By John Fowler

Staff Writer

Customer care is something that most businesses think about from time to time. Many even invest time and money into some form of customer care program; but only a rare few are really good at it. They are the ones that make customer care a priority.

While most customers don't give it a lot of thought, they certainly know the difference between a company that is serious about customer care and those companies who are only going through the motions. According to Brenda Jean Patrick, a professional trainer who describes herself as The Customer Care Teacher, "Good customer care is not just for retail stores. Good customer care is essential for any organization that deals with the public. Especially schools."

When asked to describe customer care Brenda Jean said, "It's the golden rule plus putting yourself in the other person's shoes." When asked why schools should make customer care a priority she got right to the heart of the matter by asking, "It's all a matter of how you are gong to spend your time. Do you want to spend it teaching or cleaning up the messes created by poor communications?"

When asked about customer care at Prosper ISD, Brenda Jean said, "Dr. Watkins, Prosper ISD Superintendent gets it. Drew is unique in his understanding that leadership has to model customer care so that it becomes embedded in the teacher's daily activities."

Each year the Prosper ISD, like most school districts has to hire some new teachers and administrators. This year the district hired nearly eighty new educators. Many are first year teachers just starting their teaching careers. However, there are also many veterans joining the team this year, including a twenty-year veteran who is the new principal of Rogers Middle School.

On Monday Jan. 25 these educators gathered at the High School for the third of four scheduled customer care training classes. Brenda Jean Patrick, a contract consultant who specializes in customer care training, was hired by the district to provide the training. To be effective senior leadership has to model customer care so that it becomes a part of the culture and is embedded in the teacher's daily activities.

Traci Scarbrough, a sixth-grade math teacher with four years experience said, "When you have a good relationship between teachers and parents you get successful learning."

When it came time for dinner, the class was treated to a tasty demonstration of customer care. Students of the district's culinary arts program, under the watchful eye of the program's teacher Chef Garms, prepared and served them dinner.

Chef Garms said, "The culinary arts curriculum is designed to give the students a taste of the culinary industry so they understand what it takes to be a chef or baker. The program also prepares the students to get their "Serve Safe" certification. The "Serve Safe" certification is something they will need before they can get a job in any commercial kitchen."

Chef Garms added, "This is the first year for the culinary arts class and already we have hosted four events. In December we served the community's senior citizens, in November it was the Veterans. We also fed the football team before one of their games this past fall.