Radio station leadership lesson.

You don't have to go very far to find lessons in leadership. Sometimes it's right in your own community. That doesn't lessen the impact of the lesson, however. Here's what I experienced recently.

We're fortunate to have three public radio stations here in Salt Lake City, two that are very similar with a mix of NPR and locally produced shows, the other a classical music station. Of the two NPR stations, I prefer one, KUER, for a variety of reasons. Their local programming is excellent and they're politically fairly neutral, quite unlike the other, KCPW (it's hard enough to keep my personal filters on during the NPR pieces, let alone the local talk). I confess that like many listeners, I hadn't become a member of KUER, despite the many fundraising drives I'd listened to over the years. So when one of my kid's cars became too expensive to repair, I decided to donate it to KUER through their vehicle donation program. The cars are sold at auction and the station gets whatever the final bid price is, minus a nominal fee to the agency who runs the donation process. Even if it was only $500, that would cover many years of not becoming a member. Better yet, I thought, it might even count towards a current membership. So I called the station to find out. That's when the lesson in leadership, empowerment and customer service began, and it wasn't pretty.

I spoke with two people in the development office, both of whom thanked me for what I was doing and agreed, yes indeed, a car donation would also get me a membership for one year. All I had to do was wait for the car to be sold, wait for a confimation letter to arrive to me and call back. Well, great, I thought. This would be a real win-win. The letter arrived about a month later and I was right about the sale price at auction: $500. I was excited to call KUER and follow up on their instructions. This time when I called, the station manager answered the phone. Unusual, I thought, but I was happy to tell him what I had done and that I was looking forward to being a member finally as a result of my car donation. Not so fast, came his reply. Donating a car does not entitle one to a station membership at KUER, he told me. I explained that his own development office thought it did, so why the discrepency? He went on to tell me that the development people were wrong and should not have agreed to give me a membership simply because I donated a car (and unlike them, he did not thank me). What's more, he would not honor their promise. I told him that KUER just received $500 from me and that a year's membership was only $40, so why not honor the word of his own people? And why don't they know their own station's policy?

This small-minded station manager was willing to risk losing the goodwill and support of a listener to rigidly maintain a policy (unknown to his own development office!) guaranteed to alienate me. Customer service 101, anyone? He has not empowered his people to make decisions on behalf of members or potential members. Leadership 101, anyone, again? As you might imagine, the odds of any future financial support from me to KUER are nill. And like so many customer service studies show over and over, unhappy customers like me will repeat their stories to others. Just as I'm doing here.

A $500 donation not worth a $40 membership? Not honoring the word of his own staff? This is not the proverbial rocket science here. How many leadership and customer service books, and articles are written, seminars, speeches and workshops attended, designed to teach the most elementary of lessons to lead an organization and create loyal customers? How about even common sense, which is too often not commonly applied? Lest you conclude this is more typical of nonprofits like KUER than in the private sector, think for a moment if you don't have a similar story to tell from a for-profit business. Thought so.