The Devil is your co-worker

Let me tell you a story about Customer Service. Allow me to begin by saying, personally, I think customer service has become the biggest oxymoron to hit our society since “government worker”.


For the past month and a half, our department at work was diligently planning a presentation for about 75 executives, including the CEO, to discuss the 3rd quarter operating results. The planning for this event is not an easy task, and involves the participation of several departments to gather information, rehearse for the presentation, secure conference space, set up A/V equipment, etc.

My part of the project is to coordinate the details and logistics to ensure that those presenting just need to show up and present. The meeting was scheduled to begin at 9:00am sharp today.

A month ago, the invitation went out to 75 people (director-level managers, mind you), of which approximately 55 responded with ‘yes’. By 8:55am, only four people had shown up.

8:45am Building Services didn’t finish the requested seating arrangement, even though details were confirmed the day before. I then called the person who confirmed the set up to see if they could rush to finish it properly.

(Meanwhile, the requests start pouring in and people began hovering around my desk, “WHERE’S THIS, WHERE’S THAT??!!”)

8:49am I get an email from the IT ‘Service Desk’ saying the technician they sent to assist with the A/V set up that we scheduled for 8:30am, left after 15 minutes, because no one was there to meet him. Now, it must be said, the person from our department that was supposed to meet the IT tech at 8:30am WAS running a bit late. However, the bigger point of contention is that the auditorium that is being used for the presentation is RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO OUR DEPARTMENT!

Did the technician think to just pop his head in and ask where the person is that he was supposed to meet? (That would be TOO EASY.) So, the technician just leaves, and sends an email to me at 8:49am saying: (including errors): “Arrived at 8:25 and Waited unit 8:40. No one Came.”

Didn’t bother to call. Didn’t bother to stop by. Just dropped the ball with the attitude that ‘it’s not my problem.’

You know what?...I’m so TICKED off right now, I can’t even finish this post!

The point is... Customer Service is not just a company dealing with its customers. Customer Service is ALSO employees fulfilling the requests of other employees, so that a goal can be accomplished and without incident. In business, if we cannot even do that right, how do you think our actual PAYING customers feel?