

Then identify ways to convey appreciation for involvement, thereby encouraging positive customer behaviors to continue.

Learn about our CSS Education services at: http://cssamerica.com/cssed.htm

Interested in improving your educational organization’s parent/community satisfaction? See our other blog posts at: http://serviceadvice.cssamerica.com/category/education/


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