Update: Learn about our activities for Customer Service Week 2017 here. 

This time of year we begin busily preparing for National Customer Service Week.  It is a week I look forward to every year as it provides a great reminder to all of us as to why Chicago Communications, LLC is in existence – to serve our customers in a way that sets us apart from the rest.  While this is easily said (or written), it is not easily done.  It involves many, many pieces that all must fit together to achieve a goal of this importance and magnitude.  Our products, our knowledge, our customer relationships, our supplier relationships, the technology we use to support the work we do, our ethics, and most of all our employees must all work together to ensure the best possible experiences for our customers.  While every day we work to ensure these pieces are working together to the level our customers expect, it is National Customer Service Week that provides a special focus and recognition to all who help make it happen.

Holy Whac-a-Mole!

  Have you ever heard the saying, “The only constant in life is change”?  How true it is!  Kids grow-up (too fast by the way), technology changes (believe it or not there was no such thing as a laptop when I was in high school, and cell phones were not available to everyone), employees have unexpected emergencies that take them out of the office (for a while, or they move on to new jobs or retire) ... and somehow you have to learn how to not live in fear of change, but instead to anticipate it and keep it together through it all.  To say it’s a challenge is an understatement.  And it’s how you handle it that makes all the difference in the world.  You can panic and get frustrated or angry (which from experience, and trust me on this one, doesn’t make for a clear head for responding to the change) or you can take a deep breath and look at the change as an opportunity.

Pointers from the Principals: Another new year...Another plan put in place.

     It’s hard to believe that another year has wrapped.  It’s true what they say, “The older you get the faster the years fly by.”  Just when you feel like you’ve successfully wrapped up a year, established plans, and begun gaining momentum in the plans that have been set for that year, the end of the year is upon you and the cycle starts all over again.  Where did the time go?

Pointer from the Principal: Perseverance and hard work ….. it really does pay off.

     Anyone who’s ever been in a job that involves serving customers has had one of “those” meetings.  You know the one I’m talking about.  The one where the customer tells you he or she is disappointed with your service.

     During the meeting I tried my best to convey to the customer that we were a different company than the one he dealt with years back, and that I was confident we wouldn’t let him down if he gave us another try.  I promised him that everything would go well and gave him my direct line should he have any concerns along the way.  Thankfully in the end he agreed to give us another try.

Employee Appreciation:A Little Extra Goes A Long Way

     Every person wants to feel part of something – a family, a group of friends, a team, or if an employee, the company they work for.  As an owner of a company, the challenge is, and always has been, how to make employees feel part of a team.  Many of the articles written on the subject say it’s the “little things”.  And you know what?  It is.

Pointers from the Principals: Emphasizing Each Customer's Importance

      Over the years I’ve been a part of many different service-oriented organizations.  I’ve spent time in System Implementation roles, Help Desk Supervisory roles, Dispatch Center management, Support Center management, and in Human Resource management, where every employee is a customer.  In each of these roles, as in any customer service role, there were many challenges. Every time the phone rang I had to assume it was a customer calling with a problem of some kind. And throughout the day I’d always say to myself , “That's why I'm here, to help them." It was unlikely the phones were ringing with customers eager to share how wonderful things were.  But there was one phrase I heard frequently over the years and it always surprised me to hear this from a customer: "I know I'm not one of your big customers, so I understand I might not receive the same level of attention but..."

      Every time I've heard this statement, I've always been taken aback by it. My automatic response upon hearing it has always been, "Really?  You're not one of our big customers?  Does knowing that information cause me to behave any differently, or treat you as any less important?"  And my answer to this was always the same -- an unwavering "No, not at all." I didn’t realize an answer that was so obvious to me, could be so unclear to others.

Pointers from the Principals: Why Invest In A Maintenance Contract?  

A high level of performance is still expected from these legacy communication systems because of the role it plays in how quickly an organization can respond to a given situation. Cutting corners in an attempt to cut cost and not recognizing the importance of regularly maintained equipment could lead to coverage, functionality or reliability issues that could have been prevented. Similar to a car, if properly installed and regularly maintained your system will perform reliably for years.