After delivering a keynote address, I was speaking with one of the participants who said, “Everything you said was good, but it doesn’t apply to me.” You could have knocked me over with a feather. I had to ask, “Why not?” He proceeded to tell me that he worked for a non-profit organization, staffed by many volunteers, who shared a love of their mission. Therefore, he reasoned, everyone would always provide the best service to their customers. I asked him just one more question, “So, you don’t rely on donations? Or, if you do, your coffers are overflowing?” He replied that they indeed relied, heavily, on donations. And as a matter of fact, donations were on the decline in the past few years. The truth is, no matter what your organization does, customer service is a key factor to your success. It doesn’t really matter to your customers if the person assisting them is a paid employee. As we talked further, he seemed to get a green tint to his completion. I quizzed him on why donations were decreasing – he blamed the economy. “Well, since the economy isn’t jumping back into overdrive, maybe he should close up shop?” I asked. I think he was ready to pass out. As we concluded our conversation, he said that he was going to put some basic service standards into place, institute a feedback program for their customers and spend more time managing service. I called him about six months later to check on his progress. Through the customer surveys he developed, they learned one of their most tenured volunteers was turning away potential donors in droves. The volunteer saw the people stopping by as an intrusion to his day, his mission. (Hmm… sounds like some employees of for-profit businesses I’ve heard of…) Through the staff service meetings, they were able to identify some key training issues that needed to be addressed immediately. The service standards made it easy to communicate the organization’s service vision to new employees – everyone was on the same page. The bottom line, donations had started to trend upward again. Plus, he wasn’t spending nearly as much time “fighting fires” and was able to develop more significant relationships with large donors. He had experienced a service epiphany! Unfortunately, this person’s results are quite unusual. Generally, your customer’s perception of your service, and their loyalty to your organization, are not damaged or repaired in such a short period of time. It can take years of high levels of service to start to turn an organization around. The moral of the story: While the bottom-line is important, focus your efforts on your front-line (employees and volunteers) to improve results in the long run. Make sure you check up and evaluate individual performance often!