Service with a smile
Every time you interact with a customer, you’re engaging in marketing. – Seth Godin
If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s receiving or giving lousy customer service. We don’t put up with it at the Olive Garden or the Starbucks, and we sure as heck shouldn’t expect our customers to put up with it from us.
Schools walk a precarious line with parents and the community. Generally, they like us OK. But then one little thing goes wrong and that’s it. They tell a friend or two how crummy our school is and that friend also tells a friend or two. Pretty soon everyone’s working on the assumption that your school is an unfriendly place because someone didn’t get the satisfaction they wanted.
I’m not talking about overtly bad customer service like being rude or snippy with someone, although that shouldn’t be acceptable, either. But sometimes the little things we do (or don’t do) and the hidden messages our offices and classrooms send speak louder than words. In one of my all-time favorite posts by Scott McLeod, he points out the subtle (and not-so-subtle) messages we send out to our teachers, parents, students, and community every day.
Consider the mother of a teenager in need of some last-minute advice from the student’s counselor. She walks into the counseling office and the secretary’s desk proudly displays that oh-so-witty sign that says, “Failure to plan on your part does not constitute and emergency on mine.”
Or consider the dad who comes in to review his student’s attendance. He is told by the first person he sees, “That’s not my responsibility. You need to see the Attendance Person.” So he dutifully goes to the attendance office only to find that the Attendance Person is at lunch. Approaching the nearest counselor he is told, “Your son is not in my part of the alphabet. You need to see Mr. Y and he’s booked all afternoon.” Down but not out, the father walks to the administrative offices and is told that his son is a senior and therefore he needs to see Mrs. Z who happens to be out of the building at that moment.
Now consider that pulling up Little Johnny’s attendance would have been about three mouse clicks for that first person. Why do we do this to people? Are we so afraid of stepping on someone else’s turf? Or is that we resent having to do “someone else’s job?”
Taking care of our parents and community is all of our jobs. As school leaders, we contribute significantly to the culture of the building. When people see us stop and pick up a piece of trash on the floor, it sends the message that we’re not too important to do our part to keep the building clean. When others see us stop to help a lost or confused parent in the building, they get the idea that we all need to take responsibility for taking care of the people visiting our school.
Empower the people in your building to do what is required (with consideration for what’s ethical and appropriate) to help a parent. Doing so will stop the game of parent “hot potato” that we play by bouncing these people from one person to the next. And even if they’re not happy with the result of the conversation (Johnny has missed how many math classes?!?), the parents will leave with at least a little bit of dignity as well as some satisfaction that someone took the time to listen and help.
This was a great post! I honestly think we could provide better service to parents than we do. This would also improve relationships when taxes have to be raised.
I agree that we all need to work together and be able to get along well doing it. In general, we tend to take each others’ time and personal situations for granted. There are many aspects of improvement that could be brought to interpersonal relationships in general.
However, I do not appreciate that we are all becoming “customers”. I used a passenger on a train or plane, I used to be a patient at a hospital. But now, thanks to the marketing geniuses, I have become a customer. I feel that terminology is very impersonal and creates a disjointed relationship between myself and the individual(s) that is(are) assisting me for whatever reason. I think this also creates the same type of relationship for those I may be assisting as well.
I also think that the customer mentality is hurting education at the University level. Students feel as though they have paid their tuition and can “pick up their credits” at the end of the semester. Personally, I would not like to see the impact this could have on k-12 students in the future.
That’s an interesting observation, Mindelei. I use “customer” to refer collectively to our stakeholders. I use parents to refer to parents, students to refer to students, community members to refer to community members, but if I want to talk about everyone I will sometimes use the word customer.
When I use it, I mean it in the most respectful sense. As in, “These are the people whom we serve and without whom would not be ‘in business.’”
As you’ve pointed out, though, there is a downside to the “customer mentality.” Like it or not, with school choice the mentality you describe is beginning to seep into K12 education as well. In my career, I’m seeing an increase in savvy parents who are “shopping” for the right school for their kid almost like they do for colleges. It’s crazy!
So call it what you will. My point is that a little extra effort can go a long way toward improving the community perception of your school.