Tuesday, October 21  

Meeting and exceeding the expectations of your customers

I was reminded of this when I wrote the blog below. It is from a time when I was marketing a private hospital.

People pay private health insurance so they get the best of care and the best of service. And a private room when they want one.

But it doesn't always work like that.

At this hospital, 50% of our admissions who wanted a private room didn't receive a private room upon admission. These people were admitted to shared wards with a wait of between 12-36 hours before a private room became available.

We had many irate patients.

We implemenetd one simple thing with fantastic results

When a person was booked in for their hospital stay, they were sent a letter confirming the details. The Admissions Manager and I simply edited this letter. We added this to every letter:

"We regret being unable to meet your booking for a private room at this stage. We will of course move you into a private room as soon as possible. The average wait is 48 hours."

The effect this had was immediate.

Instead of 50% of our patients not having there expectations met, we had 50% having their expectations exceeded.

The other 50% had their expectations met immediately (we actually had an apology card made up which, along with a box of chocolates, was given to these patients. So these people actually had their expectations exceeded as well.).

Because we exaggerated the length of time it would take before a private room became available, the people waiting for the private room later had their expectations further exceeded as well!

Meeting expectations can be difficult. Exceeding expectations can be as simple as adding two- (2) lines to a letter!

What can you do to exceed the expectations of your customers?

Cheers.

Brendon