Posted by Dana Briggs at August 28, 2009
Filed Under: Customer Service
You never know where you are going to find a saying or a learning opportunity for customer service. A saying or event found in the context of various cultural situations can teach us a lot about what we encounter at work, at home and in life as a whole. The pop culture icon, Saturday Night Live(SNL) has been a source for these types of epigrams for years. Timeless skits like “No Eggs, just Cheese Burger” with John Belushi and Bill Murray, as restaurant employees who are so caught up in their routine that they no longer really listen to their customers, but rather do their own thing. There was Dana Carvey, singing his ballad “Choppin Broccoli”, because he wasn’t prepared to present new songs. In the most recent season, out of frustration over the turmoil in which we find our nation, Keenan Thompson makes an appearance on Weekend Update repeating with adherent conviction, his diatribe, “FIX IT!!”
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FIX IT! It’s quick to say and easy to understand; so easy in fact, I’m sure as a Technology Coordinator you have heard it from your users. While funny in SNL, it is something the NOC has adopted to use internally for many issues. It can lighten stressful situations, or put pressure where it needs to be. It is echoed by me in the halls at times and even written on a section of our white board as a mantra. “FIX IT… Step 1: FIX! Step 2: IT! Refer to either step for questions. “ (Stop in anytime to see!!)
It’s well known that there is often a lot of truth found in humor. While it may sound funny, we know it’s what many of our customers require. “Fix It” is our goal every time we encounter a problem or need to resolve an issue, no matter how trivial. Whether we encounter a Customer Visible Outage (CVO) or a teacher who needs a password reset, we FIX IT. If you need to unblock that YouTube video so you can show kids Diet Coke and Mentos, or if you have a phone extension that isn’t working, we FIX IT. We will work diligently and rigorously until it is fixed (whatever it is), keeping our customers and their tickets updated throughout the process.
While SNL is only a piece of popular culture, there are many customer service lessons and fun moments from which we can learn in Star Wars, The Office, or even events at a Grocery Store. I love to look for Customer Service examples that I can use to teach our team how to provide better Support & Customer Service. Stay Tuned!!
