John DiJulius | Customer Experience Blog

Making Price Irrelevant…

How to get to “Benny” – One of my consulting clients is a large professional service firm, trying to differentiate themselves from all the other firms competing with the exact same services offered. There are the typical challenges when helping an organization transform into what we like to call a Customer Service Revolution. It starts with the top executives truly focusing and committing long-term to demonstrate this is not flavor of the month, program of the year or management by best seller. In some industries it is changing an old paradigm, a stale stubborn mindset that screams: “We are not in the hospitality industry. I am a professional who brings a highly-valued skill set and intellectual capital that my clients desperately need.”

This organization is guilty of the same, which is what the key decision makers recognized and why they determined to change their culture.  After the first year, everyone was excited about the momentum that the “Project Client Xperience” had produced. Yet there was still a great deal of work to be done.  A percentage of the professional service providers, including partners, had not totally bought in.  At one of our regional workshops, I had one of the more influential partners (let’s call him Larry) ask if he could share a story with the group. His story was about how one of their largest long-term clients had recently changed their CEO.  Any time an organization changes a CEO, all vendors are in danger of being replaced. So Larry went on to share that he knew he had to quickly demonstrate to the new CEO (let’s call him Greg Benedict) how valuable and how brilliant they were, before it was decided to start shopping their services.

Larry admitted it was a struggle; every meeting they had that the CEO attended was short and very transactional. Every time Larry and his associates tried to make small talk, share advice or demonstrate their expertise, Greg, who is known by his close friends as “Benny,” was not interested in engaging in anything more than the facts. He just wanted bottom line answers. Larry knew that once their current contract was up, they were going to lose this large long-term client.

That is when Larry started thinking about all the “Project Client Xperience” training, systems and tools they had been going through. He admitted while he didn’t put much stock into it, he decided he had nothing to lose. So the first thing he did was figure out what Secret Service  he could do on Greg. He realized that there was very little customer intelligence he had learned in the few meetings. He remembered about F.O.R.D. (family, occupation, recreation & dreams), but figured it was virtually impossible to find any of this out until he started doing some research online, especially via social media.  Through that, he discovered (most notably) that Greg was an avid triathlon competitor and was a big supporter of MS causes.

At the end of their next meeting, Larry briefly mentioned that he was aware that Greg competed in triathlons and how it was a “bucket list” item of his own to compete in one. Larry said, “Greg’s eyes lit up like cannon balls! Next thing you know, we are in his office and he is showing me pictures on his walls of different events that he was in and telling stories. He told me that if he could do it — anyone could. Over the next few weeks he was sending me advice, books and articles on how to train. I also found he has a daughter who is challenged with Multiple Sclerosis and that is why he is such a big supporter.”

Larry said several months later he was competing in his first triathlon with new buddy, Greg. Additionally, he has since become a supporter of the annual event Greg holds every year for MS.  Larry went on to tell the group how Greg’s company renewed their annual contract with Larry’s firm, but best of all, Larry said, every note or email he gets from Greg is signed “Benny.”

How well do you truly create emotional connections with your clients?

I have worked with several hospitals and medical facilities over the years and I don’t think there is any tougher or more important jobs out there than taking care of people’s health. Their Service Vision, however, is one of the easiest and clearest to figure out, yet I have found that the medical industry typically does a very poor job in connecting the roles of their employees to that Service Vision.

The Ritz-Carlton Group Hospital

This is an exercise I do when working with hospitals and medical centers: Imagine The Ritz-Carlton has decided to open and manage a hospital. What would that look like? How would they approach things differently? Let’s look at some of the titles hospitals use for their employees: (1) tray passers, (2) receptionists, (3) nurses, and (4) patients.

The person who is in charge of delivering food to the patient is a Tray Passer. I asked why are they called that, and the response was, “That is what they have always been called.” How proud would you be if someone asked, “What is it that you do?” How difficult is it to get Tray Passers to realize the part they play in the company’s Service Vision? I found that Tray Passers are pretty important in educating patients on proper nutrition for the most rapid recovery. If this person’s expertise can have a big impact on a patient recovering fully and sooner rather than later, they play a major role in any hospital’s Service Vision. How about we rename Tray Passers “Chief Nutritionist Officers” or “Directors of Patient Diet”?

Upon arrival at a hospital, the person that you go to for information and directions is called the “Receptionist.” And most of the time they act like receptionists, by providing the least information they can, and only when asked. What if we changed their title to “Director of First Impressions”? Wouldn’t that title make them rethink the role they play in the experiences of all the visitors to the hospital?

Let’s talk about the toughest job in the world, nursing. Most hospitals today will tell you how nurses are underpaid, understaffed, overworked, and as a result, many are burned out. What if we called them “Daymakers”? Because that is what they actually are.

If they were constantly referred to as Daymakers and they had to introduce themselves as Daymakers, ­wouldn’t that make them reconsider their role and the sensitivity they must have with every patient and family member they come in contact with? Who do you think are happier with their jobs, nurses or Daymakers?

And finally the customers, who are the people who come to us for our services, whom we have always called “Patients.” Why? Probably because the first hospital that ever opened called them that and since then everyone else just did the same. Any employee of a hospital will tell you that after dealing with hundreds of patients per day, over time, the employees can become desensitized and numb. Especially when dealing with a new patient that has, what a nurse considers a minor, temporary condition, compared to the patient down the hall, who may only have a few days left to live. However, it is all relative to the patient and the “minor,” temporary condition may be the worst thing that has ever happened to that person and has him or her scared to death. Most nurses and doctors will also admit that instead of referring to patients as “Ms. Daniels in room 201,” they just refer to them as “201b” (meaning room 201, second bed). With that perspective, it can make it more difficult to provide a world-class patient experience.

Any good hospital will tell you that they have two external customers: (1) the patient and (2) the patient’s loved ones. Again, what if we thought outside the box and renamed patients, “family members,” and the loved ones “relatives”? In many situations, hospital customers are like hospital family members and hospital relatives, where the employees get to know them very well, even if it is just for a few days.

Like anything else, just giving new titles ­doesn’t change the culture, it is an aid in reminding that person of the role that comes with his or her position. But it is ultimately management’s daily responsibility to constantly demonstrate how each department supports and impacts the Service Vision of the organization, which drives the customer’s experience and level of satisfaction.

If you can’t change the people, change the people

Afraid your Service Vision will be met with some “rolling of the eyes”? You can’t let that stop you. One hospital that was committed to changing their culture was met with resistance by their 15 receptionists. So they asked all 15 to reapply for their existing jobs. Only three members of the original crew survived.