Customer Service… with a difference

10 years ago I was asked to run a customer service course – that I’ll never forget.

Most of us think of ‘customers’ as people who voluntarily chose to buy from us, and that we have to care for, if we want to keep them.

So you can imagine that I was more than a little surprised when I was asked to turn up at one of London’s oldest prisons. Her Majesty clearly wanted to give her guests the best possible service.

The ‘customers ‘in this case were prison visitors. The vital relatives and friends who make life inside bearable. They come to visit the unfortunate individuals who are definitely not the willing customers of the ‘hotel’ better known as a prison.

As I arrived, I was reminded that old prisons really are forbidding places. The tall Victorian brick walls would strike fear into anyone – visitors included. It felt very different to the commercial organisations where I normally run courses. There was no cheery reception, instead I was greeted by an officer in uniform who made me feel guilty and uneasy. Thankfully, the course took place in an external building in the grounds, so I didn’t have to go through intrusive security to get into the main prison building.

The training room was rather Victorian too. But there was a nod to the modern with an LCD projector and, surprisingly, there was no restriction on using my own laptop. But the gloss painted walls and old school furniture in rows spoke of an institution that was resistant to change.

The delegates arrived and seemed to be pleased to bet let off the normal duties – even if it was for a pointless training course. They were all seasoned prison officers who had worked there for years. I resisted making the old joke about ‘time off for good behaviour’. Their attitude was professional and committed to their job. They were as bemused as I was about the appropriateness of the course subject.

Having broken the ice and built up some empathy, it was useful to hear more about the ‘customers’ the prison officers are caring for. And this is when the course got interesting. One of the officers, let’s call her Jenny, profiled them very quickly.

‘Oh, they’re just criminals we haven’t caught yet’

I did my best to hide my shocked reaction to this description, and asked what led her to say that.

‘Well, it’s the way they behave. Swearing at us – treating us just like the prisoners do’

There was some reasoning behind that conclusion I supposed. But it really did point to a worrying ‘them and us’ culture. Getting across the idea that the ‘customer is always right’ was looking like quite a challenge.

The heart of the course was an exercise to try and understand the ‘customer journey’. If this term sounds a little pretentious, let me explain this is not the terrible journey through life that led to prison. For our purposes, it is the steps that a visitor has to go through to actually see the prisoner for a visit. Usually the customer journey is all about making sure that obtaining the product or service is as swift and painless as possible. That way the customer enjoys the experience and is happy to return.

Well obviously you can’t just turn up like at a hospital, visits have to be booked in advanced. I asked if that was easy to arrange – and did the visitors have choice of times?

‘Oh no, it’s not easy. And they all want to come in the afternoons’

I assumed this was because of the distances they visitors might have to travel. Jenny put me right on that…

‘No, it’s ‘cos they can’t get up in the morning’

I decided to move on to what happens when the visitors arrive at the gates. They described a lengthy and repetitive series of security checks involving fingerprinting, sniffer dogs and more. I began to understand why tempers would be bound to fray. If you’re treated like a criminal by the officers, it must be very easy to feel resentful and turn against them.

So we then did an exercise looking at what might make the journey easier. We talked about how the use of modern security technology might simplify the process and lower stress levels. I’m hoping these changes may have come to pass by now. But I wouldn’t bet on it, given the pressure on budgets in the public sector.

We moved on to one of the benefits of a prison visit. A key contribution that visitors make to the comfort of prisoners is the bringing of items (clothes, book, etc.) that make life bearable. Jenny explained to me that for this to happen the prisoners needed to fill in certain forms before they would be allowed to bring things into the prison. I asked what the forms were like – whether they were simple, friendly and easy to complete.

‘No, they’re really difficult – it’s easy to make a mess of them’

I asked about the prisoner’s level of literacy. Jenny had a fast answer for that one too.

‘Oh, none of them can read & write’

Now this was bound to be an exaggeration, but it suggested that the bureaucracy of the system was creating some major communication problems all of its own. It wasn’t ‘fit for purpose’ as they say.

We then went on to talk about how to build warmer and friendly relationships. But I began to realise it would be close to impossible under the current procedures.

During the course, I realised that both the prison officers and the prisoners were the victims of the same system. A system that could not have been better designed to make life unpleasant. Everyone was equally tied up in miles of old and unyielding red tape.

It had felt like a long day. As I walked out of the old building, I felt free again, as many people who leave that building must. But I realised that I had probably wasted my time and their and achieved nothing – again much as those other people do.

However good natured and helpful the guards really were, it wasn’t a lack of training that stopped them acting in a friendly way. It wasn’t the behaviour of the prisoners or their visitors either. It was the system. And you might be able to train guards and the prisoners, but you can’t train a system…

I haven’t been back – but I often think of my brief spell at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. One day inside was enough.

Important message: Please note that any names used are fictional to protect the identifies of the people involved. Some of the quoted speech may not be 100% accurate – these are recollections from some years ago. But it’s at least as accurate as The Crown…