The Critical Role of Good Customer Service for Nonprofits

1. Presented by Jason Friedman, Principal The Critical Role of Good Customer Service for Nonprofits Mel King Institute Raising the Standard for Business Technical Assistance: An Advanced Training Program for Technical Assistance Providers

2. Our Core Values • One of the underlying principles of the nonprofit sector is to be in service to others, to help others in meeting their needs. • At its core, this value of the nonprofit sector assumes excellence in customer service: How can you truly serve others if you don’t value their needs and desires, if you don’t understand them and if you don’t strive to meet their needs and provide them with excellent value? • Outstanding customer service is part and parcel of a philosophy of empowerment, that people have choices and should exercise them.

3. Practical Considerations • Increasing competition is forcing organizations to pay much more attention to satisfying customers, including by providing strong customer service.” • Customers even those using nonprofit services have a growing number of choices and are more willing to exercise these choices. • A nonprofit that doesn’t serve its customers well will likely have fewer and fewer customers and less and less of a justification for its existence.

4. Impact on Funding and Reputation • Funders and other supporters are more aware than ever of the reputation of the nonprofits they support. • Dissatisfied customers are a sure way to lose financial support. • On the other hand, positive feedback from customers can form an essential element of an evaluation system. • It can provide information to help improve services to better meet customer needs and can provide information that funders and other supporters are increasingly demanding to validate and substantiate their investments.

5. Mechanism for Community Support • Finally, a strong service ethic and organization management systems which support customer service can increase community support for the nonprofit. • Customers, who are being well served, are more likely to be strong/vocal supporters or your organization, a definite advantage during difficult budgetary times.

6. Implications • While we intuitively recognize the importance of satisfying customers, we haven’t always taken the time to integrate the core concept of customer service into the way we manage their organizations, and we haven’t take the time to learn from the experience of the business sector. • Employees aren’t necessarily rewarded for offering shockingly good customer service; management systems are not designed to track feedback from customers as a means of improving performance; evaluations may include customer outcomes but they don’t always include measures of customer satisfaction; and perhaps most disturbing, nonprofit programs are not always judged against the hard standard of customer value.

7. Action Exercise: Customer Service, Who Cares? • Break into groups of two • Discuss the following question: • Is customer service important for you to be successful in your job? Why or Why Not • Encourage groups to provide specific examples.

8. Nonprofit Customers • Peter Drucker defines customers as those who must be satisfied in order for the organization to achieve results. • The primary customer is the person whose life is most changed through the organization’s work. • Supporting customers are engaged in the work of the organization because of the mission; they support the work, but they are not the reason for the work.

9. Action Exercise: Who are your customers? • Write down who you perceive as their primary customer and who the other customers they need to serve are. • Go around the room and have each person list their primary customer and one supporting customer.

10. The Essentials of Customer Service • Customer service is a mentality, an attitude and a set of supporting management structures which make providing what the customer wants and values at the center of the organization. • Action Exercise: What is customer service? • Think individually think about an example of outstanding, amazing customer service that you have experienced. • Think about the experience—what it was and what made it outstanding?

11. Dimensions of Customer Service

13. Dimensions of Customer Service

14. Creating Customer Service Feedback Systems • Develop customer service standards • Identify how you will use the feedback from customers • Develop Feedback Tools (i.e. feedback forms or interview protocols) • Gather Data • Analyze and Discuss Feedback • Act on Feedback and Publicize Actions