Subscribe | Buyer's Guide | Free Product Info | Classifieds | Digital Edition
Northstar Publishing Book Store Camp Business
 Parks & Rec Business
   
Customers Are Always Right!
Or, are they?

By Kim Uhlik

The “Manager’s Toolbox” published in the January issue of Parks & Rec Business reinforced the notion that an organization’s philosophy, vision and mission (PVM) directly influence a manager’s approach to goals and objectives (GO): the means by which customers are actually served. Traditionally, a happy customer is one whose every need is promptly met regardless of motive or consequence; hence, the time-honored phrase, “The customer is always right.”
But is the customer always right? And how might a manager more easily make that determination? The Agency-Client Interest (Edginton, et al., 2001) tool describes the context in which the right decision can be made.

Matching Philosophy, Vision and Mission
Basically, an organization’s (agency’s) PVM defines what it stands for, how it sees the future unfolding, and how it intends to get there. Belief in this self-identity means that managers are encouraged to pursue and implement some ideas and programs, while postponing or even ignoring others.
Customers (clients), in turn, have their own internalized PVM, which translate into their needs, wants and preferences. These two sets of influences (interests) converge to create four conditions (See Figure 1):
The first instance is the ideal one: agency interest is high, and is matched by the clients’ interest. In other words, the program the manager wants to offer is exactly the program the customers would like participate in. Alignment is perfect and the relationship is reciprocal. If you conduct regular needs identification and assessment surveys, and continuously evaluate your programs, odds are the majority of your programs fall within this category.
A second possibility involves the manager attempting to fulfill the organization’s PVM by offering a program in which few, if any, customers currently are interested. In this instance, agency interest is high, but clients’ interest is low, resulting in the manager seeking customers.
This condition may occur when an organization attempts to fulfill some part of its vision by bending a previous trend toward a more desirable outcome. If your agency is pushing for obesity intervention programming, for example, you may have experienced this disconnection between need and response. Even though your state’s health department statistics indicate that a significant and growing percentage of the population is overweight, the motivation for change may not yet exist. The sought designation, therefore, requires additional promotional resources to attract attention, support and participation.
The polar opposite of reciprocity is a situation wherein neither your organization nor potential customers are particularly interested in an idea: both agency and clients’ interest are low, and disinterest rules the day. Nevertheless, a wise manager keeps a file reserved for these ideas; they may be early-stage trends that will require attention at some later date. Rails-to-trails, 30 years ago, exemplifies this category.
From a management standpoint, the least desirable scenario occurs when clients’ interest is high, but agency interest is low. In this instance, the customers’ desires are unwanted by your organization, and it is here that the customers may not always be right. This is the realm of budget and politics.
It may be that your needs ID survey results show that 50 percent of the residents favor an outdoor pool, but the same data verifies that 75 percent of the respondents would vote against a levy to pay for it. Similarly, the mayor and council may strongly favor building a recreation center even as area newspapers report budget deficits in neighboring communities, directly caused by income shortfalls at those same facilities.
Most troubling is the prospect of being pressured to offer programs that conflict with your organization’s bedrock philosophy. Recent headlines have highlighted the dilemma posed when badly needed sponsorship dollars are offered by corporations whose environmental records are less than stellar.
One advantage of the Agency-Client Interest tool is that it captures what is actually a dynamic process. Through proactive management, an organization can marshal its resources to “convert” the three less-desirable categories--sought, disinterested and unwanted--into the most ideal: reciprocal. If this outcome is achieved, then the customers can always be right, because you have created the conditions for them to express their “right-ness.”

Kim Uhlik is Assistant Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at San Jose State University, where he coordinates the Leadership and Administration emphasis. He can be reached via e-mail at kuhlik@casa.sjsu.edu.

Work cited:
Edginton, C. R., S. D. Hudson, and S. V. Lankford. Managing Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Services: An Introduction. Champagne: Sagamore Publishing, 2001.