Exceeding Expectations – It’s Not Such a Small World

In the short life of this blog, I have hit often on the message that nonprofits must be more business-like in their operations. And though as I write or think that phrase I generally am referring to finances, human resources, and overall management, I also include customer service. And just as many businesses could take a page or 10 from Disney’s and Nordstrom’s customer service books, so could many nonprofits, particularly those larger ones.

Two diametrically opposite experiences last week have me going on this. I met with a group of women who were all working in local community resource centers, helping clients gain access to emergency funds to prevent utilities shut-offs. They told stories of being called liars and other names, being yelled at, and much more, all while they were trying to help. And the response of these women was to go well beyond what they “had” to do as they provided the explanations that others before them should have provided, encouraged getting budgeting help and where they might go for such help, corrected misunderstandings, and so, so much more. All while barely making enough themselves to keep their utilities flowing and working in offices that were, to say the least, less than plush. But without even going to Disney Institute (which their organizations never could have afforded), they understood what should be done. 

Switch gears: large—and I mean large—organization: plush offices, great location, nice salaries, the rich and famous begging to be on its board (as opposed to how it generally happens: boards begging folks to serve). I finally renewed my membership in this organization after years away (realizing as I did why I had lapsed) and was unable to get the website to cooperate in giving me the benefit which was the sole reason I re-upped. 

I sent an e-mail to the Membership Office expressing my frustration and dissatisfaction, only to receive an e-mail telling me to go to the website to order my tickets. I wrote back and said I’d tried their suggestion several times and that their right response should have been to solve my problem and let me know that my tickets were waiting at will-call. Perhaps they should use some of those unrestricted dollars from their membership revenue to send a few people to Disney school.

As we seek to make ourselves more business-like, let’s selectively take what is good from the business world rather than swallow it whole. Let’s take what they consistently do well, or better than we do in the nonprofit sector, and keep what we do better, what, in many people’s eyes, we are known for. Let’s us not forget that we are supposed to be the sector that works on behalf of the public good, and thus must value that public as much as we can—even more than our own convenience.