Guest Blogger Jeanne Bliss: Decide to Believe -- The First Decision of Beloved and Prosperous Companies
Beloved companies decide differently than everybody else. Acutely aware of how their every action impacts how customers feel and respond to them, they take the time to make purposeful decisions about the contacts they have with customers.
First and foremost, the beloved companies decided to believe. They believe their customers and they believe their employees. And they practice this first by suspending cynicism. Trust and belief are cornerstones of their relationships. By deciding to trust customers, they are freed from extra rules policies and layers of bureaucracy that create a barrier between them and their customers. And by deciding to believe that employees can and will do the right thing, second guessing, reviewing every action, and the diminishing ability of employees to think on their feet is replaced with shared energy, ideas, and a desire to stick around.
Griffin Hospital, a regional hospital in Connecticut decides to believe. They develop healthcare workers' natural instinct for an open and honest patient relationship. They herald and nurture this instinct, to the point of overturning time-honored policies that protect hospitals.
One example is their decision to open up medical records to patients and family members who would benefit from seeing patient records, at the risk of potential legal liability. Griffin Hospital made a decision to believe in the goodness of families. Within the guarded healthcare industry, Griffin chose to be guided by relationships of trust. Compare that to other guarded industries, such as financial services, which have a track record of keeping the rules sketchy and details of their relationships buried in fine print.
When Griffin Hospital decided to make medical records available to patients and their families worried doctors feared that patients armed with this information would fuel an increase in lawsuits. The total opposite occurred: this decision reduced malpractice claims. Patients and families fell into partnership with the medical staff. After Griffin Hospital granted patients and their families' access to their medical records, malpractice claims against the hospital dropped by more than 43 percent--from 32 percent in 1996, before the policy was enacted, to 18 percent in 2005. It's noteworthy to add that this reduction in claims dropped during a period of great growth for Griffin Hospital. Patient discharges rose 40 percent during that period, an increase that usually carries an increase in claims. This decision stopped that cycle. Trusting patients with their own records grew patient belief in Griffin Hospital, and ultimately contributed to its growth. Griffin earned an 80 percent referral rate from customers who participated in this new decision.
The companies most beloved by customers put everything out in the open. Releasing the control factors that pen people in inspires the imagination of their staffs to do their best work because they are entrusted to come up with solutions on their own. Not surprisingly, people want to work for companies who celebrate and encourage their natural tendencies for helping customers. Trust and belief are the foundation.
What gesture can you make to show customers you trust them; that you believe trust is reciprocated? Are you transparent with your customers?
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Jeanne Bliss is managing partner of Customer Bliss and author of I Love You More Than My Dog: Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad.
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Toni,
Thank you so much for telling this story! It is a wonderful thing, suspending cynicism...isn't it?
I bet that the word-of-mouth that you have received from these gestures is building your business. The story being told about you and the kind of people you are because of these actions is priceless.
I also love your story because you explain not only how you believed in the goodness of customers, but also how to say "sorry." This is the fifth decision of beloved companies outlined in my new book. The five decisions are:
1. Decide to Believe
2. Decide with Clarity of Purpose
3. Decide to Be Real
4. Decide to Be There
5. Decide to Say Sorry
What your story proved out is that do the apology well, you need to be able to make all of the decisions that lead up to it, which you did. You believe in your customers and that belief is reciprocal. You have clarity in your higher purpose in customers' lives. You were humble and genuine (real)in your communication. You decided to be there by requiring that the acoustics be perfect, or else make up for it some way. And finally, you did the apology well.
Bravo!!
Jeanne,
I could not agree with you more about trusting and believing in your customers.
Recently we presented a world-class vocalist whose audio technical team had great difficulty in adjusting to the fine acoustics of our concert hall. The poor quality of the sound could not be missed, giving us a choice - ignore the problem, after all don't people expect that not all concerts will be perfect - or send a personal letter to all ticket holders explaining what happened and apologizing for the experience. Not an easy decision since sending a letter admitting "guilt" could open up the flood gates for refund requests.
We chose to trust and believe that our customers would welcome and accept the apology without asking for refunds...we were right. The only feedback we have received has been to thank us for the letter along with promises to return for future events.
If you are wondering, this is the third time we have taken this approach with the same results each time. I encourage others to have the courage to believe, I don't think you will be disappointed.
Toni Hendrix - Chief Customer Officer - NJPAC