On our recent trip to the US we stayed with friends in Summit, a prosperous suburb of New York where the police force has taken an unusual approach to improving community relations.

Historically it has been difficult for the boys in blue to get to know their community as citizens drive everywhere in the US and so do the police. There’s no ‘bobby on the beat’ type opportunity to chat informally with people which, as anyone who’s watched  Dixon of Dock Green will know, is an essential part of community policing.

So what they’ve done is introduce the equivalent of a Panini football card game for children where they can ask, say,  Sergeant O’Mally for his card if they see him or if he doesn’t have any cards on him, he can drop them round to the house later on – thereby becoming known to the parents too. Due to the popularity of the scheme, they even have open mornings at the police station where kids can go and swap cards with others.

Looked at through the eyes of someone who does customer relationship management for a living (i.e., me) this is just a great example of how some lateral thinking can massively improve the relationship an organisation has with its customers, creating a dialogue and trust around the product so that when the time comes that you have a need (or need a policeman) you know exactly where to turn.
In a time when our relationships with organisations are dominated by call centres and automated telephone menus, the sight of Sergeant O’Mally at your door just dropping off a card for your children is heartening indeed.