On July 13, 2005, Rosemary and I visited the Brandon Branch
of the Hillsborough County Tax Collector’s department, located on Falkenburg Road. Having moved recently from Ohio,
we had to get our vehicles registered in Florida. One requirement of this process is to have
the vehicle’s identification number verified by a car dealership, law
enforcement officer or someone at the tax collector’s office. Actually we had stopped by the Brandon Branch
the day before but because we didn’t drive both vehicles we had to return to
have the other vehicle’s identification verified.
As we pulled into the parking lot the skies opened up with a
torrential downpour. We stopped by the
security guard to request he check the vehicle’s id. He turned around, looked outside and then
looked back at us...as if we just parachuted in from Mars. We thought because it rains almost everyday;
they would be geared for this sort of request. We thought wrong. No problem,
we’ll wait it out.
A half hour later our number was called. The rain was still falling although it had
let up considerably. We are now at the
desk getting our paperwork processed and the security guard disappears. The clerk informs us that the security people will not varify vehicle ID's in the rain and we might have to either wait or come back another time. She sees the quiet, restrained frustration in
our eyes. (Ok, I started balling my eyes
out) She goes to check with her
supervisor and comes back. She then
offers to go with me to check the ID herself. Wait a minute; this is the tax collector’s office, not Nordstrom’s.
To understand the impact of this great customer service
gesture one must understand that we’ve been used to government employees who
must first pass a metal detector before assuming their seat behind the service
counter. This of course is only after
they’ve had their bicuspids rounded off and have been updated on their shots.
The young lady who helped us that day was Sr.Customer Service Rep., Kim H. In our nearly one-hundred combined years on planet
Earth, this hubby / wife duo has never received such outstanding service from a
government employee!
Customer Service Take
Aways:
- A businesses' reputation sometimes rests upon the shoulders of the person directly in front of the customer.
- Give that person the latitude to handle a situation and the chance to perpetuate company goodwill becomes endless.
Update 8/11/05
In a very classy move, Tax Collector Doug Belden, sent us a letter acknowledging this article and promised to not only pass it along to Kim but her boss as well. It also went to the HR Director of Human Resources.
