REALITY CHECK
Personalised customer service has never been more important.
In the face of cost-of-living pressures, heightened stress, anxiety and tensions, high interest rates, inflation and price rises, expectations are elevated about care, understanding and responsiveness.
Consumer, client and stakeholder interest, satisfaction, loyalty and referral business are best fulfilled and sustained by corporate cultures centred on service, communications and personal commitments.
Inconsistencies, poor leadership and insensitive process-driven philosophies and practices abound. Under-achievement, inadequate efficiency, effectiveness and productivity are conspicuous.
Lessons, many simple and striking, should be shared for the benefit of all.
The following text profiles a personal experience with a local council. It provides an invaluable template and framework for entities - big, small, private and public – to study, review and to learn from. The insights and overviews that should be shared with team-members, associates, peers and collaborators:
SERVICE DENIED
I live and operate the business some 63 kilometres from the city business district of Perth, Western Australia.
The environment is captivating. Fifty hectares (125 acres) of prime elevated equine (race thoroughbred) territory, few neighbours and interactions with sheep, cattle livestock and native fauna.
We are residents in the Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale.
Bushfire risks are a reality. Fire mitigation practices are important.
I recently had the need to replace a brush cutter. The old one needed to be disposed of. Roadside collections of bulk rubbish had been withdrawn. Therefore, use of the local bulk rubbish transfer station was required.
The experience about to unfold was disappointing and disturbing. However, the lessons are invaluable. Learn, and to the extent possible, enjoy:
· I phoned the offices of the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale to enquire the operating hours of the bulk rubbish transfer station.
· I was advised that it was closed because of the presence onsite of asbestos.
· The receptionist advised that we, along with all the Shire ratepayers and property owners, would receive in the mail two passes to the neighbouring City of Armadale bulk rubbish transfer station.
· No passes were received in the mail.
· Some two and half weeks later, I phoned the Shire offices to request the said two passes.
· The call was received by a staff-member who introduced herself by name.
· I explained the details.
· She immediately stated that I needed to visit the Shire offices to collect a Statutory Declaration form and submit it to Council for consideration. That would involve a return journey of around 50 kilometres.
· I endeavoured to explain that I was not the issue. No passes had been received.
· She insisted that I needed to complete and submit a Statutory Declaration.
· The officer went further. She said that I could have used the two passes and was requesting more. I found the implications of being untruthful and acting illegally offensive.
· A request was made by me to speak to a manager.
· She stated that she was going to terminate the call. She did.
· No attempt was made to verify my identity or the accuracy of any mailing address.
· I made a further call to the Shire offices and spoke to a person who identified herself. She committed to mailing me a Statutory Declaration form, which she did.
Contact was made with the elected Shire President. He was gracious, offered one of his bulk rubbish transfer station passes and actually delivered such to our relatively remote property. Impressive.
The Statutory Declaration form was subsequently received in the mail, completed, signed and witnessed at some considerable inconvenience and forwarded to the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale.
Some two weeks later the following email was received:
Good Afternoon
Thankyou for completing the statutory declaration for the re-issuing of tip passes.
The process to re-issue tip passes has been completed and your passes are ready for collection here at the administration building at 6 Paterson Street in Mundijong. Alternatively a collection from the library in Byford can be arranged, to organise this location for collection please notify us via email.
Unfortunately we are not able to post out the tip passes they will need to be collected as we require to sight your photo identification such as a drivers licence.
Any other issues please contact us via email or via phone
9526 1111
Kind Regards
Customer Service
Customer Service Team
Customer Service
The insensitivity of the text and the inaptitude of the communicator were breathtaking and striking.
I immediately forwarded the following email text (edited) to the obliging Shire President:
Please note:
· The transmission is addressed to Marketing Focus.
· Marketing Focus is not referred to in the Statutory Declaration. The sworn signature is that of myself, Barry Urquhart.
· The text is not addressed to the property owner.
· There is no salutation to the intended recipient.
· There is no signature, to establish responsibility, authority and accountability within the Shire.
· In the body-text advice is given that I must physically visit the Shire offices in Mundijong or the library in Byford to collect the passes.
· I must provide “photo identification” such as a driver’s license.
· This correspondence is in response to a written Statutory Declaration that was mailed to the Shire offices.
· Maintaining the logic inherent in the correspondence, the Statutory Declaration that was mailed should not be actioned until photo identification is provided. The names on the document may be false and the signatures forgeries.
I will not be visiting either the Shire offices or the library at Byford.
These series of incidents reflect poorly on the Chief Executive of the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale, his directors and team-members. Attempts to talk personally to senior executives were denied. Obviously, the team-member on the phone had not read the operating manual section which referred to “openness, responsiveness, transparency and accountability”.
ACTION REQUIRED
For those in business, here is a great New Year resolution.
Convene an interactive customer service/corporate culture workshop.
If necessary and appropriate, utilize an external facilitator and change agent.
Reviewing, refining and developing service practices and interactions, complemented with the formation, documentation and implementation of optimal philosophies and policies have their own rewards.
Satisfied external stakeholders, improved internal morale, better workforce stability and greater output are just a few of the consequences.
Personalised quality customer service is never a load of rubbish.
Barry Urquhart
Service Excellence Author
Marketing Focus
Mobile: 041 983 5555
Email: urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au
Office: (08) 9525 3355