Posted by Marshall Krantz Responses (0)

ASAE and The Center's Great Ideas Conference wrapped up Tuesday in San Diego, and it seemed to me the big idea was, through a variety of reminders and techniques: think outside the box.

Nothing new in thinking outside the box, of course. But it bears frequent repeating, because it's so easy to get stuck in a rut.

For those not in the know, ASAE and The Center is the organization that formed from the merger of the American Society of Association Executives and the Center for Association Leadership. The new name is arguably a creation of thinking outside the box; no need to spell out the name when everyone knows who you are. It's also arguably proof that thinking outside the box doesn't always produce the best results. But that's the subject of another rant….

I attended a session on how to build a customer-service culture within an organization. About half-way through the session, I thought outside the box, that is, the session, figuratively, and the meeting room, literally, and walked across the hall to the concurrent marketing session. To me, marketing and customer service are two sides of the same coin.

About 90 people were at the marketing session, about twice as many people as at the session on customer service.

My two companions at lunch immediately thereafter had attended the marketing session. Why marketing instead of customer service, I asked.

They assured me they already had customer service in the bag. One, who works for an association, said her association surveys members once every three years. The other, with a chamber of commerce, said his chamber surveys members three times a year.

Maybe they really have mastered customer service, but pardon my skepticism. I doubt that so many more organizations succeed at customer service as opposed to marketing, as the larger number of attendees at the marketing session would suggest.

Someone once said that everybody wants to be in marketing and nobody wants to be in production. Marketing can be creative and glamorous, with the potential for high recognition. On the other hand, production, or in the case of associations, member service, is often tedious, even thankless.

But as Robert Arzt, who led the customer-service session, pointed out, it usually costs a lot less to keep a customer than gain a new one.

So maybe when it comes to customers, those organizations that think outside the box best are those that focus more on the customers they have than the prospects they hope to win.