Customer Service – It Either Rings a Bell or it Doesn't!

Way back when in the seventies on this very campus you could hear the iconic group of the day, Chicago belting out the lyrics, “Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?” Flash forward to 2010. Bearing in mind that this is a university, perhaps Tolstoy was correct in saying, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

So here begins my simple, but truthful tale of how, when it comes to customer service, it’s the little things that really do matter. Consumer perception is reality. What the customer thinks is right, is indeed, from their perspective – correct. With that in mind, a couple of semesters ago, one of my students noticed that the campus campanile “clock” was not bonging the right time. Now for those not familiar with this campus, there is no “clock” or at least one that is visible as in the case of London’s Big Ben. But a “clock” presence is announced by an electronic Big Ben-esque bonging at the quarter, half and, at the top of the hour. This conscientious student took (let the puns reign or should it be ring) the time to take the responsibility to, I can’t help it, right the bong.

What ensued was an unbelievable series of emails that were for the most part, to borrow from another musical legend, Johnny Mathis , too much, too little, too late. The bong remained wrong and the campus was alerted every hour specifically that the campus was not in sync with Eastern Standard Time. And, it was obvious, it seemed, only to the concerned student that the problem would not be fixed in time for the annual campus open house.

This particular incidence of student-citizen responsibility took this individual; I’ll call him John, through a maze of departments to finally get the chime in time with the rest of the Eastern Seaboard. Yeah, here it comes. How many campus administrators does it take to set a clock? You can entertain yourself providing the punch line. Finally, the email was filtered to a respondent who said that they had only “heard” of the problem when John’s email was forwarded to then. The respondent verified John’s observation after they had made it a point to stop and listen.

Okay, but it still amazes me how the missing bong problem, actually it was off by two hours or two bongs, took so long to fix. The campanile, or as it’s referred to, the Campanile (the capitalization didn’t seem to warrant it greater esteem) is also the name of a campus publication.

Now the purpose of this blog is not to bash anyone on campus but it is a great teaching tool. It’s sadly, a real-life example or issue, or event if you prefer, that seems to be just the tip of a rather large iceberg. Customer service is comprised of simple little details. These details represent things that, when functioning properly are invisible or unnoticed. Toilet paper is not an issue. Not replacing it is. Not caring whether it is or not is a huge issue.

It seems that, yes, an improperly set timepiece is an issue that illustrates lack of community pride, consumer comfort and communication. A broken clock, it’s said, is right only twice a day. One that’s off by two hours is wrong every hour of every day. The bongs that emanate from that architectural structure, the campanile (small “c”) marks the center of the campus and is also the icon and brand of the University’s main glossy magazine. It’s sort of, if you will allow, the nose on your face. It heralds more than the time. The overlooked error loudly and continually announced – who cares – who cares – who cares!

What does this say about an institution’s commitment to customer service when no one seems to care that something as simple as the correct time is not being monitored. Furthermore, when a helpful observation (not complaint) is communicated by a student, you know, a customer, no one responds! Ah, no official campus timekeeper? In the mean time, the campus remained on Mountain Time. Martin Luther King, Jr. was correct to assume, “The time is always right to do what is right.” The correction was finally made but it was a long time coming.