When you interact with the people you serve with the positive attitude that can come from seeing them as your next paycheck, you are more likely to see them again. Loyalty is the measure of success even in healthcare. There is enough repeat business, even without sickness, because we are a monitoring society. We have regular checkups and screenings. Most organizations don't take the time to measure this information.
Gitomer points out that the value of a customer is 20 times his or her annual sales volume. For example, a customer who buys $10,000 a year is worth $200,000 over a lifetime. It's important to keep educating and servicing the people you serve. If you can get your customer feeling really good about you, he or she is going to tell other people about you, and you will expand your network.
I recently had a wonderful experience with Enterprise when I was traveling on the West Coast. I absentmindedly left my purse on my seat on the plane. When I landed and went to get money out of my wallet, it was gone. I found myself in San Francisco with no identification, something today no one wants to be without; no money, another thing no one wants to be without; and no credit card. I was in a state of panic and turned to my sister and husband, who were able to keep their heads level while I was about to lose mine.
I will never rent a car from anyone else but Enterprise, and I will never do my banking with anyone else but Bank of America. They have won me for life, and I will tell everyone I meet what great organizations they are. Word-of-mouth advertising is 50 times more powerful than any other advertising, according to Jeffrey Gitomer. And the way you get that kind of advertising is to WOW your customers. I don't care if I have to pay extra for my rental car; I will use Enterprise. I don't care if I pay more in fees; I will bank with Bank of America. I will recommend them to all my friends and family for the rest of my life because I experienced a WOW.
We often go into businesses that want to quote their company policies. Like the time I bought tile for my kitchen. I had the company send its employee to measure my kitchen and order the tile. The person who measured must have ordered enough tiles to cover my floor with 9-inch tiles (when we were using 12-inch tiles) because we had one whole and part of another box of tiles left over after the job was complete. When I went to return the full box of tiles, the sales clerk wanted to charge me a 20% handling fee. I was upset because the employee had measured the tiles, not I. After a long discussion with two sales clerks and then another discussion with the manager, I was able to get them to see my position. Though I finally got my way, I was not happy, and I would try to get tile anywhere else before I would go back to that place.
I've never had a WOW experience in healthcare. I have had struggles with the clerk at my doctor's office and still go because I like my doctor. But if I could find another doctor I like as well with an outgoing and respectful receptionist who doesn't yell across the waiting room, I would change in a heartbeat. It is only a matter of time until people in healthcare are going to figure out that customers/patients are their paychecks. When that starts happening, some organizations are going to be left in the dust.
To learn more about how to improve your customer service, contact Doris Young at (800) 673-8005 or at Doris@DorisYoungAssociates.com.
