Good customer service is about making a client happy, happy enough to try your products or use your services and then sing your praises to all who will listen. Great customer service is the backbone of any successful business, big or small. And whether you accept it or not, running a school IS running a business. Your clients (parents, students, Board Members, and tax payers) are as critical as any corporation’s most important clients—and twice as demanding!

Some of the most important rules of great customer service are:

• Keep your promises
  Always do what you say you are going to do. Your client doesn’t care if it’s been super crazy at work, or if you’ve had several staff members out on sick leave. If you made a promise, deliver on that promise. No excuses. Be sure to make reasonable promises, giving yourself a little “wiggle room,” and if you are able to exceed expectations, all the better. Look for ways to make doing business with you easy, and always do what you say you are going to do.

• Train your staff
  Give your staff members the information and power they need to make the small, customer-pleasing decisions. When they can say, “Yes, I can do that for you” instead of, “I don’t know. I’ll have to ask somebody,” your customers will walk away delighted. Immediate satisfaction goes a long way! In this same vein, it’s important to emphasize to your “front desk” person his/her critical role is your “face” to the community. Businesses often put the lowest paid person in that role and neglect to provide them with the necessary information for that integral position. Hint: hire happy people for these critical positions (you can train for job skills, but it is harder to train a pleasant disposition).

• Answer the phone
  When customers call, they want to hear the voice of a live person on the other end of the phone. If at all possible, when you are not available, make sure your calls transfer to somebody who will be able to answer the phone. If that isn’t possible, be sure to return your phone messages as soon as you are able to do so.

• Help the customer understand your processes
  The easiest and most efficient processes in the world won’t do anybody any good if your client becomes frustrated or angry because nobody has explained how things work. Taking a little time up front to explain how your systems work will go a long way toward understanding and will ensure that your systems are only secondary to the more important, human element of your organization.

• Deal with complaints
  Nobody likes hearing complaints, and hopefully, they are few and far between, but since they are a reality, it’s important not to just shrug them off or worse, take offense. Deal with problems immediately, and let customers know what you have done to fix the problem. When something goes wrong, apologize. It’s easy, and it makes everybody happy.

• Listen to the customer
  Quit talking. Find out what the client needs, and then see if you can offer ways to help.  Always look for ways to meet your customers’ needs—but you can do that only when you know what they are (no assumptions). When they have a reasonable request, tell them what you can do to help. By truly listening to your customers and finding out what they need, you will be able to improve your services for that client and others just like them.

Now, take the information you get from all your customer service experiences and put the most commonly asked questions, along with their solutions, right on your website. This is another tool to good customer support in the digital age. Customers expect to access commonly needed information right online—even at 4:30 pm when the school office is closed (in the summer or on holidays). Use the same “tone” on your website as your very best personnel would provide. This includes “listening” by providing feedback forms to ask questions or provide input that may very well help you go from good customer support to great customer support.

Soon you’ll have a whole community of raging fans touting you and your school’s magnificence.