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Hospital Patients Are Irrational? No Kidding!
Author: Bill Cusick
January 30, 2009
In “shocking” news, it seems that hospital patients are just as or more concerned about their comfort and amenities as they are about the tests or procedures they undergo: http://www.healthbeatblog.com/2009/01/the-amenities-race-are-patients-irrational.html.
Are patients “irrational” for wanting a bright, cheerful room with a view, or bedside internet access?
I don’t think so.
Patients, after all, often have little understanding of just what the medical personnel are doing to them during a hospital stay. What is the IV for? Why do you need to do that test? It creates a tremendous amount of anxiety, even in the best of institutions.
Why wouldn’t a patient (or any customer, for that matter) want to be treated well, to be comfortable, to feel cared for? We are all irrational, emotional animals. I say “good work” to those organizations that recognize that and try to shape experiences accordingly.
Follow Bill on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bill1vox
Expectations Are Important, Right?
Author: Peggy Entrop
January 29, 2009
My best friend’s older brother graduated from high school 2 years early and went to Harvard on a full-ride scholarship. He is now an international financial advisor, living abroad. Her younger sister has a degree in physics from MIT. But, sadly, my friend *ONLY* became an architect.
We laugh about this a lot, because I consider her to be very successful, but she often comments on having middle-child syndrome.
How hard do you have to try, then? Is there a minimum standard of success that applies to everyone, across the board?
In the U.S. hotel industry, the system seems a little bit more clear-cut. There are seemingly endless websites filled with customer feedback and ubiquitous star-ratings. But how does all that translate into expectations?
What are your expectations when you visit a hotel with a low star rating?
One hotel in New York claims that since they are a 1-star hotel, they shouldn’t be criticized for having “1-star standards” (like dead bodies and filthy rooms). “What do you expect for $99.23 a night?”
But, if you talk to some people that regularly stay at 5-star hotels, their expectations may seem so astronomical that no hotel could ever exceed them.
How important is it, then, to realize that all businesses aren’t judged by the same standards. You have to understand what your customers expect and exceed those expectations consistently.
Applebee’s is Reaching Out!
Author: Peggy Entrop
January 28, 2009
I am a regular online TV watcher. And a big fan of ABC’s programming. As I was recently catching up on the last season of Lost on ABC.com, I ran across a really great online commercial from Applebee’s! The commercial itself was sort of your run-of-the-mill Applebee’s commercial, but in the corner, they ask for customer feedback! Right in the Ad!
The ads on ABC.com and other major networks are often interactive. Target’s ads have (sort of pointless, but fun) games you can play while you wait for the next section of video to load. Many companies have links to various bits of information about their products. But, Applebee’s used this forum to reach out to their customers!
What a great use of ad space. Good job, Applebee’s.
Marriott vs. Hilton: Customer Satisfaction or Self-Satisfaction?
Author: Ryan Cleek
January 27, 2009
In response to my previous post, 3 Common Problems With Satisfaction Surveys, I received forwarded emails from Marriott Rewards and Hilton HHonors members. Both Marriott and Hilton are competing for the rank of Best Hotel Program in the Freddie Awards. So, each company sent emails in an attempt to convince customers to vote for them.
Here’s a summary:
- Marriott says they have quick service, mobile access, better points redemption, and more flexibility
- Hilton offers free nights with no blackout dates, and claims to have more awards from J.D. Power and Associates
- I don’t care. Not even a little bit
The real question is: why should we, the customers, take the time to vote? Personally, I can’t think of a single reason. As a customer, I expect and tolerate marketing materials because that’s what companies do, and because it shows that they value my business. But these emails aren’t asking for my business, they’re asking for a favor.
Why should I rate you a 10?
- What do I get in return?
- How will your program improve if you win?
- Will prices go down?
Fun fact about the author:
I only give money to panhandlers who impress me with wit, talent, or ingenuity.
Why the Nice Factor Matters
Author: Jeannie Walters
January 26, 2009
A few months ago, I started parking at a cash-only lot down the street. It was ok, but the parking attendant was somewhat grumpy and I didn’t always feel good about parking there. Something was, I don’t know, unsettling. I would park there when I didn’t have other options, but usually I avoided it.
Recently, a big sign promoted “Under New Management,” and I tried it out again. Same price (and a recent increase) but the whole experience is better. I thought about it today on my walk to the office. It comes down to the guy. He greets me with a smile, says, “Good Morning,” and is generally pleasant.
That’s enough. It’s earned my loyalty. He is happy to have my business, and it shows. It’s not a process or a system - it’s a smile. And sometimes, that’s all it takes.
The Humanity of Technology
Author: Bill Cusick
January 22, 2009
When I sat down at the Starbucks just outside Chicago to get some work done today, I noticed the person at the next table had a big loopy smile on his face, and was gesticulating wildly, waving, tapping his chest and shaking his head up and down and side to side. Of course, if you’re anywhere close to a big city, this is usually a sign that you want to move away quickly while avoiding eye contact.
Upon further observation, I realized the patron at the next table, a young man, was happily communicating via sign language through his webcam on his wireless laptop. He seemed to be oblivious to his surroundings, or the curious glances of passers-by like me (who should get a life). It was, I think, a really neat example of just what technology is capable of in the right hands. This wasn’t about efficiency or productivity, or even social media in the larger sense. It was simply connecting two people in a very real and emotional way who otherwise would not have the chance.
How cool.
We work with clients everyday that are trying to make connections with their customers using, among other things, technology. We all should keep in mind the incredible potential of making those connections in ways that create not just efficient, logical transactions, but valuable, emotional relationships.
Why Are My Customers So Emotional?
Author: Peggy Entrop
January 21, 2009
Do you sometimes wish your customers would act more logically?
If they could just be less emotional, they would choose your bank, or buy your hamburgers, because it is the best choice, right?
Well, on my way to work this morning, I was catching up on my favorite podcast, Radiolab, and they explored this idea. Radiolab is a fantastic public radio podcast out of WNYC that explores various scientific questions and makes the answers accessible to the non-science community.
The podcast in question was all about Choice. Why do we choose the things we choose? How does our brain chemistry affect our choices? What if we could remove emotion from the equation? And what they found was that without emotion, our ability to even MAKE a decision is impaired. It is not that we choose more rationally, but that we lose the ability to choose at all.
I think the point is that emotion is an essential, fundamental part of who we are and how we interact with the world around us. Knowing that, how does your company emotionally connect with customers?
You can listen to the podcast here, and ponder these things.
Belkin puts a price on its Customer Experience: 65 Cents
Author: Luis Serpa
January 20, 2009
Some companies may say that a good experience is priceless, but it seems that someone at Belkin really thought that he could get a few good experiences for a lot less and now the company is paying a steep price to recover their customers’ trust.
The (dumb) idea was simple in concept: use Amazon’s Mechanical Turk Cloud Service to recruit “reviewers” for Belkin’s products. The hired reviewers’ task was pretty simple: give the highest possible rating available to the products as if they had bought them. The price tag for each review: just 65 cents! (see full description of the offer in the image below)
The history was first published by The Daily Background and then reported on TechCrunch. Looks like it was all the action of a Business Development Representative named Michael Bayard and not a company-wide strategy, but the damage it caused is still the same. After the spread of the article through the web, Belkin posted a reply taking action to fix the situation without denying or explaining how it happened in the first place.
The point of story here should be obvious but I will spell it out it anyway: A good Customer Experience CAN’T be produced artificially! It is always the result of good services and care provided to your customers and the results you get will always mirror your real intentions. Alienated and wronged customers usually spread the word pretty fast. The whole incident is being called now “The Mechanical Turk Shilling” and the negative comments about it on the Blogosphere and twitter have been growing exponentially since Saturday.
I am betting that Belkin will be paying way more than 65 cents now to fix the situation, and nothing guarantees that their product reviews will ever be totally trusted again…
Bank of America: Your Customers Are Talking. Are You Listening?
Author: Jeannie Walters
January 19, 2009
Any given day on Twitter, there is discussion about customer experience. Typically, it’s bad. Bad tweets about bad experiences on the phone with customer service people, standing in line for problems that shouldn’t have happened to begin with, bad bills, bad fees, bad bad bad!
Recently, a heated discussion spread across the Twittersphere thanks to Laura Fitton’s (pistachio) post about her experience with Bank of America. A series of Fitton’s frustrated tweets about fees, broken online banking and customer service disrespect led other customers to share their own harrowing tales. Oh, and all of these posted with the searchable hashtag #BOA for all to see and search.
It should be noted that Fitton is a force on Twitter. With more than 15,000 followers, she has influence in pretty much every industry across social media. She’s also seen as an expert on microblogging - the very thing Twitter is used for - and helps all of us get it right.
Eventually, the rant ended with this tweet from Laura: “while still savagely frustrated with BOA’s fees/long check holds/other cust service snafus, i gotta hand it to @bofa_help for jumping in.”
So, eventually, after literally 100’s of people posted about their own terrible experiences and 1000’s of people watched this unfold, a BOA representative on Twitter got wind of the trouble and reached out directly to Laura. This type of personal outreach can do a lot to solve a singular customer issue. But by then, untold damage had been suffered to the brand.
There are many blogs about how to use Twitter to monitor brand reputation. This isn’t one of them. The conversation on Twitter or blogs or Facebook does not just happen there. It happens with your customer service reps on the phones, with your branch managers and tellers, and with your customers who take the time (and are so angry) to actually write via your web site or even snail mail to the CEO.
What is Bank of America doing to listen elsewhere? And how are they addressing the perception of high fees without appropriate levels of service?
I would say a careful examination of their current customer experience is in order.
Give Your Ideas Directly to the President
Author: Luis Serpa
January 16, 2009
Everyone has been talking about how Obama’s campaign used the power of Social Networks and the Internet. There’s also been a lot of buzz around how the same concepts and innovations could be used to improve the effectiveness of his presidency and turn it into a truly participative democracy.
The expectations around what the Transition Team will do is very high, but bit by bit they’ve been testing new concepts and ideas, showing again that they DO get what Web 2.0 is all about and that there’s definitely a plan to use it as a major tool for change.
First they virtually invited citizens to participate in Transition Team’s meetings with the Your Seat at the Table policy and now they are raising the stakes even more with the new Citizen’s Briefing Book initiative.
The Citizen Briefing Book is basically an online forum for citizens to send ideas and, at the same time, discuss and rate these ideas. The best ideas (based on rates and comments) will rise to the top of the list and will be printed in the Briefing Book that President Barrack Obama gets from his experts and advisors for his analysis.
Both mentioned initiatives have very simple concepts and are based on examples of Social Media, CrowdSourcing and Social Bookmarking already available online in sites like Amazon, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Digg, Stumbleupon and several others. So the ideas may not be totally new, but the scale and possible impact to the whole society is immense.
Just as a social experiment, these efforts will certainly bring new findings on users’ behavior and crowd psychology that will help companies understand and improve their online customer experience and, above all, will represent an invaluable potential for change.
