University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada June 13, 1997

U of A counselling aces the ABC's of customer service

By Lee Elliott

While Student Counselling Services at the U of A didn't know they were in a competition, they nevertheless won an award for the "most impressive customer service story reported by a student."

The ABC award is the brainchild of Ann Hickmann, vice-president responsible for the ALBERTA BEST and international SERVICE BEST training programs with ATEC and Judy Woyewitka, conference chair of the 14th Annual Alberta Services for Students Conference held May 4 through 7 at Lakeland College, Vermilion.

Hickmann gave the keynote address at the conference and presented the award. "I really thought to take it home to people in the talk I needed concrete details.... What I understood from talking to Judy is that some institutions are there as far as customer service, while others aren't."

To get those specifics, she and three ATEC staff members conducted random telephone and in-person interviews of roughly 100 students from a sampling of post-secondary institutions throughout the province.

The winning customer service story came from a U of A student who had been seeing one of the counsellors at Student Counselling on a bi-weekly basis. She came in for her regular, previously booked appointment, but discovered there was no record of her appointment on the computer and that her counsellor's day was filled.

The counsellor made the award-winning "customer service" response of meeting with the student on her lunch break. The counsellor and the secretary then broke the usual office policy and booked the student in for her next appointment more than two weeks in advance, to make sure she got in.

The counsellor's response was great and so was the secretary's, says Hickmann. "No one person can make a student's total impression positive. Everyone has a role to play."

The worst "entry" came from an unidentified institution where a student reported waiting hours in line to get his student ID only to find when he got to the front of the line that the machine had broken down. He was told to come back the next day and do the whole thing again. Not only should a backup have been in place, says Hickmann, but "perhaps he should have been given special treatment the next day."

Another story of bad service involved a student making three trips and one phone call to a legal services department only to find that they didn't deal with the type of problem he had.

"I was trying to make it a bit fun," says Hickmann. "Part of this keynote was a top ten list of what bugs students." The list: 10.) limited payment options 9.) line-ups at the Registrar's Office 8.) limited hours of services 7.) the "run-around," unknowledgeable staff 6.) bad attitudes, being treated with no respect 5.) Bookstore-lineups and knapsack drop off 4.) being limited by policy without explanation. 3.) being put down in class by profs 2.) Having staff offer solutions before finding out needs 1.) Line-ups for student ID.

The ABC award stands for "A Business of Customers," or "A Business of Caring," the conference theme.

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