A Tale of Two Coffees...

You're on the road, and you don't really have time to stop anywhere. You want a quick, drive-thru coffee. You're coming up to an intersection. On your right, you see a Burger King. On your left, you see a McDonalds... which one do you go to?

I went to both yesterday, just to see... I turned into Burger King excited to "have it my way". I pull up to the speaker:
"What can I get you?"
“Coffee, please.”
"$1.49, pull up to the window."
"A large coffee."
"$1.70, pull up to the window."

I felt like I had to shout into the speaker due to its poor sound quality. I pulled forward (there was only one window), and she handed me my coffee. A cup of coffee with a bag full of stuff (4 creams, 2 regular sugars, 2 Splenda, 2 Equal, and a stirrer in a wrapper, but no napkins to wipe up the coffee I would invariably spill, and stain, on my black dress pants). I proceeded to pull forward to make my coffee "my way", which is with two creams only. I struggled to get the wrapper off the stirrer. Now I feel guilty that I have to throw out all the rest of this stuff that's perfectly good... but wait. Where do I throw it out? There's no trash can! Those extra creamers may have to stay in my car all day in the heat.


Across the street at McDonald's, I pulled up to the speaker and was greeted with "Good morning sir, welcome to McDonald's. How are you today?"

"I'm fine, how are you?" (it was an actual conversation)

"Fine, thank you. How may I help you?"

"I'd like a coffee please."

"What size?

"Large."

"Would you like any creams or sugar in that?"

"I'd like two creams, please."

"Okay, that's one large coffee with two creams. Would you like to add two hot apple pies for only a dollar?"

"No, thank you."

"Please drive up to the first window."

There were three windows, one of which wasn't being used. As I pulled up to the first window, the car ahead of me was pulling away. I was able to immediately do my transaction. I was greeted with a smile and eye contact. By the time I'd finished paying, the second window was free for me. (It's by design that there is a car and a half's length between the two windows).

The second window handed me my coffee, just the way I like it. The two creams were already in it, and it was stirred! I had no other "stuff" to handle and waste. I like the lid off, so I pulled forward to deposit it into the trash can built for drive-thrus, and I threw away all the Burger King stuff!


In today's economy, as we scrutinize every penny we spend, we demand an experience, and not to be treated as a transaction. All things being equal, the coffees were pretty much the same, but now my loyalty lies with McDonalds (if I don't have time for a Starbucks!)
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Who Really Owns the Patient Experience in Your Hospital?

The challenge in most organizations is that each one of the executive leaders has a bias towards the department they represent. The CNO is responsible for the nursing staff, the COO is responsible for operations, the CMO is responsible for physicians, the CFO is responsible for the bottom line, and the CEO has so many responsibilities already. No one really represents the patient from the patient’s perspective. When you get down to the director level, the silos are even more focused. Do they care about the patients’ satisfaction? Of course they do, because they are held accountable and some receive profit sharing (bonuses) on patient satisfaction scores. But who owns the entire patient experience? No one.

You might argue, “Everyone owns the patients’ experience.” And my response to that is that really each individual department triages the patient just enough to make them satisfied through the department’s eyes, not the patient’s eyes, and the patient’s eyes see their entire hospital experience as one entity. We’re symptom fighting versus building the entire experience. Is it your fault? Not really. It’s difficult to think experientially when you are held accountable within your department only, and it’s difficult when you don’t have the authority to cut through departmental turf issues.

How do we resolve this?

We advocate that you create an executive position (like a Chief Experience Officer-CXO) to focus on the entire patient experience and to map out that experience. This person would bring together department heads monthly, make sure everyone is on same page of what their individual/department impact is on the patient experience, and evaluate patient satisfaction scores to not just meet expectations but to exceed expectations, one department at a time, each step of the way.

Why is this important enough to budget for?

Along with clinical excellence and financial stability, healthcare systems are being ranked and evaluated by objective assessors (satisfaction, “how did it make you feel?” questions) in hospital surveys, H-CAHPS, Gallup, Press Ganey, and online sites.

Each and every way that a patient (and their family) touches your organization becomes part of the "patient experience." But who ultimately owns that experience? All too frequently there are many "chiefs," but no one specific person who can cut through departmental turf issues and truly improve quality and efficiency all on behalf of patients… who can do this in your hospital?
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Knowing Your Customer

There’s a hotel chain in California that takes the time to understand their customers preferences and tastes, matches paintings displayed and music played to fit that customer. Spas do that. What can you do to customize your product or service to your customer?

Let me give you some examples:

Example #1: When I stay at a Ritz-Carlton for a business conference, and set the alarm clock to wake up to the radio-- it doesn’t play rap music and isn’t on a Spanish-speaking station. The Marriott, Hyatt and Sheraton are not like this. They haven’t thought about these customer profile preference details. The radio stations are usually left on the station of whoever cleans the room.

Example #2: When I go to Hertz to rent a car, it is set ideally for the demographic of whoever rents that type of car… mine is business account through the company. When I rent a car from Dollar, I get the favorite station of the person who cleaned or drove the car, and it is usually set for a music genre and a volume that is would not fit my business profile.

Also, rental car companies need to provide a hanger for your suit coat and an umbrella on rainy days. How expensive is a wire hanger? What if you had a box of hangers at the rental car location for business people?
The rental car radio could be set at:
Level 1- a variety of pre-set music
Level 2- ask me my preferences, and when the car gets washed, pre-set the radio stations to my preferences

Example #3: The other day, I went to Sbarro for breakfast at the airport, and the bacon wasn’t done. I asked if they could cook it more, and they said “no”…. just a flat-out “No, we don’t that.” “Would you like sausage instead?” I said “no, thanks.” I took my business elsewhere. Then, when I finally sat down to enjoy my breakfast in the food court area, there were two baggage handlers with the volume way up on their radios (walkie-talkies) blaring and disrupting everyone else. They weren’t even listening to the radios and raised the volume of their voices to talk over the blaring. Anxious to get out of there, I quickly finished my meal and headed to my gate. The Southwest flight was peaceful. The flight attendants smile, have fun, chitchat with you, and remember if you want cream with your coffee. It was like night and day from what I had experienced earlier that morning.

Southwest knows their customers have busy, hectic lives and that travel can be stressful, so they do their best to make it a relaxing, enjoyable experience for their customers.

Again, what can you do to customize your product or service to your customers?
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Slang: To Use It or Not to Use It? That is the Question.

Getting your staff to say I'm sorry is key when they make a mistake. Baby boomers make up the majority of the customers in the US today. They don't know or appreciate the current slang, jive or acronyms. Today's workforce, however, is made up of a lot of young people who have not been explicitly told how to say good morning, you're welcome, or how to apologize... It's not "Wassup?"; it's "Good morning", "Good afternoon", and "Good evening". It's not "See ya!"; it's "Thank you for choosing our business; have a good day". And most importantly, when you make an honest mistake, apologize with a sincere "I'm sorry", not "My bad". Or even better, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience", and do something to plus it up. Check to see if this is in your new employee orientation program.

Please also refer to our podcast on this subject, "The Value of Saying I'm Sorry"
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How do You Train People to be Sincere and Caring?

Hello!



Wonderful idea you are exploring (in your previous blog, “Job Tasks vs. their Role in Customer Experience”). I find the most genuine sentiments come from staff from which this is least expected. They see the big picture because they are not overwhelmed by the details. The idea that you can train them to act positively is just great. And what a concept... including them on the team and making them aware of the mission.


Here's a case in point... I had to give a presentation to be webcast firm-wide with another lawyer that I am challenged with, and was a mess over it. I was in the office late on a Friday night with paper spread all over my desk with the look of desperation on my face. The guy whose "job" it is to pick up the garbage stood in my doorway and asked, "What's the matter, girly?" I explained my dilemma, and he put his hand on his hip and said, "Girly, all you got to do is smile, don't you know that?" Fixed! There's something though in the fact that this guy and his team have no political agenda. We believe them because there is nothing in it for them. How do you train people to be sincere and caring? Seems to me that they either have it, or don't. But then again, it works at Disney, doesn't it?


Ms. JP


A Law Firm in New York State

Dear Ms. JP:

How do you train people to be sincere and caring? Well, that’s a long answer, but here is my response.

First, I think you are right, the people who have it will always have it. For the rest of us multi-tasking, overachievers, you need to first build clear, unambiguous expectations from the customer’s perspective.

Build it clearly, coach the murkiness out of it, catch them doing it right more that wrong, and share how their behavior/attitude makes an impact on customers and other team members. In short: Define what you want, reward it when you see it, and hold them accountable when you don’t.

The greatest problem I see in this success formula is not defining what you want clearly enough (i.e. “Jim, you need to be nicer to clients…” -Huh?)

The Golden Rule

I hate the Golden Rule (do onto others as you’d like done onto yourself). Why? Well, if I treat others like I want to be treated, then I’m assuming they’re just like me, growing up on Lake Ontario with Irish/German parents, 6 brothers and sisters, a grandma, dog, and two cats.

I will never forget my first day on the job at Wegmans Supermarket. I was 16 years old. The phone rang in the produce department, I picked it up and it was for my co-worker, Tony. Instead walking 75 feet to tell Tony he had a phone call, I yelled across the store, “TONY, TELEPHONE!”

My boss was appalled - “Jake! What are you doing?” “What?” I asked. “That’s what we do in my house. I was doing what you told me in employee orientation, you know, the golden rule.” He took time to explain not only the desired behavior he wanted, but also that customers have a choice in supermarkets. The product we sold was common, our customers could go anywhere, so where we differentiated from other supermarkets was our great service. Our customers demanded great service and courtesy behaviors from me and everyone in the store, or they would take their business across the street. My behaviors had impact.

I did not see it then as clearly as I see it now, but he was a great manager for taking the time to explain it to me in those terms.

Favorable & Forbidden Phrases & Behaviors

I think most front-line staff can be groomed to be sincere if given a choice between what I call the Favorable and Forbidden Phrases and Behaviors. You learn this very fast at Disney; their culture is very explicit. Yet most companies don’t teach this because they think it just common sense. It may be common sense, it’s just not common practice.

• Never say, “That’s not my problem.”
  Instead, say, “Let me find someone who is responsible for that so they can help you.”
  
• Never say, “I don’t know.”
  Instead, say, “I don’t know, but let me find out for you.” (And if you do this, and someone asks again, you may know for next time.)
  
• Avoid looking at your watch, rolling your eyes, or pen clicking.
  Instead, sit or kneel so you are at the same level, look at the customer in the eye, smile and speak warmly.

The list goes on.

Most companies don’t have this kind of list, or if they do, they do not use it to train their employees. Typically, if an organization has this type of list, it doesn’t outline the favorable, only the forbidden.

We are one of the few firms who consider this a great client differentiator, and when we share this with front-line staff, this “no brainer” list actually helps build pride and team accountability.
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Elevating Job Tasks to Include Job Roles:"We Provide Food That Heals"

Recently I trained the Food and Nutrition team at a hospital in New York State. As we mapped out each staff interaction with the average inpatient, it was amazing to see how many times they had an opportunity to impact the patient experience. Looking at the touchpoint map, a huge epiphany arose - This Food and Nutrition team actually interacts more consistentlywith the average patient than any other one employee in the hospital - perhaps even nurses - so shame on us if we do not form a relationship with them!

Realizing this, I asked, “Do the people who deliver food in your hospital know they are a part of the care team?”

“What do you mean?”



“Well, doesn’t the food you serve provide a level of comfort for most patients? Does a good meal, served by a warm, friendly employee, have an impact on the patients ability to relax and sleep? Does nutrition and sleep contribute to their overall healing experience? Does great comfort food go a long way in making the patient feel better?”


“Definitely!”


“Do your employees know they have that level of impact? Is that communicated to them on an ongoing basis?”


“... No.”

Most of the Food and Nutrition employees who interact with patients are called “Tray Passers;” that is their title, and that is their job task, to pass food trays to the patient. But considering how often they interact with patients, is that their role in the healing experience?

When I worked for Disney’s Epcot Center theme park, we worked to change two employee job titles to more accurately reflect their role in the customer experience as opposed to just their job tasks. These positions were Ticket Seller and Ticket Taker.

The Ticket Seller was doing just that, selling theme park tickets for exactly what guests asked for (“Four 5-day passes, please.”). But at Disney, it’s much more than that. They needed to help guests plan vacations, not just sell tickets. Staff needed to provide expert advice on how many days to play at the parks, and perhaps even recommend a day off at a water park or by the pool to relax - thus, “Ticket Sellers” became “Disney Vacation Planners”. Their job tasks still included selling theme park tickets, but their role in the guest experience is to help families create magical Disney memories (not just generate maximum revenue).

Many times the Disney Ticket Takers at the front gate of each park are the visiting guests’ very first touchpoint - they set the tone for each guest experience. Sure, they take your ticket, but we needed to challenge them to create an “awesome arrivals” for each and every family. They could do this by welcoming you to the park, complimenting your Mickey Mouse shirt, and congratulating your daughter who’s wearing a “happy birthday” pin. At the end of the day, we wanted to create, “Fond Farewells” by asking staff to thank you for visiting Walt Disney World, ask if you had a great day, and remind you to buckle up, drive safely, and return to us soon. This team was also our last line of defense for service recovery. Because of this, we change their job title from “Ticket Takers” to “Official Walt Disney World Greeters”.

This is what we’re trying to do with Hospital Tray Passers. They don’t just deliver food trays to a “frequent faller in room 402,” they provide sustenance to Mrs. Smith and her daughter, Judy, in room 402. Their food enables the healing process. They are essential in creating a comfortable and caring environment for patients. They are a part of the care team. At the end of the day they should proudly say, “We provide food that heals,” not “We just pass trays!”
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The Importance of Service Recovery

Whether you’re a sales person following up on a catered event, a waiter following up on a meal, or a nurse following up on a patient – be careful what you ask for! Many organizations have scripted “standard operating procedure” responses for employees following up services such as “How was your meal?” or “How was the event?” The problem is, you’re not prepared for any response except, “Great!”

*Names have been omitted to protect the guilty.

Yesterday I needed to pick up diet soda, portabella mushrooms, a red pepper, and some bread. There are three grocery stores equidistant from my house, and I chose the one that is a little cleaner and has a better produce selection. The store was clean, the produce selection excellent, and the staff was friendly. All in all it was a good experience.

As I was checking out, the cashier asked, “Did you find everything okay?” and I mentioned that actually they were out of diet cola and I had had to get caffeine-free diet cola. His response was a very polite, “Oh,” and then he asked if I’d like to donate to the March of Dimes. I hesitated, thinking this was an odd response to my complaint, and even the cashier got a little embarrassed and said, “Yeah, we don’t have your diet soda and now we’re asking you to spend even more money.”

Where did they fail?

Every time I visit this specific grocery store, the cashier asks if I’ve found everything okay. I always answer, “yes,” and feel good that they’ve asked me – I think “this company values customer satisfaction so much that they ask every single customer if their needs have been met. That’s great!”

But when the customer answers, “no,” there’s nothing in place for the cashier to do or say to manage my expectations. I would have had a completely different experience if instead of, “oh,” the cashier had responded, “The diet soda is out? I’m sorry. Would you mind waiting a minute so that I can get someone to check in the back for you?” If I had received that response, I would be telling people about how amazing my portabella mushroom, red pepper, and mozzarella cheese sandwiches (with diet soda) were, instead of about how this grocery store would like you to be satisfied, but doesn’t do anything about it when you don’t “find everything okay.”

The Importance of Service Recovery

This grocery store has taken a great first step to customer satisfaction – just by asking or scripting the question as part of the checkout process. Customers don’t like to complain. In fact, research has shown that close to 94% of your dissatisfied customers will leave without letting you know why – but they’ll definitely tell their story to their friends and family. If you don’t know why customers are dissatisfied, you can’t fix the problem. This grocery store has started on the right path by simply asking each customer if they are satisfied.

But they’ve failed miserably in the next step – service recovery. They have not empowered their front-line employees with knowledge and steps to take if the customer answers, “no.” The customer was first feeling frustrated, and now they are angry because an employee knows they are dissatisfied but has done nothing to resolve the issue. (Don’t ask if you’re not going to do anything about it!)

When your front-line employees are empowered with a service recovery plan for dissatisfied customers, you can quickly and easily convert a frustrated customer (“There was no diet soda.”) into a pleasantly surprised customer (“I can’t believe they went to the back to get it for me.”). That’s how you increase customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, that’s how you create loyalty.

Coming Soon!

Part 2 – Elevating Service Recovery to “Wow!”
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HCAHPS

This week I have received numerous phone calls from healthcare administrators and board members, all with the same topic in mind: HCAHPS.

Survey results from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & Systems, or HCAHPS, are going public starting April 1st. What this means for our healthcare clients is potential patients and staff may look at their hospital HCAHPS scores online to decide whether or not to entrust in that hospital with their well-being. Leading to this week’s big question: “How do I get my arms around HCAHPS?”

The second big question is “What do I say to the media, my board, and the community about how we’re going to raise these scores? I need an HCAHPS strategy today!”

Fortunately for them, we at ILS have a plan to improve HCAHPS scores, to accomplish both short- and long-term goals. For short-term goals, our first steps are to identify quick fixes in your organization that will directly impact your HCAHPS scores. We will interpret the data (not over-analyze it) to keep your focus on the low-hanging fruit.

*Leadership Schizophrenia When your manager leaves a leadership meeting on a “hot” topic, and then comes back to the department team and says, “Drop everything! I have a new directive from the top... we now need to focus on this new thing...” The staff asks, “What about last week’s directive? That was so important.” The boss replies, “Yeah, that’s important, but this is even more important now!” and everyone’s shoulders shrug in unison.

The worst thing we could do is to perpetuate the greatest problem I see in healthcare leadership today- *Leadership Schizophrenia (LS). After each quick fix, we need a discussion on sustainability before we go onto the next quick fix, otherwise LS sets in.

For long-term goals, we build a strategic implementation phase, where we cater to the needs of our clients: we can either do all the work, guide you to do all the work, or we can work together. Focusing on the long-term, we can also help you hardwire the processes to continually improve your survey scores and your hospital-wide patient experience.

If you’d like more information, check out our brochure on Improving Your HCAHPS Results or contact us.
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First Day of Work... Nightmare or Success?

Has this ever happened to you? You’re excited about your new job, and you show up on your first day of work only to be greeted with, “Who are you?” or maybe “Here, throw on this uniform and get working!”

This “welcome” of new employees speaks volumes about your organization and how it treats its customers. How you treat your employees is how they will treat your customers. Therefore, it is vital to have some form of a new employee orientation to indoctrinate them into the culture, the story (history), the basic principles, the organizational language, and to share the organization’s mission, vision, and values. For large companies, it needs to be formal, but even small companies should have some form of orientation. When else do you have an opportunity to set the tone and share this stuff?

What do you think is the #1 goal of new hire orientation?

The answer may not be your first thought... It is to make new hires feel welcome. They should feel like you’ve been expecting them. They should feel like they are important and special, and a new member of your family. The return on this investment in your #1 asset is substantial.
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Service Recovery

After nearly 20 years with the Walt Disney Company in Orlando and in Paris, France, Service Recovery has become second nature to me, and I am never surprised anymore. Boy, I could tell you stories!

Over those years of helping to entertain 25-35 million people a year, what I learned most from the Mouse was this: at the end of the day, what story did that guest end up telling when they got home? Guests intending to return or influence others to visit was the holy grail to Disney executives.

Sure, everyone makes mistakes, that's human. But how do you solicit those mistakes and rectify them so that the story is now possibly better than if there were no mistake at all?

The very worst thing that can occur in any one guest experience is a bad experience story being told over and over again.

A very close second to that bad experience is nothing at all. Where the experience is so luke warm that when someone asks, "How was your flight?" you reply, "Uneventful". You might have been speaking about the lack of weather delays, lost baggage, or the lack of any personal attention to detail. “Uneventful” does not create loyalty and does not drive return visits or intent to refer new business.

So, how do you find your mistakes?

Most people don't take the time to write a letter or complain at all... 7 out of 10 people leave your business without telling you why.

*The Manager Drive-By When the manager walks by your table, and right in the middle of your romantic conversation asks, "Is everything all right?" You reply, "Sure!" and then you ask your wife, "Who was that guy in a tie?” If they really wanted to know about my meal and the wait staff service level, they would have introduced themselves and asked some specific questions about us and our experience.

How do you seek out complaints? Now that is an art. No one was better at that than George Miliotes, previous GM of Disney's California Grill in Orlando. Instead of doing the manager drive-by*, George would first introduce himself as the GM and ask for permission to ask about the meal. He would kneel at eye level, spend less than 30 seconds, ask three very specific questions about your food, the wine, and the wait staff. And then he would solve or help fix any concerns. His goal in service recovery was not satisfaction, it was advocacy.

At every pre-shift meeting he would ask the staff to share the “guest situations” from the previous night’s meals, but would ask them not to share how they fixed it until the rest of the staff could brainstorm possible solutions. This created a safe environment to share mistakes and create terrific recoveries. George thought a small percentage of service recovery was a healthy piece of business. He found that a significant amount of his most loyal customers and those who refer the most business, first started out as “a complaining guest in his restaurant.”

If your customers go home mad, it is not only too late, but they will tell many people their story. If you can catch them before they leave you, fix it, and make it better - Now they’re telling your story!
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