I’ve come to believe that every job – or near to it – is a customer service job, even if you don’t spend your days working retail, or if the term isn’t part of your position description.

If you interact with people (colleagues, clients, random folks who somehow dialed your extension), you have the opportunity to approach your role with a spirit of service. In doing so, you’ll elevate your work environment.

There’s no need to be the office equivalent of the person at the dry cleaners who rolls their eyes at you and acts like they’re moving mountains to ring up your black dress, which you can see is on the rack right behind them. We’ve all had those eye twitch-inducing exchanges, no doubt.

As a community relations professional, I get lots of opportunities to don my customer service hat, and have adopted these goals and attitudes:

Return the email/call. This sounds so simple, but how many of us have endured “project purgatory” while awaiting a response? Email can be a time-suck, it’s true. If it’s a personal message, follow up, even if it’s only to let someone know you’re swamped at the moment, but they should touch base next week/in a few months. Issue a referral, or just plain turn them down without having someone endure radio silence. You know the relief once the message is addressed and both parties can move on.

A spirit of service doesn’t mean you’re a pushover. If the timeline is unrealistic, or the project might not actually meet the asker’s goals, try (nicely!) resetting the expectations. They might be asking for one thing because they don’t know their full range of options, or how the process works in your department.

Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be. Sometimes, it’s the choice between patiently reading your website to someone and hand-keying their information into a web form. Sometimes, it’s sending a colleague the proper form directly, versus sending them on a scavenger hunt through your intranet.

When in doubt: “I don’t know, but let me find out” is always the right answer.

“Customers,” in whatever form, can issue challenging requests at exactly the wrong time, but it’s helpful to just take a deep breath and remember we’re all humans who are just trying to get through the day and back into our sweatpants, right?

Brianne Sanchez is community relations manager at Des Moines University, a freelance writer, wife and mother. She served as founding co-chair of YNPN Des Moines until June 2015 and on past planning teams for TEDxDes Moines and TEDxDesMoinesWoman. She is a Drake University Master of Public Administration alumna and maintains a personal blog at bsinthemidwest.com.  

CONNECTION POINTS

Connect with Sanchez via email, LinkedIn or telephone at 515-782-2363.