Customer Service CRAC Staff Workshop Imaging 3/15/2011

DISCLAIMER / WARNING This is a training workshop, but local practices do vary from county to county according to local policy and practice as well as local county counsel opinions. No practice or procedure you become aware of as a result of this workshop should be implemented in your own office without the full AWARENESS and APPROVAL of the County Clerk or Recorder for whom you work.

Simply stated, "Customer Service is a function of how well an organization is able to constantly and consistently exceed the needs of the customer. Why is Customer Service vital to our organizations?

Customer Service should be about serving the customers! And although this definition seems to focus on the organizations abilities to constantly and consistently deliver the goods, we should never lose sight on the fact that our number one goal is to exceed the needs of the customer!

Who are our customers? §John Q Public §Title Companies §Genealogists §Government agencies (e.g. Superior Courts) §Our Boss §The Board of Supervisors - the BIG boss §Others that we may never know

How are we different than other departments? §We work behind the scenes §People dealing directly with the public have a short term encounter with the customer §Our work (along with the examiners and indexing staff) has a lasting impact §It is our responsibility to make documents last FOREVER - the end of the world plus one day

How are we different than other departments? §Our customers may not even be born yet!

So how do we best serve our customers? §Pay attention to details §Diligent quality control §Think §Treat every document as if it was the Deed to your own house

So how do we best serve our customers? §Keep our equipment in good operating condition l Regular Cleaning l Preventative Maintenance l Recognizing when something is "not right" and getting it looked at

So how do we best serve our customers? §Constantly seek ways for self improvement. Increase the level of your knowledge in your field and that of the overall operation Strive to develop effective ways to communicate…..in all situations. l Be consistent, reliable and predictable in all that you do. NEVER BECOME COMPLACENT

It is time to take a more "customer central" approach: a CUSTOMER service definition "A customer defines good customer service as how she perceives that an organization has delighted her, by exceeding to meet her needs". So what happened to "ability" and "constantly and consistently", which was in the previous customer service definition? Well, the customer does not care all that much if you give others good service, as long as you'll give her good service all the time (but how you treat others is naturally a good predictor for customers as to how you'll treat them). So you have to have the ability to constantly and consistently OVERdeliver to make sure that the individual customer is delighted. And as you can see, in the end there is no truth, only perception. In other words, DELIGHT or DIE!