Courts go customer friendly
Dealing with lawyers, criminals, and delinquents on a daily basis can grate on your nerves.
But the staff at the Santa Monica Courthouse are more than happy to help the downtrodden and betrayed. They were trained that way.
More than 300 county employees at courthouses on the westside recently completed customer service training, a program mandated by presiding superior court judge James Bascue.
All county courthouse employees must have completed the training by June. But on the westside, most employees finished it months ago.
Beth Filosa, Santa Monica Superior Court manager, said the “customers” on the westside are different than other jurisdictions because they require a bit more attention.
“Our customers on in the west district are highly educated, very wealthy and you have to deal with them differently,” she said. “Our customers don’t necessarily want to be here because it’s stressful and it’s their time, money and freedom at stake.”
Hundreds of people flow through the doors of the Santa Monica Courthouse every day, many of whom are high-powered attorneys and their clients can be high maintenance at times.
“We are trying everything we can do to improve our relations with customers,” Filosa said. “People think we are the typical government types and we need to change that image.”
And while the clerks behind the counters in departments like civil, probate, small claims and juvenile court know that the court’s mission is to record and resolve legal matters, they often times are asked legal advice. There’s a fine line between customer service and giving advice, which many people don’t understand.
That’s often times the case in small claim court, where people sue each other without attorneys for claims under $5,000. Most of the time, they don’t know how the process works and have thousands of questions for the clerks.
“You get the same people, the same questions every day,” said small claims deputy clerk Hernan Osuna. “They don’t know what they are doing but I always try to put them in my shoes.
“If you start with an attitude, you’ll get an attitude back,” he added.
“If you start with an attitude, you’ll get an attitude back.” — — HERNAN OSUNA Small claims deputy clerk
The superior court is making a big push to instill customer service into all of its employees during a time when most companies have forgotten that it may be their most important aspect of doing business. There has been an increase in the number of people suing banks, credit card companies and airlines — just to get customer service from the faceless corporations who won’t respond to their client’s disputes.
And the customers are winning many of the suits, but it doesn’t seem to be hit-ting the companies’ bottom line — yet.
The employees in Santa Monica Courthouse also were trained to treat each other as customers. Courts and clerks often times work between departments, which is why it’s important to treat everyone the same, Filosa said.
“People just fire stuff at us all day and it’s stressful for us too,” Filosa said. “We want to make the experience, although not pleasurable, at least not traumatic.”
The entire superior court system also has made dealing with it more user friendly. Courthouses now have information booths that are manned all day. There, people can get information about the court’s services, legal aid and names of attorneys for those who need referrals.
The court system also created a new online self-help center for customers seeking information about legal help, the mediation process, family law, traffic, juvenile law, small claims and a host of other instructional material. Log on to www.courtinfo.ca.gov for more information.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 1, 2002. Read the original PDF.