Are You Telling Customers You Don’t Care If They Die?

Don’t risk ruining your business. Eliminate bureaucracy and focus on your customer.

How have you seen process take primacy over relationship? What techniques do you use to prevent this from happening? Photo by Harry cao on Unsplash.

If you have kids, you know the nauseating feeling of one of them going down for the count and having to rush them to the emergency room. I had that grim experience recently. What I learned from that ER visit is businesses can make very strong statements about how little they care about their customers simply through the processes they use to run the organization.

I’m betting you have a few standard business processes that leave your customers and prospects feeling like you don’t care if they die. First, let’s understand the ER story, then evaluate how it might apply to your organization. Yes, I’m back on the kick of talking about how stupid policies can destroy customer relationships.

My daughter was curled up in a ball on our couch. She was grabbing her stomach and howling in pain. After a quick set of questions, I made the decision to take her to the ER. I’ve done some consulting work in healthcare, so I understand and appreciate that the ER is also a business.

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Comments

This experience was unaccaptable

If there had been an adverse outcome due to loss of time on bureaucracy while somebody was in obvious distress, there are plenty of malpractice lawyers who would have jumped on it and rightly so. I am glad it never came to this but maybe their insurance company should have been informed anyway because it seems there is a risk here. (Not engineering advice, I am not familiar with the health care industry.)

I recall walking into a hotel, walking into a stone wall (that matched the floor, which is why I didn't see it), and falling headlong. When I began to tell this to the person at the check-in counter, she ignored my concern and asked if I wanted to check in even after I informed her I could have hurt myself seriously. (I hadn't expected to fall and I didn't roll with it.) All I had was some bruises, but they need to remember there are also attorneys who specialize in slip-and-fall. I reported it to somebody else who at least seemed to take it seriously.