From #empathy to operational excellence

I love sharing stories about people who have got Cusotmer Experience right. This latest story is a corker.

We talk a lot about emotions in customer experience management. We need to recognise and respect the emotions of our customers, both when they start to be a customer and during their time with us.

Our strongest emotions come when we or a loved one is unwell. Visiting a hospital for cancer treatment is fraught with anxiety, fear and sadness. Time in the hospital can compound those feelings.

So believes Wendy Garcarz . To show the impact of a hospital visit, she arranged for cancer patients to walk the new CEO of a hospital trust through their experience at the hospital.

It was an emotional experience for everyone, and the CEO shed more than one tear as he recognised the way touchpoints heightened negative emotions. As you probably expect, the staff were amazing and did everything they could to reassure patients. So what was wrong?

It was seemingly minor things. Things that made sense from an operations perspective magnified stress and anxiety. The patients were moved from clinic to clinic, going through a new reception each time and when they got to their treatment there was a bottle neck. You might expect too few nurses, perhaps an expensive piece of equipment was over booked. But no, it was much simpler than that.

There were not enough seats. It really can be the ‘little things’ that matter.

If you have ever wondered about the power of seeing your organisation through your customer’s eyes, this is it. A quick solution – more seats. A longer-term project to reduce the number of transfers and the need to say ‘I have cancer’. An opportunity to ask staff why they hadn’t raised either of these issues and engage them in the improvement of the patient experience.

You may also notice that the longer-term project had the potential to cut costs too.

I’ve only just met Wendy Garcarz , but I already know she is someone I want to know and learn from.

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I’m Michelle Spaul and I regularly post on LinkedIn to share thoughts and insights about #CustomerExperience and #BusinessGrowth.

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