1. What is Good Customer Service

Basics

Good customer service means providing timely, attentive, upbeat friendly service, and making sure needs are met in a manner that reflects positively on your school and the district. It’s going the extra mile to make sure the “customer” is happy. 

Who are your customers? Students, teachers, administrators, office professionals, parents, district personnel- everyone you will work with! Your main goal should be to leave a lasting positive impression on your staff by working with them and assisting them in the best way possible.  

This is a basic introduction to Customer Service.  To dive into this deeper, explore the following sub-topcs:

You should know the following terms:

  • Empathy
  • Customer Service
  • Mindset
  • Relationship
  • Communicator
  • Support
     

One key to providing good customer service is having empathy for your customers.  Empathy is the ability to understand what other people are feeling or experiencing. That’s different from feeling sorry for someone.

There are key behaviors you can focus on to provide good customer service.  Below are just a few examples:

  • Display a positive attitude: No matter how people approach you, make sure they leave feeling better than they did when they first came for help. You cannot control the problems, but you can control your attitude and reactions to others.
  • Create a system to “remember”: It’s easy to run into people in the hall that want your help yet forget about their issues as you address the task at hand. Create a system that either helps you remember to contact them as soon as possible, or have them follow up with written communication.
  • Resolve their problem: The best way to exhibit excellent customer service is to solve users' problems as quickly as possible. 
  • Be helpful: Ask if there are additional issues your users are having. Being proactive can help eliminate small issues that take little time before they become big issues that take lots of your time.
  • Follow Up: Check to be sure the solution worked. If it didn’t, address it again.
  • Exceed people’s expectations: Always go the extra mile - leave your work areas cleaner than you found them, ensure tools are taken care of, address an issue you see before it is documented, etc. 

Here are additional resources you may find useful:

  • Bad Customer Service Montage - YouTube Video - How many examples of customer service do you see that could have been improved on? How would you have handled it?

Complete the following task or self-assessment:

  • Describe an experience you had or witnessed where the customer service was amazing (it doesn’t have to be school-related.) What happened to make that experience so positive?
  • Describe an experience you had or witnessed where the customer service left you feeling frustrated or angry. What could have happened to make that scenario turn out differently?
  • Based on your own observations or experiences, what is one additional item you would add to the Key Behaviors list for providing good customer service?