On a recent visit to a surgeon’s office our family encountered some interesting behavior on the part of the physician.

• He spoke too rapidly. He even knew he was doing this because he asked us to stop him if he was going too fast for us.
• He reached for and checked his beeper twice during the meeting with my family minimizing the importance of our situation.
• Despite the fact that it took over a week to get lab results back, he was unapologetic citing the recent holiday as the excuse for the delay.
• He required that the patient call for the results of her biopsy rather than scheduling her for an appointment in the office. This took away the patient’s ability to ask questions that immediately come to mind when they are given a life threatening diagnosis – like “Am I going to die from this?”  
• His staff was surly and dispassionate despite the fact that they knew they were dealing with a patient who had just been diagnosed with cancer.

Is it any wonder that this surgeon was not chosen as my family member’s surgeon? 

Here are some of the things this type of behavior invites into a medical practice:

• Loss of current business
• Loss of future business because of poor word-of-mouth advertising in the community where many people ask friends and neighbors for doctor referrals
• The establishment of an adversarial rather than a cooperative relationship with the patient, doctor, and their staff
• Poor patient outcomes due to confusion, misunderstanding, and lack of information
• Possible malpractice suits

No matter what industry you’re in, the cornerstones of any solid customer service program – communication, compassion, patience, and understanding are critical. This is especially true in the health care environment. As consumers we know this to be true not only on the macro level of understanding the intentions of our elected officials to revamp our healthcare system, but also on the micro level of our doctor’s offices.

Hmmmm…let me see. If I were a physician I would prescribe taking two doses of compassion…and call me in the morning.

I, too, am guilty. The minute we see an email, text, tweet  or other form of correspondence from work, we immediately go back into “work-mode.” Those messages from the office start a chain reaction of worry and dread. With so many Americans concerned about the security of their jobs, it’s easy to understand why the old cliché “out of sight, out of mind” is so popular. If we are at least emailing and texting, we’re present and accounted for, right?  Seems that Americans will do whatever they have to in order to protect their jobs even if it means compromising their health and relationships. The popular trend right now is to take long weekends, but does this approach really allow us to relax and let go? Somehow I doubt it, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

But let’s look at the benefits of really taking time off from work and fully enjoying our vacation days:

• Reconnecting with family and those we love
• Reduced stress
• Improved creativity
• Improved job performance
• Burnout prevention
• Reestablishing priorities
• Creating vacation memories for our children
• Treating our customers better

As CEOs, managers, and supervisors, it is our responsibility to set the example for our employees. We need to let them know that it is not only okay for them to take time off from work, it is highly encouraged. If you haven’t had a vacation in a while, maybe it’s time you scheduled one. While you’re at it, schedule the next one, too. You’ll be ahead of the game and maybe even get a better rate for the flight.

Now if you’ll please excuse me, I need to hop online to see if there are any good vacation deals going on out there right now…I hear the beach calling!

This self-service practice, seemingly everywhere, saves money for the companies who pay fewer employees to deal with customer concerns, but what does it do for customers? “I went into a store where I’ve shopped for years and found new management,” a busy woman said. She’d stopped in, planning to buy a baby gift for a friend having twins, but she couldn’t find what she wanted and none of the employees offered to help. “I finally left because the manager was too busy talking on her cell phone to answer my questions,” she said.

This scenario could be repeated in any chain store coast-to-coast, with profits up and customer service scarce. “But we take care of the customers in my business,” you say. Can you anticipate what a customer may want or recall a service you provided a year ago? The gap between saying you value your customers and demonstrating how you value them is the difference between the customer who migrates elsewhere and the one who takes to heart the notation “we heart our customers.”

What new ways can you show your customers their value?

Of course the experts who haven’t been “out there” have wacky ideas on standing out. One newscaster reminded job hunters to “wear a clean shirt” and “share your experiences about backpacking in the Amazon.” Wait, let’s write that down!

An enterprising job seeker had a better method. The company he’d targeted needed to launch a quarterly newsletter, but they’d left the post open for a year. “I’ll show you how I’d do it if you’ll give me a tryout,” he said. Dubious, the hiring manager agreed to the audition and was instantly impressed. The job seeker showed his immediate worth, drafting a newsletter format and suggesting ways to promote it. His bold move showed the company the value of its newsletter idea – which was upgraded to a weekly edition – and the value of having someone experienced to handle it.

“Show me the money,” Jerry Maguire yelled. More likely, show me the value…of a product, a service, or a better way to go. Your employees illustrate that every day.

Have you paused lately to consider and comment on their value, for the moment and for the future?

“Priceless” – meaning you can’t put a dollar value on it – can apply to everyday experiences, too, from a double rainbow in the summer sky to a brilliant idea for making your business more efficient. Not every idea qualifies as priceless, but the flow of ideas and opinions is an asset no credit card can pay for. When a customer seeks you out with an idea for something he’s thought about, it demonstrates how much he not only values your service but wants to see you do better. An employee’s suggestion tells you she’s thinking on, and off, the job.

You may need to streamline and tweak the ideas you’re offered before putting them into practice, or you may find them naive or impractical for your business. No matter. The value of input by those paying attention to what you do is indeed “priceless.”

What ideas are you hearing that will keep customers, employees, and you smiling?

If value is intangible, especially in business, the memory of value is even more elusive, but is the key to success. A returning customer recalls that he’s been treated well and values the ease of today’s transaction. In a crazy-busy world, the value of that reassurance beats any treasure on Antiques Roadshow. How do your customers rate their repeat experiences with your business?

“That was the story that killed so many magazines,” the author recalls. Every time she sold it to another publication, hopeful that her clever prose would finally appear, it didn’t. Magazines, struggling in a tough economy, dropped fiction pages or ceased publishing. Wondering if perhaps her character was a bit too outrageous, she kept trying. Eventually the story did run in a small magazine. It featured a tall, red-headed private detective who moonlights as a Boston cab driver, plays volleyball and blues guitar, and is in love with a mysterious businessman. Carlotta Carlyle, the offbeat P.I., may have been a tough sell, but she instantly appealed to readers and became the star of Linda Barnes’ ongoing series of mystery novels. Even when a thread of doubt crept in, the author trusted her instincts and stuck with her idea.

When you’re focused on customer service, does uncertainty change your course of action or are you dedicated to letting your own ideas shine?

We may have outgrown the teacher handing out cards and pridefully counting up how many we got, but come February 14, the Valentine’s Day spirit is still in play. This year, how will you remind customers to be your Valentine?

• Send a special email greeting with Valentine’s Day wishes, perhaps including a coupon or voucher to use later.
• Got a storefront or other display opportunity? Make the most of it, with hearts, flowers and an invitation to customers to stop by for a Valentine’s Day treat, hot cider, cookies or chocolates from a satiny heart-shaped box.
• Go old-fashioned and make the Post Office proud: Snail-mail vintage-look Valentine cards to customers, pledging traditional service with contemporary attention to detail.

Connecting with customers any day is good business. But on the day when hearts are open to happy reminders of childhood friendships sealed with a simple, comical card, your thoughtfulness will make the connection, and the customer service, a heartfelt one.

What kinds of things can you do in your business on Valentine’s Day to let your customers know you care?

• If you manage an apartment complex, maybe you could offer to pick up items at the grocery store or pharmacy for some of your senior residents.
• If you manage a bank, maybe you could offer hot cocoa or cider for those who come in to make deposits on the days it snows, or give out ice scrapers at the drive-up window.
• If you manage a retail operation, maybe you could wrap customer packages extra carefully so they make it to the customers car without getting wet or falling in the slush in the parking lot.
•  If you run a child or elder care operation, think about making snow days extra fun with a unique activity that you only do on the days it snows.

There are tons of ways to surprise your customers with that “little something extra”. Snow days are the perfect time to do that because they make us slow down and think about what really matters to our customers.

How can you turn a snow day into a positive customer experience for your customers?

If you are looking to use a mystery shopping company for the first time in your organization, or are considering making a change this year, let me give you a few helpful hints on what to look for in the firm you select.

A mystery shopping company with integrity will follow this code of conduct: 

1. The company you are considering will demonstrate a willingness to spend the time to understand the scope of your project. Just asking a few questions before they give you a quote may not be enough. A firm with integrity will probe to make sure they “get you” and will also offer ideas that you may not have considered for your project.

2. A mystery shopping company with integrity will stand behind their work. A good way to test for this is to see if they offer you a guarantee.

3. Having integrity means that the mystery shopping company has fully disclosed their approach to your project in their contract with you. What? No contract? Demand one so that you are protected by the agreement.

4. A mystery shopping company with integrity is also one that protects your data. They do not change/corrupt the feedback from their field researchers in an attempt to sugar coat your results.

5. Choosing a firm with integrity means that you will experience communication throughout the process, checking in with progress reports, letting you know that things are running smoothly and when they are not. 

When choosing a mystery shopping company, take your time and consider the core values of the firms you are considering. If integrity isn’t one of those values…keep looking!

What does integrity mean to you?