Selling or Serving?

Last summer, I sat among a row of cubicles in the corporate compartment that is 445 12th Street SW, Washington DC. The big news of the day was the nationwide transition to DTV. Even though everybody knew that it was happening, and that it was (at that time) happening on February 18th, 2009, nobody really knew what the new policy meant for them. In actuality, it was very simple: if you watched TV with an antenna, you needed to apply for a coupon that would knock $40 off a digital converter box. If you watched cable or satellite TV, on the other hand, you were fine. Of course, government policies always have a way of being misconstrued by the public (see Obama Healthcare, 2009). We heard the most outlandish claims from crazy people, from the [insert representative organization] who believed that the policies was enacted to repress [insert minority group], or better yet, the radicals who believed that the government was trying to spy on American households.

Here comes the Federal Communications Comisssion to the rescue! I still remember the presentations we would give: "Back then, color revolutionized TV. On February 18th, 2009, digital will be the new revolution. Is your household prepared?" The cubicle-dweller's best friend is his dull gray telephone, and I made scores of calls each day to libraries, senior centers, minority conventions, and anybody who would possibly be interested in having a federal agent over to talk about the next big thing. We wanted to make the transition easy for consumers, and while we succeeded, I felt at times the guilt of a shameful kid cleaning the underwear that he soiled himself, for representing the body responsible for forcing the people to change in the first place.

A year later, I'm sitting at an office-icle (esentially a cubicle built for live customer service), wielding yet another dull gray phone, working my rotation as an Admissions Officer. The position is more or less sales; the purpose is to get students to enroll at the university. Like before, I am making calls to people on a list - not exactly cold calls in either case, but nonetheless approaches toward strangers. I try to work off people's motivations, or build off someone's dissatisfaction with their lives, to convince them that a higher degree is exactly what they need.

The irony is that I feel less of a salesman now than I did last year, this despite that the FCC's mission revolves around serving the people, despite that people actually pay us money here at the university, despite that our training here is essentially a compilation of sales best practices. Mainly, its because I don't feel like I'm imposing here. Its funny how capitalism works: with this little incentive called money, we are forced to listen to the consumer's needs much more than we would if we could just blanket a policy over the country, even though the policy is designed to make things better for people. Of course, we always hear about sales being deceiving to the consumer - salesmen hide information, or fail to mention important details. Yet at least in this industry, there is little margn for such practice. Competition is fierce, with both large for-profit schools and community colleges in the fray, and legal consequences of deceit can be especially frightening.

The reason I make this comparison is that despite all that we hear about corporate greed and organizational detachedness from "Main Street," even though some of these accusations may indeed prove true, there are moments when business genuinely makes someone's life better, and it offers them opportunities that they could not have gotten otherwise. Yesterday, I enrolled a student, A., who moved to Baltimore from Somalia seven years ago in pursuit of a better life. Yet despite the newfound political stablity, she has found herself unable to advance very far, with only a limited grasp of English and no college degree. She works full-time six days a week at a parking garage, and her husband does not fare much better as a taxi driver in a dangerous sector of town. Her young daughter is her hope for the future, yet she can barely provide for the child at the very moment. A community college or public school could not have catered to these strict needs. Yet we found a solution, and I remember A. trying hard to repress her joy but being unable to do so as she grasped her class schedule in one hand and her daughter's shoulder in the other.

Not to say that where I work is perfect, or even anywhere remotely close, but its refreshing to be in business and occasionally get to see beyond the numbers and charts a moment where the service actually makes someone happy. That's the core value any service organization has got to remember as it grows. The customer does not need to enjoy the service, the organization needs to ensure that she does.