As part of its ongoing commitment to having exemplary customer service a core value in everything it does, the Marin Community Foundation has adopted a Customer Service Credo. It follows:

CUSTOMER SERVICE CREDO

Preamble

High quality, personal, and professional customer service is essential to all activities of the Foundation. Moreover, customer service is integral to the design, implementation, and evaluation of all interactions, initiatives, and programs. Our customer is every person we come in contact with in the context of our work with the Foundation. These customers include but are not limited to donors, grant seekers, colleague foundations, referral sources, fellow employees at the Foundation, board members, and the general public. We will strive to make our customers feel welcome, comfortable, understood, and important.

Responsiveness

We strive to act quickly and thoroughly in response to a request for information or action by our customer. For example, we will respond to a telephone call or electronic communication within 24 hours. If there are any obstacles impeding our ability to respond, we will garner all resources necessary to respond and c1early communicate the expected resolution and outcome. When we are not available—such as when we are out of the office or on vacation—we will leave clear instructions about alternative ways that our customers can be helped.

Initiative

We anticipate the concerns of our customers and take the initiative in solving them. We do not wait to be asked if there is an issue. We use our experience, intuition, and resources to identify potential difficulties and solve them before they happen.

Empathy

We continually strive to look at a situation through the eyes of our customers and their priorities. This entails the ongoing challenge of viewing these situations through different lenses than our own. We will assess customer needs and priorities along with their different styles and cultures of communication.

Team Approach

No one person or department owns a particular customer base or issue—we are all responsible for our own and each other's concerns. We will never say to a customer, "That's not my area" or "That's not my fault." We will continually work to tear down individual and departmental silos in order to build a whole Foundation working to serve our customers. To accomplish this, we will make the effort to engage everyone in the Foundation whose involvement and support help ensure we deliver on our promise to our customers.

Open Communication

We work in a "glass house" with an ongoing commitment to the values of education, honesty, and transparency. We will make every attempt to listen to our customers, assess their needs, anticipate future needs, and fully express our services, knowledge, expectations, and limitations.

 Solution Broker

If we don't know the answer, we will find it. If we may know the answer, we will verify it. lf we know the answer, we will know it completely. In order to fulfill these commitments, we know this will take creativity, extra effort, risk-taking, and the willingness to work beyond the bounds of position, department, or run-of-the mill expectations. And we will seek feedback from our peers and others to ensure we continually find solutions to our customers’ needs.

Learning Organization

While striving to serve the customer, we understand the Foundation is a human organization. Mistakes will be made, communication will slip, and judgment will lapse. We seek to create a safe environment where these situations are learning opportunities, not only for the individual or departments involved, but also for the whole organization.

Attitude

We understand customer service without a friendly demeanor, a positive perspective, and a sense of humor can be perceived as empty and superficial. We strive to outwardly experience the depth of our commitment to the community, the importance of our work and the joy of meaningful service—and have this attitude readily apparent to our customers and the community we serve.