Tag : Customer Service

Via Christi Wichita sets a fantastic small business marketing example

Posted by Dave Mace at 11:24 am

You know what I love about hospitals? The people. You know what I hate about hospitals? Everything else. Seriously, I’ve always viewed hospitals as places where people go to die. I know they’re all about saving lives, which they do quite well, but it’s been hard for me to get past the stigma of brightly-lit, tiled corridors that belie the sad endings behind the doors.

With that said, my outlook has been changed greatly by two major healthcare-related events in my life. First, the birth of my nephew at 23 weeks, five days. His subsequent survival and beautiful life at five years old are an inspiring story, thanks to God and the skilled, caring hands at Stormont Vail hospital in Topeka.

Via Christi is a Wichita marketing powerhouse.

More recently, my wife’s breast cancer diagnosis and surgery at Via Christi Wichita (St. Francis) has provided even more insight into the most important marketing asset a hospital possesses: great customer service.

It’s easy to say, “Sure, they’re nice to you at the hospital. They have to be.” But think about it. You’re not tipping the IV nurse or the radiology technician like a good server at the wine bar. The medical staff already have their money. Most of them are paid well, and the insurance industry has much more to say about their reward than you do.

So, when I took stock of the kind of service we received at Via Christi Wichita, the genuine care and concern, coupled with expertise and professionalism, I realized that no amount of broadcast, print or outdoor advertising can do as much for this hospital’s Wichita marketing image as what happens inside its walls.

Certainly, the experiences in the hospital that are shared with friends, family and coworkers, are the most vital part of Via Christi’s Wichita marketing campaign. And they cost the least. I know I tend to believe a person more when I’m having a conversation with them than when they are up on a billboard.

This firsthand customer service experience also reminds me of the importance of Facebook, twitter and email to spreading the good word about Via Christi’s great service. I tend to think of word of mouth as the best kind of advertising. Until the past few years, the biggest drawback to word of mouth was that it was hard to spread widely. Not anymore. When you have a great customer service experience today, you can post it to Yelp! and broadcast your review to all your Facebook friends. Now, if I’m a small business owner in Wichita, I call that great free advertising. Don’t you?

We promise our Wichita small business clients that our marketing will always be personal

Posted by Dave Mace at 9:41 am

In this article, a successful consultant points out that there is no substitute, even in a social media age, for face-to-face contact between executives and business owners, and their consultants.

Because what we do in the Wichita marketing arena is locally based, we will always spend time in your office and on the phone with you. Not just when it’s an emergency. Not just when you aren’t happy with us. Not just when we’re trying to sell you something. Always.

BNET management consulting article

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Great small business customer service is the best kind of marketing

Posted by Dave Mace at 10:21 pm

If there has ever been a year when great customer service is needed, it’s 2010. While some sectors of the economy are showing signs of life, the important retail sector is lagging.

So, you can imagine my chagrin when I was treated, at best, inappropriately on a recent trip to the J.C. Penney Home Store.

So there we are on Black Friday, shopping for about $2,000 worth of furniture for our family room. Now, we buy a new piece of furniture about every 10 years whether we need to or not , so this was a big deal for us. In any case, we were the recipients of some of the best and the worst customer service I’ve seen in awhile.

Our furniture salesman was tremendously helpful. He was patient. He knew this was a big decision for us. He helped us with colors. He helped us with textures. He walked us all over the store. He pulled stuff up on the computer. He pulled out his giant stack of fabric swatches. In a word, he was great.

While my wife was completing our purchase order with the furniture guy, I went over to the customer service desk to return some window treatments that were the wrong size. That is, we ordered the correct size, and J.C. Penney sent us the wrong size. From word one, I got nothing but a hard time from the woman behind the counter. I gave her my receipt with my credit card transaction on it, and she insisted it was not a receipt, but rather an order ticket. She demanded some kind of packaging that I was 99 percent sure was not on the product when I received it. In any case, I was simply returning the item for store credit so I could get it in the correct size.

Unbeknownst to her, my wife was just around the corner making a $2,000 furniture purchase, while she, the customer service person, was hassling me about a simple exchange. I think you and I both know people who might have been likely to walk out the door at that point. We didn’t. This time. Lucky for J.C. Penney, because this particular store in a very affluent part of the Midwest was none to busy given that it was Black Friday and we were taking advantage of some amazing deals.

The moral of the story is for you, the small business owner, to treat every little curtain transaction like a great big furniture sale. Treat every customer like a VIP. Now, I’m not saying you should send the same offers, deals, coupons, etc., to every customer. We know they don’t all have the same value to you when you’re looking at their record in the database. But when you’re face-to-face with a customer, your words and actions should be warm, sweet and smooth, like holiday egg nog.

Merry Christmas!
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