Customer Service in Non-Profit Organizations: Five Ways to Bring It Into Focus</h1> <article> <h1>Customer Service in Non-Profit Organizations: Five Ways to Bring It Into Focus</h1> <p>Joanne Del Toro — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:36:19 GMT</p> <p>Customer service is often a primary focus of every organization, regardless of whether the organization's focus is on delivering products for shareholder profit or services in misson-focused non-profits. Often, small and mid-sized non-profits need to rely on volunteers to help deliver services, which makes customer service "standards" harder to maintain. Here are some ways to keep customer service front-and-center while balancing the needs of your volunteers:</p> <p><b>1) Focus.</b> There are areas in an organization where customer service is more important than others. Where does your constituency literally see the faces or hear the voice of the organization most frequently? Start with the area where the community comes into contact with you most often and assess their experience. Ask the public. Make some test calls. Figure out what you want that first impression to be like.</p> <p><b>2) Choose wisely.</b> Once you define what you want the experience to be, find volunteers who can deliver. There are plenty of ways to help in every organization, and sometimes the most committed volunteers are not the best customer-facing ones. I have volunteered with an animal shelter for the last ten years, and there are reasons why some people choose to volunteer with animals; they prefer them to people, and it often shows. Keep these individuals with the constitutents they like best (the dogs, cats and other critters.), and find others who may be lower-profile within the organization but like person-to-person interaction.</p> <p><b>3) Recruit.</b> Don't have the right mix of people in your volunteer base? Go out and find them! Leverage local community colleges, talk to people at community events that you might attend. Many people are often looking for ways to help in their communities, and just need a defined volunteer opportunity presented to them.</p> <p><b>4) Train.</b> You can have the most effective interpersonal individual on your front desk, but if they keep hanging up on constituents because they don't know how your phone system works, your customer service will still be poor. Invest time in bringing folks up to speed on what you want. Create a buddy system where a more experienced volunteer or staff member gets paired with a newbie! It makes for a stronger service team and is great for volunteer retention as well.</p> <p><b>5) Ask your customers.</b> Want to know how you are doing? Your constituents will tell you if you ask--and sometimes even if you don't. Track complaints, create a quick and easy survey that you can put in front of constituents on a periodic basis or just informally interview them. Take their recommendations. It'll make your customer service stronger and stronger.</p> <p>Good customer service is a part of overall quality service delivery. Do it well, and it can also have beneficial effects on other important aspects of non-profit work such as fundraising, volunteer development and even board development--all of which can translate to delivering results for your organization's mission!</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> </main></body></html>