Customer Service Starts at Home

My wife and I are building a new house in Wake Forest and this past weekend my best friend and I had to make a trip to Lowe's Home Improvement to buy some supplies for putting in a surround sound system.

When we were checking out I was chatting with the lady behind the register about how she was, if she was excited about the Fourth, did she have any plans, etc. As we exited the store and got back in the car, my friend turned to me and said why do you always talk to people and ask them how they are doing when you don't really care? My immediate response was, well, actually, I do care how she is. Why would I waste her time or my time if I really didn't care?

Are you guilty of that in your association? Do you spend time and energy putting together surveys, sending them out to your membership and then compile the results just so they can be shared at a board meeting and never be heard from again?

If you find your organization doing that in any way, what you are saying to your members is that you don't care.

If you take the time to ask the question, but really don't care what the response is, you should probably quit asking the question, as would be the case with the lady in Lowe's. If this is happening in your association, you might want to regroup, because caring about the wants and needs of members in your association should be job one.

I remember our current president telling me this past year that if you are going to ask people what they think, you better be prepared to act on it. Don't just ask the question if you don't care what the answer is going to be.

On the subject of member feedback, one of the things I have tried to do this year as a first time association executive is not just rely on member surveys and evaluations to get a feel for how the association is going. Anytime I get to be in front of a member, I try to ask them a question.

My former boss and mentor, Tim Kent, once told me that anytime you are with a member, you should at least ask them: how is the association meeting their needs? How is business? You don't necessarily need to give them third degree like in an interview, but make it conversational. Don't write anything down, but when you get a chance to sneak around the corner, make some quick notes for later.

In my first few weeks, I was always getting asked by members how I liked the job or how I was settling in. I would respond, but then would quickly turn the question back on them and ask them what about you. What can AENC do for you?