Customer service says a lot about an organisation. As churches and ministry organisations, we might not refer to the people we interact with as ‘customers’, but the principles remain. I’ve had some varied interactions with companies recently that have left me feeling either great, or like I never wanted anything to do with the company ever again. Perhaps you know what I’m talking about! Let me share three short stories:

• Wufoo and Stafftool – I am continually impressed by these two services and their customer communications. I have never had to wait more than 24 hours for a response (via email – they are both on the other side of the world), and our correspondence is more like two friends exchanging ideas than a business conversation. Verdict: good.
• Oporto – my visit to Oporto (fast-food chain) last week was disappointing. The food was average, and I thought I’d send them an email to tell them that (If I made a woeful salad and charged people $6.98 to eat it, I’d hope they’d let me know that this was unacceptable too). It’s a week later, and I still haven’t heard anything from them. A quick email response, acknowledging my disappointment and offering some kind of reassurance that they’re looking into it would be fine – but instead I’m left wondering if the feedback went straight into the bin. Verdict: bad.
• NextByte – these stores are scattered around Australia and are distributors of Apple products. After requesting to see a product in more detail, I realised I was speaking face-to-face with the grumpiest salesperson in Sydney, who called me a ‘tosser’ as I walked out of the store. Verdict: ugly.

So the obvious question to ask is: what kind of interactions do outsiders (customers, if you will) have with our church or ministry? Hopefully it will be nothing like my experience at NextByte, but shouldn’t we be aiming for the experience to be excellent – something people will remember and talk about for a long time afterwards – for good reasons?!

Coming soon, I’ll offer some practical suggestions for providing better customer service.