Chicago-area Adventist Midwest Health comes clean about “merely average” costumer service results. It’s an unusual approach, but far better than pretending.
Is your service merely average? If so, I’ll bet you’re hesitant to dish publicly. It’s tough to say “We know we’re not very good and here’s what we’re doing about it.”
But exactly whom do you think your silence is fooling? Your customers already know. Their friends know. Your employees know, and their friends, too.
Silence Is Not Golden
That leaves you, dear leader, stuck and alone in a conspiracy of silence. Sure, you want to fix everything, touch greatness, and THEN brag about it. That could work. But if it did you wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place, now would you?
You needn’t be perfect to begin winning back that lost loyalty. Confession, we're told, is good for the soul. It's a healthy habit for businesses, too.
Better to admit the obvious and get the discussion back on your side. How?
Shape the story around your journey and the destination, NOT the starting line.
Try equal doses of honesty, humility and transparency. I know it’ll feel weird for a while, but trust me.
Your customers and employees will love even more what they helped fix, so seek out wide-ranging inputs and ideas, from sources traditional and offbeat, from the few customers who still love you and the many you’ve pissed-off and ignored.
Small steps, improve, communicate, repeat.
But since words are easy and action is difficult, you must maintain a laser-like focus on measured, visible solutions.
And that's when the hard work begins. See, to win the battle you must actually improve, not just talk about improving. You'd hate to adopt a branding strategy of "We're no worse than anybody else" but, absent real improvement, that's what you're left with.
Fooling people repeatedly is not a great business strategy, but you already know that. You’ve read this far, after all.
Is your service merely average? If so, I’ll bet you’re hesitant to dish publicly. It’s tough to say “We know we’re not very good and here’s what we’re doing about it.”
But exactly whom do you think your silence is fooling? Your customers already know. Their friends know. Your employees know, and their friends, too.
Silence Is Not Golden
That leaves you, dear leader, stuck and alone in a conspiracy of silence. Sure, you want to fix everything, touch greatness, and THEN brag about it. That could work. But if it did you wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place, now would you?
You needn’t be perfect to begin winning back that lost loyalty. Confession, we're told, is good for the soul. It's a healthy habit for businesses, too.
Better to admit the obvious and get the discussion back on your side. How?
Shape the story around your journey and the destination, NOT the starting line.
Try equal doses of honesty, humility and transparency. I know it’ll feel weird for a while, but trust me.
Your customers and employees will love even more what they helped fix, so seek out wide-ranging inputs and ideas, from sources traditional and offbeat, from the few customers who still love you and the many you’ve pissed-off and ignored.
Small steps, improve, communicate, repeat.
But since words are easy and action is difficult, you must maintain a laser-like focus on measured, visible solutions.
And that's when the hard work begins. See, to win the battle you must actually improve, not just talk about improving. You'd hate to adopt a branding strategy of "We're no worse than anybody else" but, absent real improvement, that's what you're left with.
Fooling people repeatedly is not a great business strategy, but you already know that. You’ve read this far, after all.
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