January 23,
2016
Customer Service in Digital Forensics
My first jobs as a teenager were in customer service. The brief first foray into the world of
customer service was at an amusement park, which ironically, was anything but
amusing. After 3 months there, I
transitioned to a retail environment where I worked for several years and into
college. You might be surprised to learn
that the transition from retail customer service to public service in law
enforcement was not all that much of a leap.
The biggest overall difference is the personal danger aspect.
After leaving law enforcement to start my own digital
forensic consulting company, I find that many of the lessons, skills and
techniques I learned working in a retail environment serve me quite well in
dealing with attorneys, clients and the general public. This is an intangible that I propose often
gets lost among both governmental and private sector digital forensic
practitioners. We all have customers --
from the crimes against person detective to the special agent accountant to the
corporation who feels they’ve been the victim of intellectual property
theft. The natural tendency is for us to
treat our customers like they need us.
They need our skills, our knowledge and our expertise to help analyze,
interpret and explain what may have been going on in their cases. But the truth is, we need them at least as
much!
Customer Service in the
Public Sector
For my friends & colleagues in the government sector,
this can sometimes be a far leap. You see,
the reality is that many in public service don’t really have a sense of service
at all. Yes, that comment will
undoubtedly bristle some of my public sector friends, but deep down, they all
know it’s true. There are folks working
for the government that are there to pick up a steady paycheck, get decent
benefits, not really caring to be pushed or challenged and doing (almost) as
little as possible. This article is not
for them.
My purpose in this article is to refresh the sense of
service of those in the government who enjoy their job and enjoy the rewards
that come with doing a good job, even if it’s not always (or ever)
recognized. The homicide detective who
brings you a cell phone or computer of a suspect is your first-line customer. Without him, your job doesn’t exist and trust
me, if no one is bringing you work, your superiors will eventually recognize
that and start to re-evaluate your job.
Sometimes, even the most dedicated public servant sighs and gnashes his
teeth when the detective (who sometimes fits the category in the previous
paragraph) brings you evidence and wants you to solve his case for him. But think about why you got interested in
this field in the first place. Think
about what drives you and challenges you.
No two cases are the same. Maybe
this case will be the one in which you’ll be able to write a case-study or
learn a new technique. Maybe you’ll
discover evidence that will lead to the rescue of a child or the arrest of a sexual
assault suspect. And while it’s true
that the investigators are the first-line customers of the public-sector
digital forensic examiner, the real customer is the innocent public and victims
of crime. They’re the ones you are there
to help. Never forget that.
Customer Service in the
Private Sector
Being in private practice, you’d think having good customer
service would be a “no-brainer”. Well,
in the past 18+ months since we launched Pro Digital full-time, I’ve been
schooled in the fact that not every private practitioner really practices good
customer service (or even knows what it is).
I’ve been pleasantly shocked to receive no less than a half-dozen
referrals because of other practitioner’s lack of responsiveness and
service. I’m happy to serve their
clients. It gives Pro Digital a better
reputation, expands our client-base and assures our place in the digital
forensic market.
Our customers (clients) range from spouses embroiled in
divorce matters to plaintiffs or defendants in civil actions. They all require different levels of
communication, attention, education and technical expertise to help them
through their cases. Going a bit
further, we help out indigent clients and accept court-appointed cases at
reduced rates because our history of public service was not abandoned when we
launched a private practice. We know our
clients need us to perform services they may have neither the skills nor the
equipment to perform, but just because that fact is present and undeniable
doesn’t mean we take our clients for granted.
Perhaps the best notion on which to hang the proverbial hat
of customer service upon in private practice of digital forensics is trust. Our clients trust us with their data, which
is oftentimes very sensitive. They trust
us to be able to help them in their cases.
And they trust that we won’t over-bill or exploit their naiveté about
digital forensics and investigation.
That measure of trust is one we do not take lightly, nor do we ever
intend to forget.
One More Thought
I’d like to close by touching briefly on the public-private
sector “rivalry”, or whatever term is appropriate to define the alleged philosophical
difference in approaches between public and private sector practitioners. Both as a digital forensic consultant and as
a trainer, I’ve run into a segment of workers and “leaders” in public service
with the overall mindset that what they do is of a higher calling and, because
they don’t get paid as much as private sector practitioners, they are sacrificing
some of themselves for the public good.
I’ve even experienced this as a contract trainer who teaches to law
enforcement.
To be honest, it makes no sense to me. It may make some sense if I had never worked
in law enforcement, but being that I also dedicated 15 years of my career to
public service, I really don’t accept the notion that my counterparts in public
service are sacrificing themselves for the public good. The bottom line is, we all get paid to do a
job. (And please trust me when I say
that many of you get paid much more than me!)
Government workers are paid by tax-payers to do a job, just like private
practitioners are paid by clients to do a similar job. We all have “customers” and we’re all answerable
to them. We’re all part of the system
and the system needs us all to try to maintain fair and impartiality in
investigations and court proceedings.
We all have a role to fill.
Let’s make a common pledge to work together to serve everyone to the
best of our ability by putting ego aside and working for the benefit of the
digital forensic field, never forgetting the value of the customers we serve. We’ll all gain from that mindset!
Author:
Patrick J.
Siewert, SCERS, BCERT, LCE
Principal
Consultant
Professional
Digital Forensic Consulting, LLC
Virginia
DCJS #11-14869
Based in
Richmond, Virginia
Available
Globally
We Find the Truth for a
Living!
About the Author:
Patrick Siewert is the Principal
Consultant of Pro Digital Forensic Consulting, based in Richmond,
Virginia. In 15 years of law
enforcement, he investigated hundreds of high-tech crimes, incorporating
digital forensics into the investigations, and was responsible for
investigating some of the highest jury and plea bargain child exploitation
cases in Virginia court history. A
graduate of both SCERS, BCERT, the Reid School of Interview & Interrogation
and various online investigation schools (among others), Siewert continues to
hone his digital forensic expertise in the private sector while growing his
consulting & investigation business marketed toward litigators,
professional investigators and corporations.
