SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii -- Have you ever walked into a store and left after five minutes because you couldn't find the item you were looking for, due to confusing or lack of proper signage?
Or, have you called an office with a simple inquiry, only to be put on hold for so long that the "muzak" you heard on the other line is still playing in your head?
U.S. Army Garrison-Hawaii wants to hear all about it.
The Mystery Customer Program provides garrison customers -- Soldiers, family members, retirees, civilians and others who live and work on Army Hawaii installations -- the opportunity to give honest feedback on the services they receive at USAG-HI facilities.
"We have a policy that dictates what our standard of services are for garrison employees, and this is a way to evaluate, from a customer's perspective, how we're doing," said James Brown, customer relations management lead, Plans Analysis and Integration Office, USAG-HI.
According to Brown, the garrison commander's policy is to support every community member through the Hawaiian value of "pono" (righteousness), which means all USAG-HI employees are expected to act in a polite, positive and professional manner.
"(The policy) really outlines what we should offer or present to customers, both electronically and in person," Brown explained. "The (Mystery Customer Program) allows us to listen to our customers and evaluate our services based on these qualified standards that we have."
The Mystery Customer Program was implemented in 2012 and is one of several Customer Relationship Management initiatives USAG-HI uses to continually measure and improve upon the service experience.
Other ways to be heard include surveys, focus groups, town halls, service spot checkers, Ask the Garrison Commander, Garrison's Good Ideas and the Web-based Interactive Customer Evaluation (ICE) system.
"We have about six to eight different, active methods to listen to our customers," Brown said. "The reason why we're here is to serve those Soldiers and families and retirees, and by getting their feedback on the services that we provide, it helps the garrison as we allocate resources, both human and financial, to certain programs that may be more important to customers versus others.
"There are certain beliefs the community may have about a certain service, and this is a way to spot-check that," Brown added, noting that the biggest hurdle the program faces is the lack of participation.
"That's been the greatest challenge, to get people to participate," he admitted. "But this is a program where customers don't need to do anything outside of what they normally do. Being able to, at their leisure, go out and do it, and then send it back to us electronically -- it minimizes the inconvenience on the customer's part.
"We have multiple ways to listen to customers," Brown stated. "That's important, because it allows us to listen to our customers."
-- Mystery Customer Program
To become a "mystery customer," call the Customer Relations Management Team at (808) 656-0880 or (808) 656-0881.
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