What Are Friends For?
I have a good friend in this business who used to run a big city shelter. She used her friends “from the outside” to tell her the “truth” about the place. They would come to her shelter unceremoniously and just walk around as potential customers and then report back to her with their honest impressions. They reported back on everything they noticed…the sights, the sounds, the smells…you’re getting the picture, I’m sure. She, in turn, would start working with her team on improvements. This is an example of what author and management guru Jim Collins would call “confronting the brutal facts.”
So – think of me as your friend for a minute. I have been to a bunch of shelters in the past few months. I’ve visited brand-new spectacular buildings and crappy old dumps of buildings. I’ve been in nonprofit and public buildings. I’ve been in urban and suburban and rural settings, and I’ve been in no-kill and open-admission settings.
Not once have I been greeted warmly. Not once! Yes – there is the obvious possibility here that it’s me. Maybe I set people off with some nasty vibes I’m not aware of. So to control for this bias, I’ve also observed what happens when other people walk through the doors, and guess what? THEY haven’t been greeted warmly either. Even when people have been acknowledged (which quite honestly has been rare), they haven’t been truly welcomed. And it’s noticeably worse for those visitors who happen to be a different color than the staff/volunteers or who – heaven forbid – walk into the space with children in tow.
You know what’s ironic about this? When I teach workshops on adoptions or customer service, I’ve yet to encounter a class where people don’t tell me how important it is to make friendly eye contact. And yet the only people as skilled as animal welfare people at coming within close proximity of another human without making friendly eye contact are the people who worked at the DMV where I got my first driver’s license decades ago.
Chances are I haven’t been to YOUR shelter or clinic, so it’s quite possible that your people are the exception to the rule and that if I walked through your front door on any given day I would feel like your team was thrilled to see me and excited to help me. But if there’s a chance that this is not the case in your building (or over your phone lines and through your website and email communications), maybe you want to think about asking your non-animal welfare friends to do some secret shopping at your “place” (concrete or virtual). And then maybe you and your team might want to do some work to confront your brutal facts.
If so, keep in mind that Collins is quite clear that in order to use the brutal facts to your advantage, you MUST confront them (or in his terms, “conduct the autopsy”) WITHOUT blame. Easier said than done, but absolutely essential if you’re going to be able to bring about change. And here’s a bonus: if you and your team can get good at 
confronting your own brutal facts without blame, you’ll also be that much better at working with your clients with the same “no shame, no blame” attitude. They’ll feel the difference!
You can, of course, just ignore me, but there are lives at stake here…and it sure would be good for them if we were a whole lot more welcoming to people who are thinking about doing the right thing.
Related links:
“Forget Customer Service”
Improving Staff Morale
“Are You Asking the Right Questions?”
Tags: Board & Leadership, Saving Lives
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Dave Says:
Hey Bert, great blog as always! You touch on something that we all must deal with, stay on top of and work into our very culture and that takes persistence. Love the regular secret shopper idea. Simple and effective. Thanks
Andrea Kuryak Says:
Hi Bert,
Excellent blog and this needs to be addressed by all shelters. At my local SPCA there are two departments with separate entrances. One is admissions and the other is adoptions. There are two totally different attitudes depending on where you enter. In the adoption section you are greeted warmly when you come in. However, I cannot say the same for the admissions department. Admissions handles surrenders, vet care, the foster care program, etc. As a foster parent I’ve been in the admissions on a number of occasions but not enough for the people who staff the desk to get to know me. Until they find out what I am there for, you get an attitude. Once I state I’m there as a foster parent to pick up foster kitties their attitude changes. I’ve noticed the worse treatment comes to those who are surrendering a pet. I’ve seen people surrender for some incredibly stupid reasons and I have seen others with tears streaming down their faces and they don’t treat them very well. There is only once occasion I can recall where one of the workers worked with a woman who was trying to surrender a cat and kitten because she broke up with her boyfriend and didn’t want the “reminder”. The woman was excellent and non-judgmental and managed to get her to keep one of the cats and surrender the other when she wanted to get rid of both. I think all shelters should take advantage of “secret shoppers” so they can improve customer relations and make people want to return. I believe that if people were greeted warmly, no matter their reason for the visit, you will have good word of mouth referrals for adoptions and after all isn’t that what this is all about, saving these pets lives. Thanks for the important info which should be shared with all shelters.
Lisa Says:
And something one of my favorite shelter directors told me – “We want people to work here who love animals of course… but more importantly, we want them to love people!” (or at least pretend to….)
Jodi Says:
Your blog this morning reminded me of an experience I had at my own shelter (in my days as an ED). I was adopting a dog from us and sat down at a computer to fill out our pre-adoption questionnaire. I entered my contact info then started to work through a series of questions . . . “On average, how long are you away from your home during the day?”, with multiple choice . . . “A. At home all day, B. 0 to 4 hours a day, C. 4 to 8 hours a day, D. more than 8 hours a day”. I chose an answer and the computer immediately DINGED (loudly and obnoxiously) and a pop-up window arrived scolding me about long days and potential behavior problems. And, better yet, I discovered this window popped up NO MATTER what answer you chose. And yes, this automated scolding happened for nearly every question asked on the questionnaire. The moral of this story – sometimes we people aren’t the only “unfriendlies” in the shelter.
Needless to say, the computers and the pre-adoption questionnaire were quickly retired and replaced with conversations.
Bert Troughton Says:
Andrea – powerful story! Natalie DiGiacomo published a study a number of years ago that was a huge eye-opener. Upon interviewing people who had surrendered pets, they learned that the vast majority of people agonized over the decision and many had tried other options before resorting to the shelter. A good reminder that we can’t always tell what people are thinking and feeling by how they’re looking/behaving on the outside.
Jodi – nothing like personal experience to jog us out of our comfort zone!
Nancy Clark Says:
Great story…and an ongoing problem in many shelters, particularly on a busy day. Love the idea of the secret shopper/friend. It is a reminder we probably all need…the animals need our help and a warm welcome…so do the people who come to us.
Micah Says:
I had to comment (normally I would just ignore) but I am shocked at your blog! I work in an SPCA and I have to defend the team at our branch, we are known for our outstanding customer service and personal interactions with visitors of any race, color or gender. I don’t understand how every shelter you visited treated you so cold….really every single one?…hmmm
I am certain there are days that the shelter staff have a very difficult time and perhaps they are unable to gather themselves in a positive manner so they may come across abrasive but typically another staffer will observe this and step in to allow that person to get away for a breather. As you may know we have the most amazing and at the same time challenging job in the world and I’m pretty sure folks don’t work at shelters to treat others rude. Let’s give credit to individuals who work in some of the hardest conditions and stick around for the love of animals.
Bert Troughton Says:
Hi Micah – thanks for your note and hooray for the customer service (and community recognition thereof) at your SPCA! You’re right that we should salute the people who work in shelters (and I do) but I don’t think that means we should make allowances for anything less than stellar relationship building at the front door. The animals in our shelters desperately need the people who walk through our front doors – and we owe it to them to make sure they keep walking through our front doors, and send all their friends and colleagues, too. If your agency can share some tips on your staff training that least to such great customer service, that would be a terrific gift to others in the field! Thanks!
Vaughn Merry Says:
Bert – I believe you hit the nail on the head! Providing oustanding customer service is one of the most important aspects of running an animal shelter, right up there with top-notch animal care. A bad experience at the shelter will spread 10 times faster in the community then a good experience. I love the idea of “secret shoppers”. If there are any tips/trainings out there for improving customer in our field I would love to hear about them. We have recently ordered Animal Friendly-Customer Smart: People Skills for Animal Shelters and plan to implement training as soon as possible. I am not saying our customer service is horrible, but our staff could certainly use a refresher course. Thanks for the great blog!