Counselor as Customer Service

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

It wasn’t exactly the way I wanted to start my morning. I had an email from the day before I wanted to look at and respond, when, for reasons I still don’t understand, my computer asked for my password. It’s been so long since I last logged in, I couldn’t really remember it, so I made my best guess. Nope. I then hit Forgot my Password.

And that’s when my morning took a long turn.

Since the provider couldn’t email me my password (yeah, I know), they told me I had to call customer service, an experience I wish on no one, since, in order to actually fix the problem you have, you first have to give them your name, your email address, your street address, and the last four digits of your credit card on file. 

And then. In order for them to give me the code, I needed to get to the screen to make a new password, I had to hang up so they could call me back on the phone I was using, that was on file. I did this, they called me back, and finally, the procedure was finished. I was admonished for not having an alternate email on file where they could send a link, and had to answer a “Is there anything else I can do” question three times, but then I was as free as Red in The Shawshank Redemption.

Incredibly enough, this experience reminded me of going to high school. More than one author has said what I’m about to say, but it bears repeating—we expect our kids to do an awful lot of things in high school that have nothing to do with learning:

• They have to get up at a time that simply goes against their nature. Study after study shows high schools should be starting at 9 and elementary schools at 7, but most districts realize that means sports practices would go until 7 at night, and that just doesn’t work. So off our teens go, literally sleeping through three classes before they really understand what’s being done to them. It’s a good thing my first period was band class, since that made sure the flow of oxygen prepped me for the rest of the day.
• They have to go through six different environmental structures in a typical day. Adults often talk about the atmosphere they have to work in, reminiscing about the ones they liked the most, especially if their current atmosphere isn’t one of them. That’s a walk in the park compared to what our kids endure, six rounds of take-your-seat-take-attendance-make-uncomfortable-small-talk-talk-about-what-we’re-going-to-do-then-FINALLY-engage-in-learning. Thrown in the social hurdles of high school lunch, and it’s a miracle they remember to get on the bus, let alone get on the right one.

All of this should serve as a reminder to us that, if a student is brave enough to come to our office and ask for help, we want to make it as easy as possible for them to do so. Sure, appointments help keep things orderly, but if there’s a way for them to talk directly to you to make sure this isn’t a quick fix, that could go a long way to raising your reputation among students. It also beats requiring the student to tell your admin what their problem is, which goes a long way towards confidentiality.

It’s easy to say the kids come first. When it comes to resetting their passwords to happiness, this might be a good time to make sure our processes for helping do exactly that.