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Don't Forget About the Customer

September 22, 2006

The longer you wait, the harder it is to produce outstanding customer service. ~William H. Davidow

As I am writing this, I am sitting in the hallway of an emergency room of a hospital with my wife on a gurney who has just injured herself in a minor way. As we are waiting for nurses, doctors and technicians to come and assist, we are kept in the total dark as to what they are planning on doing and in what order or when. Not knowing what is going to be coming next is an incredibly scary feeling especially when you are dealing with someone you love. Our apprehension, mainly mine as they gave my wife some meds to make her relax, is just skyrocketing.

I do not have to know exactly what is going to happen but just a rough idea of what this is going to be would have made me feel so much better. I know that the medical staff have a lot on their mind but giving patients or customers an overview of plan would help so much. The medical staff, in my opinion, just forgot the importance of giving the customer or patient information. However, this is not good medicine nor customer service. Just a little bit of communications would have helped so much.

The same day as my trip to the emergency room (some days are just like this); I went to pick up my glasses which I was promised would be in on this day. This was particularly important as I had just lost my glasses and I needed to see to at least write these articles. When I arrived at the doctor’s office to pick them up, I was told that one lens had a scratch on them and had to be sent back for a replacement and it would be another week before I could see again. If they had only let me know that this had happened, I could have dealt with this much easier.

In both of these cases, the medical establishment or business just forgot about the customer and only did their job. Sure businesses, hospitals or clinics have jobs to do, but they must keep the customer informed all the way. When you order a MINI Cooper car, each day you can watch it proceed through the production line as it gets made.

Business is more than doing a job, it is making sure the customer is informed every step of the way. When things go astray is the point where communications are key. At this time you need, more than ever, to communicate to the customer what is happening and how they are going to be affected.

Adequate and timely information is so critical when there are problems delivering product or service to your customers. At this stage the quicker you communicate to the customer the better.

Now go out and make sure you have policies and procedures in place as to deal effectively with customers when there are problems. This, I promise you, will have just a lasting impact.

You can do this!