Whether or not you want to think of your network members as "customers", they are more likely to respond as consumers than employees. Just as you return time again to a store because you like how you are treated and the value you receive for your money, network members will stick around at your organization --- after all, good treatment and effective, rewarding member services and leadership opportunities are what they paid for!

"...think about businesses you patronize and what you do and do not like about them, then translate those characteristics of good and bad customer service to your network."

So take a few minutes to think about businesses you patronize and what you do and do not like about them, then translate those characteristics of good and bad customer service to your network.

For example:

Customer Service Principle = Its Counterpart in a Volunteer Program

Prompt service = Prompt return of phone calls and email, send membership materials out right away, get unformation back to the person within two working days

Convenience = Workshops when and where they want them

Accurate product information = Deliver what you promise your members.  Quarterly newsletter means four a year, not four whenever you get around to it

Great prices = Membership fees and responsibilities not unrealistically high

Friendly store personnel = Congenial atmosphere, hospitality, no cliquess or "politics"

No-questions-asked return policy = Accepting response to member criticism or dissatisfaction

No "bait-and-switch" sales = Don't promise service then turn around and manipulate members into providing them

Providing good consumer information = Giving member access to all information needed to make a good decision or to complete a task

Complaints department that does more than file complaints in the trash = Listening to network members' problems and helping to resolve them

Attentive store staff = Treating network members as valuable resources

Clean, well-lit, attractive store = Clean, well-lit, attractive meeting places, etc.

Little "bonuses", like lots of parking, access to buses, clean bathrooms, child care, refreshments, etc., = Coffee and cookies,  job-sharing, unexpected gifts, you name it

No high pressure sales staff = Never wheedling or manipulating 

Customer service statistics point to a worrisome trend: unhappy customers on the average tell eight other people what they don't like about a business. Imagine how that can affect your network and its image in your community?