The impact of good customer service

Let’s face it, we all serve a customer, whether it’s within our own organization or outside, we provide a service to someone. We don’t necessarily always grasp what impact good service has on our customers though.

I was talking with a clinical supply manager recently, who was describing a study where one of their providers was not helpful. As she was describing her experience, I could tell that it did not just impact her workload, it had a physical and emotional impact too. I was convinced that there were days where it might affect her willingness to get out of bed!

The following day, I had the opposite experience with service provided to me. I would like to share with you what I felt. This is based on events from my personal life, but I am convinced good customer service affects us similarly if it’s in a professional or personal context.

My eldest daughter is autistic and has some specific needs when it comes to school. It has been a fight to get those needs met by schools for the past few years. I could write a book about this, but that’s a different topic…

Last year, we moved house and moved her to a new school. The school selection process was very important for my wife and I; we went through a list of questions with each school we visited to make sure they could meet our daughter’s needs. We chose a school that seemed very promising, they could do almost everything we needed.

Although the reality turned out to be far from what was promised… this resulted in many more meetings throughout the year to get things adapted to my daughter’s needs. Frustratingly, what was agreed to in meetings was not delivered, or only partially. There were no explanations provided when adaptations could not be made, and most of the time communication was a one-way process, where we had to remind school what was agreed, how to proceed, where to adapt etc.

A new school year just started, and staff changed. Earlier this week, we had a meeting with one of the new staff. I went into this meeting reluctantly, as I knew what to expect: we would re-iterate the same things to someone else, who would seem very willing to help, who would promise change… and who would under-deliver.

I was wrong.

We could tell that this new person had followed a transition process with her predecessor. She was prepared, had even done a bit of research beforehand. She was very clear about what school could help us with, what she could do herself, and what may not be possible. By the end of the meeting, she did a great summary of all the actions we agreed to and who was responsible for each action.

When we left the meeting, my wife and I were optimistic.

The next day, we received a summary email of the meeting and the actions. Two of the actions had already been initiated!

When I read that email, I physically felt a change in me. I felt less tense, I felt better about the perspective of this new school year.

What has changed in my daughter’s school? Apart from this new person, nothing has changed. But that one person has changed my perception of school.

Why? Because she provided good customer service.

We should not underestimate how good customer service impacts us.?