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Imitate to Improve - 6/3/25


Oscar Wilde said that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”  Now this doesn’t mean that plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.  Nor does it mean that great impersonators such as Rich Little, Dana Carvey, or Frank Caliendo are always offering flattering portrayals of those that they imitate. Wilde’s Read more

How the Customer Perceives a Truth as a Lie - 5/27/25


You’re the customer, you’re asking about an unused item that you’re returning, and you hear the employee say: “The refund process takes 7-10 days.”  You’re thinking: “Great!  I can get the refund check as early as a week from today!”  The reality is that the company means that they’ll Read more

Tell Customers What’s Next - 5/20/25


In most businesses that have been around for a while, how a process was originally designed is not how it currently operates.  Sometimes this change is referred to as “practical drift,” where the actual process moves further and further away from the documented steps over time.  Maybe the changes Read more

Questions to Guide You to Empathy - 5/13/25


“If I was him, I would do ABC…” If you’ve ever heard somebody say this - whether it’s a friend or acquaintance, whether it’s some TV reporter or podcaster - you may get as frustrated or as annoyed as I do. I get annoyed because we are not that other person. Read more

Negate the Nervousness - 5/6/25


The customer needed a loan, so he walked into the bank, but he was a little nervous.  He knew that launching his business would be easier if he had some working capital, but that’s about all he knew.  He was anxious because he didn’t know what to expect in Read more

Don’t Rush to Resolve Quickly - 4/29/25


The customer is angry, so you use the CSS LEAD technique as designed.  You, listen, empathize, accept responsibility, and deliver on a remedy.  But it doesn’t work.  The customer is still upset, and maybe even a little more frustrated than when you started…why?! If the use of this technique fails, Read more

Energy v. Apathy - 4/22/25


I asked a couple friends who are much more scientifically-oriented the question: What is energy?  I didn’t mean E=MC2.  I meant physiologically, what is energy? They described a lot of things that sounded really good, yet far too advanced for my non-medical mind. Part of the reason why energy is of Read more

Prep Enough to Personalize - 4/15/25


Everybody loves Howie.  He is an account rep for the local air conditioning and heating company.  When I say Everybody loves Howie, I’m definitely talking about the customers.  His co-workers love him too, but customers are especially fond of him.  They seem to really enjoy their conversations with him, Read more

Get Your Customers to Brag, Not Bolt - 4/8/25


Here are two customer retention concepts that we discuss with some sports clients: BIRG and CORF.  BIRG is Basking In Reflected Glory.  CORF is Cutting Off Reflected Failure. You want BIRG.  You want the customers feeling so good about your organization that they want to be a part of your Read more

Narrow Your Focus to Seek Excellence - 4/1/25


You’ve probably heard companies use phrases such as: “We want to go from being good to great.”  Maybe they’ve said: “We strive for perfection, and although we’ll never reach perfection, maybe we can achieve excellence along the way.” These organizations find some kind of a catch phrase or slogan, but Read more

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Tell the Patient What to Expect

Posted on December 7, 2011 in Business Advice, Healthcare Please leave a comment

A UK physician practice that had won a Customer Service Excellence Award addressed what they did to ramp up customer service in a PULSE article. In a nutshell, this is what they did:

  • They decided they wanted to win an award for customer service.
  • They did research with patients via interviews and surveys to determine what the patients wanted out of the customer experience.
  • They determined what needed improvement in the eyes of the customers.
  • They used this information to define expectations (or customer service standards or policies) that patients should have of their experiences with the practice.
  • But they also used this information to define expectations (or customer service standards or policies) that the practice had of patients.
  • They trained staff and changed processes to ensure that they could meet these expectations.
  • Then they continuously publicized these expectations.

Pretty simple stuff, right? Another way to view this approach is the following:

  • Define a Rallying Point (a near-term goal that explains why change needs to occur). Staff can buy-in to change a lot better if they understand the “why behind the what.”
  • Ask the customer what they want and expect.
  • Improve performance to address those expectations.
  • Define and communicate expectations that customers have of you…and that you have of customers.
  • Then deliver, deliver, deliver.

Create your own plan to become great at customer service.

Listen to our latest podcast episode of “Stepping Up Service” on The MESH Network at http://themesh.tv/stepping-up-service/

Read our New Book – “Ask Yourself…Am I GREAT at Customer Service?” http://www.amigreatat.com/

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more at our new website! http://www.cssamerica.com/


Let the Patient Decide How Much You’re Paid

Posted on November 17, 2011 in Business Advice, Healthcare Please leave a comment

In the Ocala.com article Medicare gives hospitals an incentive to please patients, the author notes how “Munroe Regional Medical Center officials in Ocala said the overhauled health care law could result in about $700,000 annually in lost Medicare revenues or as much in additional incentives, based on how other hospitals nationwide fare.” The Medical Center has about 400 beds, to that’s roughly a $1.4 Million swing for a 400 bed facility (or about $3,500 per bed per year).

Medicare will be basing its reimbursement on several aspects of performance including quality and patient satisfaction. And much of the feedback on which the reimbursement is based comes directly from patients and family members. Let me restate this – $1.4 Million in reimbursement is dependent on the customer’s perception.

Think of it this way – hospitals get paid for its procedures, treatments, medicine, etc. But soon, how much they are paid for those procedures, treatments, medicine will be based on the customer’s opinion. It’s almost like the patients are naming the price for the care they’re receiving.

Think about this relating to your business. Imagine that your customer could determine how much you’re paid for each encounter with your organization based on the quality of the product and their experience with you. Would you look to find ways to improve the quality of your products and services? Would you try to improve the attitudes and customer service skills of your staff? Would you try to make your processes quick and seamless? Would you try to be better than you are now?

I hope you just said “Yes” 4 times.

For most hospitals, they need to ensure that their staff (clinical and non-clinical) are well-trained in customer service skills, principles, and techniques. They need to ensure that processes are simple and self-evident. They have to create a culture of caring for the customer. They have to hire staff focused on the patient as much as the arm being X-rayed. They have to incent staff to create a great experience and hold them accountable when they don’t. They have to have management who understands how to create a culture of customer service as well as how to model Service Excellence. They have to understand how to redesign customer service processes to be more efficient. They have to communicate smoothly about patient needs and processes. They have to be all about the patient.

If they do these things great, maybe revenues will increase by $700,000; do them poorly, and revenues will drop by $700,000.

Medicare is making it all about the patient. If you’re not in healthcare, thank your lucky stars that you don’t have Medicare.

But still learn this important lesson – make it all about the customer.

Read our New Book – “Ask Yourself…Am I GREAT at Customer Service?” http://www.amigreatat.com/

Listen to our latest podcast episode of “Stepping Up Service” on The MESH Network at http://themesh.tv/stepping-up-service/

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more at our new website! http://www.cssamerica.com/


Customer Service Lessons from a Kidney Stone – An E.R. Story

Posted on October 27, 2011 in Business Advice, Healthcare 1 Comment

I was an Emergency Room patient recently thanks to a kidney stone. I learned some painful lessons about how I need to modify my diet. I learned some financial lessons about how to avoid the E.R. next time, now that I know how to read kidney stones symptoms. And I learned some customer service lessons from the experience.

Let’s focus on customer service. Here are a few lessons learned:

· Accessibility to service is a wonderful thing. To get my question answered about my symptoms, I was able to reach an on-call nurse at my physician’s office at 5:00 a.m. on a Monday. I was aware of that service, having used it before for less painful reasons, and that accessibility, that free advice is one of the things I love about my physician’s office.

· Employee knowledge is a component of the service delivered. That same nurse told me to go to the E.R. because she thought it was gallbladder-related. It turns out that she misinterpreted my symptoms, and the E.R. triage nurse knew immediately I had symptoms of a kidney stone, not a gallbladder issue. If the first nurse would have better “read” my symptoms, she may have saved me an E.R. trip (not complaining, mind you – just an observation).

· An hour wait is not an hour wait is not an hour wait. Wait times can be made to seem shorter or longer than they are in actuality. My wait time to see the triage nurse was only 20 minutes, but it seemed interminable. There was no dialogue during the wait, and I was told they’d see me “quickly” – a nebulous term at best, and one that led me to believe it would be immediate. However my 3.5 hour wait between when my x-rays were done and when the physician saw me wasn’t nearly as bad as you’d think. Although I wasn’t thrilled with the wait, I was given some pain medication early on, was checked on several times by the nurse, was taught how to use their funky television remote control, and was given a warm blanket and offers of other support by a volunteer.

· Much of customer service is about managing expectations. Whether it was my understanding of a next step in a process, understanding who would be my care giver, knowing what the diagnosis could be, understanding whether I’d be released that morning or whether I needed to be held – anything that the organization did to give me a clearer expectation of what would happen next and when it would happen helped to make the experience that much easier to bear.

Learn the lessons of my encounter with customer service during the attack of the kidney stone (sounds like a bad 1970’s movie title, huh?). Be knowledgeable and accessible. Communicate with customers, and “distract” them during waits. Set and manage customer expectations.

Relieve your customer’s pain.

Read our New Book – “Ask Yourself…Am I GREAT at Customer Service?” http://www.amigreatat.com/

Listen to our latest podcast episode of “Stepping Up Service” on The MESH Network at http://themesh.tv/stepping-up-service/

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more at our new website! http://www.cssamerica.com/


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