Customer Service ??????

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

Yep, and that's what our association stresses; professionalism. Regardless of what you do 9-5, being an official is being a professional. Here, that means showing up in business casual attire (rather than jeans or sweats, although jeans are ok on weekends), showing up on time, treating the school staff with respect, leaving the changing room as clean or cleaner than we found it, and conducting ourselves as adults on the court.

But "customer service" stinks of undue deference to coaches.

I have a friend who got to work the state baseball tournament last year. Great umpire, but he decided to take it a step farther by calling/contacting the coaches after every ballgame and asking them to let him know how he could improve and that he was really interested in their opinions. He's admitted to me that he's just "playing the system" since it appears that coaches ratings is the main (if not the only) criteria in deciding who gets to work deep in the playoffs. And his plan worked very well -- his ratings were through the roof.

I'd rather stay home than call or email a coach after a game.