Customer Service is basically Matthew 7:12 in principle

     

I cannot help it but to write this blog post when I received a message this morning. In fact, this is the first time ever that such a message is sent by the National Health Institute (IJN). 

        It reads, "IJN wishes you a Happy Birthday. May your day be filled with lots of hearts."

        This is a very simple message but it lightens my day. And, coming from IJN also surprises me, as one would always think of IJN as the 'high and mighty' rescuer of lives. They don't have time for short messages like this.

        What surprised me even more was an email I received from the Inland Revenue Board. They all use some software that helps them to manage customer relations, but receiving an email from the IRB to greet me on my birthday is something that I had least expected!

        Why then were these organisations willing to spend time sending a short message (SMS) or email on my birthday? There are two reasons I can think of. 

        This is probably because I have not been able to go for my executive health screening at IJN for two years now. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, I was unable to do this last year, and probably, have to skip this year as well. Already in my 57th birthday, I am paying less taxes.

        The second reason is because the organisation understands the importance of humility in managing customer service with care and concern for the customer's total wellbeing. This is what we call brand interaction. 

        We all learn that from Bill Crosby through his Quality Systems. He defines 'Customer Service' as 'Meeting Customer Requirements.' 

Customer Service in Christian Circle

        But, there is something to learn from the SMS: the right attitude towards better customer service.

        This brings to mind an earlier blog post about why seminaries have to re-orientate themselves to provide better customer service. It is not because 'customers are kings' or that 'cash is kings', but the Lord Himself wants us to be leaders who serve, not lord over others under us. 

        I had good relations with most of the lecturers and enjoyed the learning experience. Several years of good relations was damaged when one particular adminstrative staff was rude and even told me that she has a calling to 'disciple' students; this gave her the legitimacy to treat mature students with disrespect. 

        And, without even a word of apology to begin with, her boss lent her further support to cause the unnecessary rift by creating further tension, which could have been avoided with just a phone call.  

        In my position as Senior Marketing Manager in the past, I would have done it differently to my potential customers. If any of my staff was found to be rude to the customers, right or wrong, the first thing I would do was to apologise on behalf of the staff. The last thing I would do was to defend the staff, or push away my responsibility as the head of the department. 

        When faced with such a situation, the only logical thing to do was to talk with the customer to find out what was the real problem. Then, it was my job to find an amicable solution so that the customer left the premises happy. We were taught that an unhappy customer would spread the word to 20 others.

         After that, an internal inquiry would be set up after finding out the customer's side of the story. I would never even involve the customers in the inquiry process. You never involve an extrenal party in your internal inquiry!

        I share two incidents in my relations with the customers. You can see the reversal of attitude when the right approach is adopted.

        Case One: When I was laboratory manager of an emulsion polymerisation facility in Seremban, I had to do technical troubleshooting as well. A customer, whom we had sent samples of a pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) to run on his machine, complained non-stop when I went to see him with our sales staff. 

        I had to endure his brickbats. After all, who wouldn't be angry if the product failed on trial run! He wasted his manhours and the film. Coming back to the laboratory, we had to carry out a lot of tests to find out what was the cause of the problem. 

        Finally, when we managed to fine tune the foaming problem using a suitable antifoaming agent, the product ran smoothly on the machine. Customer was happy. Purchase Orders were issued. Sales people were happy. And, the last I heard from the customer was, "Stephen, come over. I want to buy you lunch. If you don't come, I will complain until you come!" There was laughter over the phone. 

        No choice, I had to travel all the way to Perak just to have lunch with the customer. I never heard a complaint from him again. 

        Case Two: In another incident, a father flew all the way from Sabah to enrol his daughter for an engineering degree programme at Monash. The marketing staff who attended to them followed the guidelines and gave some straightforward answers to turn down the application.

        The next thing was to get the Head of the School of Engineering to attend to this complaining customer. Someone as patient as the elderly professor from Australia had difficulties handling this father who insisted that her daughter should "enrol" in the school. 

        When I came to know of the case, the first thing was to listen to his complaints. I cannot remember the details but he was not even insisting that his daughter must be accepted into the programme. He was merely telling our people that he had flown in from Sabah just to get this application submitted and assessed. After all, he and his daughter had flown in all the way from Sabah to try to enter Monash! 

        After discussing with the professor, and he understood the father's intention, the application was accepted. I took the father to the payment counter to pay the application fee. While waiting, the outspoken man thanked me many times for helping him. He had finally accomplished his 'mission' for the day. We had finally solved a customer complaint after several hours! I think his girl was finally accepted to study engineering with a conditional approval. 

Matthew 7:12 in Action                    

        Matthew 7:12 is the golden rule for customer service. While it is taught in the public domain by Quality guru like Bill Crossby, sadly, I find that within the Christian circle we find customer service is at its lowest. 

        I have come across one or two seminary staff with a 'high and mighty' attitude: "I am the lecturer, you are the student." The top-down approach does not work especially with mature students. Having a MTh does not necessarily mean that you are good or people are dying to listen to you. That's call pride! 

        While young people fresh from school may accept the way they are intimidated, it does not work with mature students. In fact, I should say that even freshies from high school who enter the seminaries should be treated with respect, the way we were treated in the university. They are going to be the future senior pastors of mega churches. If you treat them with little respect, they may end up treating their congregation in the same way.

        Our culture has to change if we want to improve in our service quality. There needs to be humility and understanding customer's requirements. If we don't like to be intimidated, we should not do likewise to others. Didn't the Lord himself teach us, "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you"?