Mecklenburg tax dollars at work… well, almost

Customer service comes in many shapes and styles. The type that doesn't suit the customer is the shallow attempt-polite, even cheerful-to "serve" by getting rid of you.

No, not in any Tony Soprano sense of the word. We mean transferring a phone call to someone else, anyone else, it doesn't matter who. Just get rid of you, the caller.

It's as if the face of the organization thinks he or she has helped the customer if (1.) The telephone call is shunted to someone else without nasty words being exchanged. Or (2.) No nasty words are exchanged.

Are you a CEO who calls your own company? Try it sometime. You may learn a lot. Training may be called for. Clear procedures and expectations may help. A pad and pen, if email isn't an option, is a good last resort.

We ran into a classic-almost comical-example recently of what doesn't work. We noticed a Mecklenburg County department's Web site, which is usually updated every two days, had fallen behind. It hadn't been updated for almost two weeks.

A good Samaritan call to alert the county department in question that there might be a glitch seemed to stump the county employee.

"Oh, that's not our Web site."

Yes it is; it's got your department's name on it.

"Oh, when I look at it, it looks fine, but we see things in real time and you don't."

That's part of the problem; the Web site isn't updating for the public.

"Oh, we don't maintain the site; IT does."

Can you get a message to IT that there may be a problem.

"Oh, but that's not my department's problem."

Your Web site has a problem and I realize the IT department handles it. Can you tell them there's a problem?

"That would have to be handled by the Itinerary department."

I just want to let them know the site isn't updating like usual. Maybe it's a computer glitch or someone is on vacation so the work isn't being done.

"Oh, I'll let HR know. Good bye."

That was a lot of energy and imagination to get rid of a caller.

We can't say the person who answered the phone is lazy (she worked really hard not to have to do anything except get rid of the caller), we can't say that she didn't listen (she was all ears for keywords to help her persuade us that we're being served), and we can't say she wasn't persistent (see above).

But passing the buck is never a good idea. In business, even government business, it's bad business when the goal of an employee is to get rid of the customer. The goal for someone answering the phone should be to listen, think and serve the caller.

At least, take a message and pass that on.