Category Archives: Customer Service

Healthcare and Aviation ….. Cross Learnings

From the Crucibles of JPS Customer Value Academy
Just Plain & Simple
….. Helping Create Customer Value
14th Issue of HEALTH BIZ INDIA magazine, October, 2011

Recently I came across a very interesting article on the net. It was titled ‘Why Patient Safety is harder than aviation safety and five practices to borrow from aviation’. The author argues that there are a lot of learnings that the health care industry could draw from aviation safety and the rigour and discipline that goes into the same. He also mentions that he does not want to oversimplify the comparison and realizes that healthcare is a lot ‘harder’. The basic reason given for this is related to ‘scale’ ….. number of patients vs passengers, number of pilots vs nurses and types of aircraft vs diseases. The practices listed, that play a role in aviation safety and the ones that healthcare could learn from are ….. usability and safety of technology, crew management, simulation, prediction and root cause analysis (and hence open and transparent exchange of data).

While it is true that there is a difference in ‘scale’ and ‘complexity’ in the two cases, the discipline and learnings can and should definitely flow into ‘speciality/superspeciality/critical care’, where the gap of scale reduces and ‘seriousness’ and ‘speed of response’ maybe equally significant ….. It is ironical that aviation is taking lessons from hospitals and hospitality on aspects of care though !!

However, just stepping back to first principles for a moment and correlating the fundamental dimensions where there may be similarities and differences between the two that we can build on, let us look at the following :

  • Core Deliverables :
    • Healthcare : Good clinical/surgical outcomes
    • Aviation : On time and comfortable trips
  • Essentials to build on :
    • Healthcare : Patient Care; course/accuracy of treatment; Doctors and staff
    • Aviation : Speed/turnaround time; speed of response; Stringent Processes/technology
  • Performance Metrics :
    • Healthcare : Surplus/sq. ft. or Surplus/bed
    • Aviation : Surplus/trip

With ‘cost/trip’ more or less ‘fixed’, there is a concerted effort in aviation, to build on passenger numbers and revenue/passenger (Needless to say, there should obviously be no compromise on speed of response and safety).

If healthcare is to come out of this trap (no matter who pays for the treatments) of chasing numbers and revenues to fulfill a ‘fixed cost or unabsorbed capacity’, the answer lies in (Needless to say, with no compromise on clinical/surgical outcomes and patient safety) :

1) Scale to be achieved through creating reach and accessability to broaden the base (and much needed in the Indian context), alongwith

2)‘Disruptive Technologies’ to reduce cost/sq. ft. or cost/bed.

These answers are available in development/deployment of ‘appropriate technology’ (Innovation) and spreading the cost of technology and doctors (per patient or per bed or per sq.ft.) through initiatives like telemedicine (the doctors deserve to be paid competitively, but the cost implication on the ‘metrics’ per unit of patient or sq.ft. or bed gets enormously spread out)

Having said that, the learnings from aviation can and should be very appropriately and immediately applied in all aspects of healthcare where safety and speed of response is critical. There are examples even in healthcare where such rigour and discipline is followed. As the scale, accessability and reach of healthcare increases, learnings, processes and skils from these centres of excellence in health care and for sure even from aviation, should be weaved into the genetic code of patient care at all levels as the wave spreads over time.

Aviation is definitely a good learning ground as the source article I mentioned, says, but even otherwise, a similar discipline is needed in any field, in the evolution from being a novice to eminence ….. and it will be very helpful to the evolving Indian Healthcare industry to adopt the following practices and catch the wave on the high !!

  • Taking feedback continuously ….. it is said that ‘feedback is the breakfast of champions’.
  • Priority Setting ….. allows effective and efficient utilization of scarce resources.
  • Sharing ‘The Technique/Method’ with trust and openness ….. for any new entrant, learning from scratch and building up a code from first principle is like re-inventing the wheel.
  • Coaching Ability and Coachability ….. To reach high levels of expertise, inputs from a good coach are extremely helpful
  • Practice, Practice, Practice ….. there is no substitute to this ingredient
  • Simulation, ‘Rehearsals’ and Performance ….. this is a practice followed wherever ‘expertise’ is reached ….. sports, dance, science …..
  • Root Cause Analysis ….. to be able to search for, hit and face the truth boldly and correct it

These are very much woven into the DNA of the aviation industry as well. No wonder we are able to see the beauty of aircraft flying in a formation ….. with a shared vision, speed, trust, constant communication, safety, teamwork, and grace …..

J.P.Singh,

Justplainandsimple Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Website : www.justplainandsimple.com

Twitter : @jpsingh55

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Operational Efficiency is Your Personal Signature on The Branding Canvas !!

From the Crucibles of JPS Customer Value Academy 

                                       Just Plain & Simple         

                                      ….. Helping Create Customer Value

Indian Optician, May-June, 2011

Identify with excellence, put your name on your work, and both your work and your name
will stand the test of time. ~ Dr. Denis Waitley

I have a habit of maintaining a ‘to do’ list in my diary. It helps me stay on top of my activities, not forgetting things. More than anything else, I do not have to strain myself and my mind remembering various things. Hence, my mind stays relatively calm, less stressed and more peaceful than what it would probably have been without such a habit ….. a meditative experience of emptying the mind !!

I don’t remember when this habit started, but it has been with me as long as I can remember, through my student days and through my various jobs. Apart from not having to remember things, it has helped me in follow ups and to improve operational efficiency tremendously. I cannot even think of having to work without my diary and that too, nothing less than ‘a page a day’ variety. I have retained it even in this age of laptops and handheld gizmos, as I find it very practical and convenient and always at hand, not having to open and spread it and charge it and distract everyone in meetings. Moreover, the pleasure of writing down a point and then ‘ticking’ it off when done, gives joy and satisfaction of its own kind, unmatched by any feat.

Infact, so strong has been the impact of this on my ability for follow ups and operational efficiency, that many of my colleagues have jokingly confided on scheming to ‘steal’ my diary !! Over the years I have developed the skill to monitor a personal and professional daily activity list and plan all my schedules and calendars with this one single process ….. Just Plain and Simple !!

A few days back, while going through my daily activities list during the day, it struck me how, a lot of the things I was following up/getting through that day, were actually reminders to various organisations and people, to whom I was a customer !! Should I be doing the follow up or should they be chasing me ? Was I actually operating like a secretary to them ? But really speaking, why couldn’t they maintain a ‘to do’ discipline and improve their operational efficiency, hence delighting me as a customer !? ….. Just Plain and Simple, I thought …..

Let me share some of the things I had on one sample day on my diary page and you will get an idea :

  • We had planned to book a ‘whole’ resort for a workshop that we had to conduct two months later ….. I had to send a reminder to/follow up with the owner/manager, who had been committing for a week that he will send a proposal for the rates ….. soon.
  • Our grocery supplier who had missed sending one item from our monthly shopping list ….. and we were now to remind him
  • My bank which had to send a statement of an investment that I had taken a few weeks back
  • My optical store which had romised to deliver my new specs the previous day.
  • To check with my CA, who had promised to revert to me with certain clarifications I had sought regarding my tax liability
  • A real estate developer who had taken the ‘booking’ amount but had been promising to revert to me with options of flat numbers available
  • A sanitaryware supplier, to whom I had paid the full amount for sanitary fittings for a new floor that I was getting constructed ….. half the items were pending delivery for two weeks from the promised dates.

Yes, all these are some of the entries from a page of my diary for ONE, yes, ONE day !!

Why are these people unable to complete and finish these simple tasks? What holds them back? I am sure everyone thinks that these are quite plain, ordinary and routine tasks ….. surprise ? But true. It really struck me that day, as to how insensitive people can become and that too to a customer (if you run through all the above incidents, you will notice that I am a customer to all the players mentioned). If that was the case with a customer, I shudder to think what would have been happening to their other stakeholders …..

Also, none of these is a big enterprise or a government department to put the blame on red tape, bureaucracy or rigid processes ….. most of them would be under a small to medium enterprise range ….. capable of speed and efficiency and agility !! What stopped them from getting stuck and not being able to use one of the biggest advantages of ‘not being big’ i.e. agility and absence of sluggish, scale led inertia ….. as long as it is available ??

Various reasons abound. But fundamentally, there has to be an experiential realization. No amount of preaching and pedagogy work as these seem to be common issues which everyone should be knowing and I am sure each manager would agree that he/she has broken their heads highlighting the significance of such a discipline. Why doesn’t it happen still ? The experiential journey has to lead through stages of awakening, realisation, internalisation, motivation and action, otherwise the desired behavior is never seen !!

But all hope is not lost. There is this pharmacy chain where the processes (or maybe the counter boy’s inititiative) are so well laid out, that everytime I call or order medicines or vitamins for our family, the counter boy knows the back ground, asks which of the regular medicines I want to order, confirms what all is available, gives a time for delivery and ensures that it is done at that time. In the rare case of an error, there is a prompt apology and immediate corrective action.

The best way is to follow an approach that balances the right and left brain impulses and at each stage, connecting through process design, feelings, pleasure, creativity and meaning ….. to ensure a high level of acceptance by the team and hence having a multiplicative and lasting impact that is self sustaining and self regenerating !!

The process discipline, appreciation and habit has to get into the genetic code of the organization ….. Brand Equity is built, not just by a good poster and/or an ad, but is the ‘effect’ of a holistic experience of ALL the touch points of a brand, ‘caused’ by how the organizational DNA is codified !!

J.P.Singh,

Justplainandsimple Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

JPSConsulting

Just Plain & Simple
….. Helping Realise Potential

JPS Customer Value Academy

Just Plain & Simple
….. Helping Create Customer Value

Website : www.justplainandsimple.com

Twitter : @jpsingh55

 

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The Branding Kaleidoscope

From the Crucibles of JPSConsulting
Just Plain & Simple
….. Helping Realise Potential
What’s in a name ? Nothing ….. Or is it everything ? Shakespeare captures a perspective, so beautifully reflected in the following exchange between Romeo and Juliet :

Juliet.

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo, Deny thy father and refuse thy name; ‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part; Belonging to a man. O, be some other name !

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, Retain that dear perfection which he owes; Without that title:–Romeo, doff thy name; And for that name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself.

Romeo.

I take thee at thy word: Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptiz’d; Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

Juliet tries to tell Romeo that a name is a meaningless formality (for the sake of identity ?) and that she loves the person who is called “Montague”, not the Montague name and the Montague family. Romeo, out of his love for Juliet, rejects his family name and vows to be instead “new baptized” as Juliet’s lover.

Juliet meant that she loved Romeo the person, his attitude, his spirit, his nature, his soul and not the name per se ….. little did she realize that the same very name, alongwith her own, would become a strong brand name, which, over the next few centuries, would epitomize love and romance !! So even if Romeo Montague’s  name was changed to ‘Tom, Dick or Harry’, it didn’t really matter to Juliet. No one will ever know, however, whether instead of Romeo, if any one of ‘Tom, Dick or Harry’ were used, would they have still evoked the same feelings and emotions that ‘Romeo’ evokes or capture the same nuances ….. but that is what brand Juliet, in love with brand Romeo thought !!

What a great ‘value add’ an experience, feelings and emotions can do to a name !! Even X, Y, Z and alpha, beta, gamma can start to stand for anything, depending on the ‘surround’ sound created by a brand experience, performance and interaction (referred to variously as brand positioning, personality, personification, style, tonality, image etc., etc.). But whatever it be, should be genuine; as they say, the consumer could be your wife or mother as well.

The word used for ‘identification’ of  any product or service, whether having a dictionary meaning or not, starts acquiring a new meaning, properties and characteristics of its own, sometimes very different from the original meaning (if any), depending on the interactions and experiences ….. and when that happens, that word ‘grows up’ to be ‘A Brand Name’ !!

A classic case in brand experience is the iconic ‘Ambassador’ car seen on Indian roads for many decades now. Dictionary meanings of names, obviously cannot, on their own, rub off qualities on the product or services that use the name (as also, words with no meaning at all, acquire distinct properties based on the experience that the products/services using them create). Ambassador has not been able to ‘encash’ on the ‘class’ that the dictionary meaning of its name brings ….. no Ambassador would have ever taken the Ambassador car as a Brand Ambassador or vice versa, been one for the car !! But ever seen a white Ambassasor car with a red light on top (and maybe a few stars and a flag also), moving on the roads in India ….. this new ‘look and feel’ now acquires very different brand characteristics of ‘political power’.

The concept of branding, initially originated to ‘brand’ cattle for the purpose of identification, has now evolved into an art form working together with the discipline of scientific approach and evokes so many feelings, emotions and thoughts. Brands are valuable assets that need nurturing, protection and maintenance, to be handled very carefully like crystals or to be polished like brass. A little slip and we have examples of how brand equity risks getting shaken up, requiring monumental subsequent efforts to salvage/build it again. How much the ‘feel’ of a brand can be stretched to brand extensions, is also another area of debate and study …..  A Fanta always meant an orange drink to me; I could never ‘digest’ an apple Fanta. Examples and learnings abound for both positive and negative handlings of brand equity …. the Nimuselide controversy, Tiger Woods scandal, Satyam case, Tylenol crisis,  etc., each of which is a case study, but obviously cannot be detailed out here due to lack of space.

Who would have thought that a very unconventional name like ‘Amitabh Bachchan’, carried by a thin, skinny, lanky figure, whose owner’s deep baritone voice was rejected by All India Radio and whose initial attempts in Bollywood were hardly worth talking about, would one day become A ‘BIG Brand’ with probably the largest fan following on this planet. The story of the effort that he genuinely put into his work and the experience, delight and enjoyment this brand name subsequently brought to the world, is what legends are made of ….. as if resonating a dialogue from one of his blockbuster movies, in the same deep baritone voice saying ….. Aaj khush to bahut hoge tum (Today, you must be feeling very happy) ….. A Brand tagline of sorts !!

 J.P.Singh,

Justplainandsimple Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

JPSConsulting

Just Plain & Simple

….. Helping Realise Potential

JPS Customer Value Academy

Just Plain & Simple

….. Helping Create Customer Value

Website : www.justplainandsimple.com

Twitter : @jpsingh55

 (An edited version of this article also appeared in Empowering Times, May, 2011)

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Optimall Solution !?

From the Crucibles of JPS Customer Value Academy 

                                Just Plain & Simple                               

                                ….. Helping Create Customer Value

The Indian Optician, March-April 2011 Issue

The last decade has seen a mushrooming of malls across all city classes in India. It has been a revolution in retailing. Retailers of all types rushed to find their space in these malls and customers thronged them. Results have been mixed though and so are opinions on whether the malls are an alternative to traditional Indian retail.

There sure is a novelty value and an initial surge of visitors leads to quite a substantial footfall. People have rushed in for all sorts of reasons ….. to get a feel of the new ambience, to stay indoors and spend time in cool/dust free environs, to hang around in restaurants/coffee shops, to visit the multiplexes, or for plain window shopping. The initial debate of sales not being commensurate to rentals and/or footfall continues, though in various measures, for different cities and retail types. What is the reality; where will the system reach a dynamic equilibrium !?

As with all other retail categories, so also have our very own optical stores, and rightly so, moved in to occupy their rightful place in such malls. Speculation and debate is very much alive for this category also. But compared to any other category, be it foods and grocery, fashion accessories, shoes, garments or bookshops, the debate on how opticals are faring, or will fare, is probably a little more tricky.

Questions abound ….. the neighbourhood optical store is more convenient; malls have a lighter/fun environment and hence not suitable for an eye check up; when in a mall, frame of mind is different; eye-checkup is more serious stuff; impulse purchase or non serious purchases are OK in a mall; specs are a predecided/pre thought out decision and hence one goes to a predecided regular destination store …..

For various categories, the ambience of malls has broken old habits. One sees foods and groceries and vegetable buying habits also in for a change. Internationally, where mall penetration has been high for quite a long period of time, opticals and even pharmacies have had a decent and profitable presence. The trend is also, in the recent past, towards even medical clinics coming up in malls ….. these, however, will ride on the convenience provided by a pre-existing mall culture/habit. They promise speed, transparency and convenience, though the ‘regular same’ doctor concept may not be fully practiced as yet.

But what does all this bode for opticals in India ? Will it be a tough ride going forward ? Will it be a game changer ? Will serious eye checkups never pick up in malls ? Will only impulse/less ‘serious’/fashion led products like sunglasses do well ?

Whatever be the case, one thing that optical stores will have to gear up for mall presence, beyond ambience (which has been mastered), is staff quality, to be able to match the type, style, spending ability, mood and aspirations of a mall customer. This is one area which leaves a lot to be desired.

While optimism rules and there is every hope and reason that hygienic and clean  ‘mall’ shopping habits should build up, there also is likelihood of a shakeout and as the old saying goes ‘survival of the fittest’. In the meanwhile, it may not be advisable for any multi-store/multi location optical store to miss a presence in the malls ….. lest they miss the rise when the wave sweeps high !!

J.P.Singh,

Justplainandsimple Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

JPSConsulting

Just Plain & Simple                               

….. Helping Realise Potential

JPS Customer Value Academy

Just Plain & Simple                               

….. Helping Create Customer Value

Blog :http://jpsingh.wordpress.com

Website : www.justplainandsimple.com

Twitter : @jpsingh55

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Retail’s Forgotten Basics

Progressive Grocer, April 2011 Issue

“Shopping is an addiction”, as they say and ”shopping is cheaper than seeing a psychiatrist” !! Whatever be the level of truth in these statements, what is significant nevertheless, is that the activity of shopping can have elements that go beyond appealing to the physical body, to appeal to the mind ….. and maybe the soul as well. It is only when an experience creates ‘joy, pleasure and exhilaration’ at the physical, mental and/or emotional levels, that one gets addicted to it and gets drawn to it repeatedly ….. be it alcohol, love, reading or whatever.

The enjoyment and pleasure of shopping must have always been there (from the days of bartering probably) even if mainly due to the more basic sense of satisfaction at having ‘acquired’ something in a transactional activity. The ‘melas and haats’, however, would have provided an ‘experience and ambience’, a concept that gets much talked about today.

The art of this ‘experience’ creation sometimes gets diluted in the movement from rural to ‘urban modern trade’ in India. Most of the 20th century, or even till more recently, the last few decades of the 20th century, saw an Indian population living in scarcity and deprivation. Whatever little quantity or range one bought, the ‘pleasure and enjoyment’ that the mere transactional activity of shopping and ‘acquiring’ brought, was still there, at times enhanced by just roaming around in the market place and window shopping. It was in the 90s that options of merchandise and places offering a ‘modern’ shopping experience started increasing in numbers.

The period before 90s had limited options and so called ‘modern’ food stores were few and far between. The Neighbourhood grocer was omnipresent and would serve all basic requirements of the household. The local market had meat and vegetable stores which stocked our regular requirements and one would never actually buy in bulk (the shopping cart was non existent). Everything was purchased fresh and more frequently ….. was it that frequent interaction which brought in a lot of familiarity and hence comfort and therefore repeat visits to these shops !? Even if it was a very simple and routine experience and just fulfillment of basic needs, one was quite regular and ‘loyal’ to one’s grocer, vegetable or meat shop. Was it due to lack of options and competition !? Some of these questions have infact acquired increased significance in today’s environment.

Competition has increased with the mushrooming of food, vegetable and grocery stores of the mega, super and hyper formats ….. all synonyms of relevant adjectives have been utilized to describe the new stores that are coming up quite so frequently. Needless to say, ambience, space and hygiene have definitely seen a mega revolution from the neighbourhood grocer days. What I see missing in these hyper marts is, however, a simple genuine welcoming smile and greeting that our local vegetable shop guy used to beam at us, registering somewhere in the subconscious, leading us back to him as if he was The Pied Piper !!

You can argue that since we had no option then, even if he did not give a smiling welcome, we would still have ended up going back to him. Maybe partly true, but on the other side, is it that stress caused due competitive options available to consumers, takes away the smile on the faces of all employees at these stores !? This is not an overstatement.

In the last 48 hours, we travelled to 5 Top Modern format food stores in Delhi, to test some of these hypotheses first hand. By the way, a smile is only used as a symbolic representation of the larger point that we are trying to make here. For reasons of confidentiality we will not name any of the stores here.

At none of the stores did anyone greet, smile at or welcome us. We just stood around, deliberately looking lost, waiting to see if anyone approached us asking ‘How may I help you !?’ We know most of these stores have a ‘self help’ format, but our presence was quite conspicuous, as we had ‘we are lost’ written large on our faces and in such circumstances help should have been forthcoming even in a self help store !!

Smile, greet, ask a closed ended question like ‘How may I help you ?’ are, we know the first few steps taught in any basic sales training course, even those offered by hundreds of sales trainers who have also mushroomed to cater to the retail boom. Why then are even these basics missing ?? I am sure senior managers know this is important and would have not left this point out from the training modules. Rest of the ingredients that go into customer value/experience creation are of a much more evolved nature, answering questions like ‘what the customer really wants’ & ‘what adds most value to the customer’. 

In the context of basic orientation though, somewhere, sensitization, awakening, realization, internalization, motivation, acceptance and commensurate action are missing ….. There is no surprise then, that ‘addiction’ and hence ‘repeat visits’ and loyalty to a store may not be guaranteed.

The proof of success of a customer interaction is when on the way out of the door of your store, the customer has a mindset of ‘I will come again’ or ‘I will tell others to come’ ….. both these can happen when experiences at the classical moments of truth create a subliminal ‘enjoyment and pleasure’, beyond immediate physical gratification of having bought a few things, no matter how good they are, in a transactional exchange activity. That is a measure of True Customer Value Creation.

The various formats available today, are, needless to say, taking care of essentials like space, layout, product range etc. etc., everything that can be bought out, but what is not being taken care of is ‘genuine care and love’ ….. that cannot be bought and the ones that actually come free ….. without which, like with your life partner, continuous life long relationship is not workable ….. you need to say ‘I love you’ to keep that spark alive even after years of togetherness !!

Needless to say, the customer then moves from one hyper store to another mega store. Loyalty (or customer addiction) cannot be bought through loyalty membership programmes as well.

My neighbourhood grocer never had a loyalty card. Loyalty points cannot be a ‘cause’ for customer loyalty. Success of a loyalty card, actually speaking, is an effect of something else, not the cause of customer retention, though you maybe able to hold them from exiting for a while. In terms of causality, I would rather look at a loyalty programme as a genuine ‘thank you’ reward to your long term customers, than a means to ‘bind’ them in.

It is extremely important to ‘addict’ (in a positive sense) your customers, through the experience offered. There are customers who come for various reasons and it will be worth our while to ‘map’ these (even the customer feedback surveys tend to be so inward focused as to not even ask her details of her profile, liking, preferences etc.) and create experiences even appealing to the senses of sight, taste, smell, touch and hearing ….. a holistic approach that needs to be followed for consumers and employees alike.

A gourmet visiting a food and grocery store can be given a surround experience so appealing to his sense and feeling of taste that he cannot help but get addicted. Same as someone who loves books, could spend hour after addictive hour at her favourite book shop, with an environment offering a quiet browsing facility.

This is not very different from the steps you would follow so diligently when on a date ….. to look the best, shave well, dab on the best perfume/after shave, be ever so willing to listen (or have her favourite music in the car) and take her to her favourite restaurant for her favourite cuisine to woo her to spend a life time with you …..

So simple and yet we do it so naturally in our personal lives, but become so rational and rigid in our professions ….. if only we could let the word ‘love’ slip into our business dictionary ….. Just Plain & Simple !!

J.P.Singh and Ravish Malhotra,

Justplainandsimple Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

JPSConsulting

Just Plain & Simple                               

….. Helping Realise Potential

JPS Customer Value Academy

Just Plain & Simple                               

….. Helping Create Customer Value

Blog :http://jpsingh.wordpress.com

Website : www.justplainandsimple.com

Twitter : @jpsingh55

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