If you happened by GCC this morning and saw the entire fleet of Turnbull Heating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration trucks on the parking lot -- no, the college was not undergoing some sort of massive HAVC overhaul.
Owner Bill Hayes, rather, had his entire crew out at the BEST Center this morning getting customer service training.
It's one of several programs offered by BEST to local businesses. Customer service is available to individuals or companies, which can bring their entire staff in for training that's specific to the company, Director Ray Chaya said.
"Sometimes, the best customer service is just better internal communication," Chaya said.
The training not only helps employees communicate with each other better, but with customers, and it stresses the importance of product knowledge, and dealing with customers who might be impatient or irritated.
Chaya said good customer service can also lead to more sales -- when employees have good product knowledge and know how to communicate what they know, it helps customers see the benefits of upgraded purchases.
"You want good customer service because you want people to come back, and word of mouth will help get new customers," Chaya said, "but more knowledge can also lead to more sales."
While Turnbull has long had a reputation for good customer service, Hayes said he's never put his employees through this sort of training before. He called the training program a "Turnbull Tune-Up."
"Nobody is perfect," Hayes said. "There's always room for improvement. We never want to fall down on customer service one iota."
"The BEST Center has some of the most intelligent and knowledgeable people and that's what they do -- they help businesses and people be better themselves. That's why it's the BEST Center."
It was scary, Hayes said, to completely shut down his business for half a day, but it was worth it. His answering service reported back that customers understood.
"Who would have thought when we scheduled this four months ago for a heating and air conditioning company, it would have been the hottest day of the year," Hayes said.
"My employees came out of there feeling very comfortable about where they need to go from here with customer service," Hayes added.
