A lot of people have some pretty nasty things to say about their health care provider or HMO. I would like to share what I would consider to be a true “turnaround effort.” Recently, I had a doctor’s appointment for an ongoing and troubling ailment with my shoulder. I dreaded the wait and anticipated seeing several people, repeating my story each time, getting x-rays, etc. I figured the whole event would kill half a day’s work, which I didn’t feel that I could afford. When I called that morning, I was greeted by a very pleasant woman who informed me that she would transfer me to the appointment desk. I heard a recording for a couple of minutes and then was greeted by another pleasant voice who inquired about my preferences for time and then efficiently scheduled me within my request. She was very clear in telling me who I would be seeing, what time, and the location. I arrived at the hospital on time, registered, and took a seat in the waiting area. I thought to myself, okay, here comes the first step in a series of long delays. Almost immediately, I was greeted by a nurse who led me to a small area down the hall where she took my vital signs, and then verified my ailment. Then, she directed me into a separate waiting area and informed me that it would be just a few minutes while they prepared a room for me. I sat down and thought, “okay, here come the delays.” Within two minutes I was called into an examination room and told that the doctor would be with me in a moment. “Sure!” I thought, and again I was wrong. In less than a minute, a physician, came in and began the examination. After asking me some questions, he made his diagnosis and prescribed a x-ray for me. “Okay,” I thought, “here comes the wait” (it’s now been only 15 minutes since I arrived). I walked over to the x-ray department and was instantly greeted by a woman at the counter who asked how she could help me today. She even asked how to pronounce my last name (she did, really!), and then commented that it was a “pretty name.” I sat down and before I even finished compressing the pad in the chair, a young man greeted me and said that he was going to perform the x-rays. He was extremely courteous and competent, and even expressed concern and empathy for my shoulder as he made me move into seemingly unnatural positions for the best “shots.” When he finished, he asked me to wait (in the x-ray room) for just a couple of minutes in order to verify that the x-rays had turned out properly. He said that he wouldn’t want me to have to come back in again because of a bad x-ray. I appreciated his concern and advice and only had to wait a couple of minutes. I was out within 30 minutes from start to finish! You may say, “no big deal.” The medical center didn’t really do any thing dramatically great, it’s just that they were consistently good each step of the way, all through the customer cycle. They managed the entire process at or better than my expectations. Sure, you can say that my expectations were pretty low. That’s correct, however, being in the service business, I’m also a fairly critical client. The staff was consistently pleasant, showed empathy, competence, and communicated with me like one of them.... a human being. Each person in the process knew the next step and told me what it was. If you take the mystery and surprise element out of things, people are much happier. The experience felt very personalized and it didn’t cost them an extra dime to do it. Any time you have a relatively routine and mundane-type of activity that your customers have to go through, and can take the edge off that with a little personalization, your customers will notice the difference. If you think about it, I’ll bet you can take that step in your business.