May-Jun 2010.indd - Commissaries.com

H ave
getsmart
Customer service
Patrons’ needs shape work
As a DeCA employee gets
ready for work and quickly
“checks the look” in the
mirror, it doesn’t matter if
he or she wears a manager’s blazer,
a cashier’s smock, a meatcutter’s
apron or a down vest for working
in a cooler. According to DeCA
Acting Director and CEO Thomas
E. Milks, they all have at least one
thing in common: an intense focus
on customer service.
“To effectively focus on our
customers, we must continue to
develop an understanding that
customer needs shape most of
the work we do – every day,” said
Milks.
Milks said DeCA employees
continually ask themselves the
questions: “Who are we really
working for?” and “Who is our
customer?”
a look at how some store directors around
the world make customer service a priority:
What are you doing to enhance customer service?
Store Director Rose Castro, Atsugi Commissary, Japan: We all
provide a vital service to our
customers, but to ensure that
they not only need to come
back but want to come back to
the commissary, I make it my
personal crusade to make each
and every one of my patrons
feel special and important. It is
impossible for me to learn and
remember all of them by name,
but I try.
Rose Castro
I have been with the
commissary for more than two
decades, and not to sound immodest, but I have
“In answering these two salient
questions, we strive to achieve
customer satisfaction through the
use of our informed and dedicated
employees,” he said. “The
understanding of these questions
allows DeCA to expand its
customer base while focusing on
customer awareness, expectations
of specifi c sales and exceeding
service expectations.”
Milks added that last year’s
worldwide customer service
training continues to pay huge
dividends by “unifying best
practices that exceed customer
expectations and strengthen
customer ties.”
The following comments from
selected store directors provide
insight into front-line customer
service and support philosophies
and practices.�
Store directors talk customer service:
‘It’s all about attitude’
Nga Van Sant, store associate, at
Portsmouth Commissary, Va., helps a
customer make a meat selection. U.S.
Navy photo: Bill Black
learned a lot during this time and have a pretty
good grasp of what a customer wants. The many
years I spent as the customer service manager at
Orote Commissary, Guam, imbued me with the
fundamental principles and knowledge that have
become the cornerstone of how I interact with people,
both employees and customers.
I do nothing novel or revolutionary, and in its
simplest terms, I merely follow the golden rule – treat
others as I would like to be treated. It’s all about
attitude – positive attitude – always. And, when I’m
with a customer, I make that customer feel as if he
or she is the most important person to me. I listen to
them, no matter how trivial or inconsequential it may
seem, for if it’s important to them, it’s important to
me. Each customer is different and is treated as an
individual. My feelings are sincere, and my customers
know this.
�
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