E-couragement: A Sign of the Times

“Well done is better than well said.” Benjamin Franklin Since 2007, I've journeyed with my wife through stage four metastatic breast cancer. After spending countless hours waiting for appointments, tests, and treatments, we have become reluctant connoisseurs of hospitals and doctor’s offices. I’ve found myself simultaneously grateful and disappointed by our medical industry. I am grateful for the wonderful doctors, nurses, or assistants who seem to wholeheartedly get it and disappointed with an industry that at times appears clueless about what it means to deliver patient/customer care.

Early in her healing process we had an appointment to review a biopsy. Our experience began by being herded into an overcrowded waiting room. At regular intervals a woman would magically appear through what seemed to be a secret security door, bark out six or seven names and wait for them to march orderly towards the holding pen for body weight and blood pressure. I cynically wondered if they were to be branded with the hospital’s logo or have their ears tagged.

Waiting for our moment to be whisked away, my eyes wandered towards a large sign draped overtop the reception desk. It read, “We ♥ Our Patients.” I wondered to myself, you do…do you? It appears that you might love cattle…but not patients. It occurred to me, when your love for someone is self evident; you don’t need to affix a high profile sign on your wall.

Here’s the lesson I took away that day. Going to the trouble of designing, printing, and hanging a sign doesn’t mean it’s true. There’s a better way—demonstrate what you want others to know, think, or feel. The timeless principle in play here is: actions speak louder than words—your customers know if they are loved by how you treat them. Proclaiming that you love someone and actually loving them are worlds apart. That large banner flowing over the reception desk never caused me to say, “Look honey, they love us. They really do!”

The real opportunity is: What will you do to convince your customers, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you love them? When you create that type of experience, your customers will tell your story over and over—others will feel compelled to experience it for themselves. In an age of plain vanilla customer service you’ll be a rare find and your customers will be moved to love you back in a way that causes your cash registers to sing “Cha-Ching!”

Leave your comments: How have you or your company demonstrated “We love our customers” in ways that create long-term loyal followers?