Mark Kolier’s Blog

Archive for the ‘Customer Experiences’ Category

I have been a patron of a medical practice in my hometown for more than 17 years. The office is conveniently located to my house and office which for me is a top priority. The location is the only consistent thing about the practice. I have had three different doctors up and leave the practice over the years while I have remained loyal to the location.

Last week I went to the doctor essentially to extend a prescription and interview one of the ‘new’ doctors as I had not been in the office for over a year (kind of missed my annual checkup when my previous doctors up and left). The doctor mentioned he had been with the practice for more than two years. Who knew? Not me for sure.

I have no intention in this post to write a diatribe on the medical profession in general. But I do think the aspect of customer service (or lack thereof) is notable when discussing one’s health. All my previous doctors in this practice have left and entered the world of ‘concierge’ care. This is where each individual family member pays a flat yearly fee for 24/7 access to a doctor with no waiting. It works outside of insurance for many of the consultations and the reason the doctors enter into concierge care in the first place is their nightmare of dealing with healthcare insurance in general.

One problem with concierge care is that my family is healthy. Between the 4 of us I don’t think there have been more than two total visits to the doctor in over a year. So aside from the substantial cost of engaging in concierge care it would be total waste of money.

So what are we left with? A medical practice that is conveniently located for my life, as well as one that has all of our medical records. When I call even during what they term as normal business hours I get a voice mail system. I really don’t like this when it comes to my health. I often have to call multiple times to actually talk with someone who has a clue. I find the people in the practice (receptionists, nurses, and doctors to be a bit detached and distant). This could be just the practice I go to but I sense it might be endemic of the entire situation as a whole.

At one point I had to wait ‘five’ minutes for the doctor to come in. Twenty minutes later the nurse walked in and said sorry the doctor was running late. Really? The doctor seemed ok and devoid of other better options I will likely soldier on with doctor #4 in this practice.

Why couldn’t the doctors reach out to patients to tell them of the changes and their interest in retaining me and my family as patients? This new doctor had never seen anything regarding my history until he opened the file while I was sitting in the room. However I had done search on the doctor before I walked in and had an idea of where he went to school, his history and credentials.

I talked to a new client prospect last week on the phone for the first time. Their first question was had I looked at their website. I said yes of course and wouldn’t they have been disappointed had I not done so? They liked that a lot and we had a great and productive conversation since they did not have to spend unnecessary time explaining the business model.

It’s no secret that President Obama has taken on a major issue with regard to healthcare reform. The question is can he do anything about reforming the behavior of the medical profession in general. It borders on the outrageous as far as I am concerned.

Am I wrong here?

When I was in Tokyo earlier this year in March my friend and I went over to Akihabara which is the area in Tokyo that has all the newest gadgets and technology. I was interested in this since innovative technology often comes out of Japan. The most prevalent thing I saw there were cute little ‘computers’ called Netbooks which now have become the rage here in the United States.

Much less expensive than a traditional laptop (they start as low as $ 400 maybe even under that), Netbooks are much smaller and lighter than a laptop, have full internet capability and just a few applications like Word/Excel etc. They are more user friendly than a smart phone since you can actually type on them without having to correct spelling errors (or intuitive word spelling that comes with many smart phones) to anywhere near the degree that occur when typing on a hand held smart phone.

Since I have been doing so much traveling the idea seems intriguing to me. Until I realized that I have been using my laptop as a Netbook all along. It’s just heavier and has more features that for the most part I never use. I log into our company server and work remotely as do so many people. All the applications I need are contained on the server and I really don’t have much use for the ones contained in the hard drive of my laptop. Sure I have the option of using the apps on my laptop hard drive and I occasionally use them (when I am working on the plane without internet access) but as we head to the ‘cloud computing’ world the need for applications on a hard drive is lessening every day.

So while I can think of myself as an early adopter I am not ready to toss my laptop in the junk pile just yet but that day is coming. Of course once I have a projectable keyboard off my smart phone (that will host the same apps that I have on my Netbook) the need for a Netbook will also go by the wayside. Maybe that day will come before I make the switch to a Netbook. I hope so.

Of course I am not sure if I believe it or not. Last night a flight attendant did do something unusual. When admonishing a passenger for not turning off his phone she explained that mobile phones are operative to about 10,000 feet.

When a passenger is on a mobile phone control tower instructions in their headphones are accompanied by a high pitched noise. Apparently this is not bad if one person is on the phone but if there are a plane full of people the cacophony in the pilot’s headset makes it difficult to communicate with the control tower.
This sounded strangely plausible to me. But what was best was the flight attendant’s willingness to lift the curtain a bit and let passengers (i.e. customers) in on what should not be a secret.

Why have I never heard this before? I know that should it be true (and I have no reason to doubt it but somehow do anyway) I would not want the pilot of the plane I was flying on having noise and consequently an inability to hear instructions from the people who are watching little blips on the screen all day.

Airlines are hardly specialists in communicating with their customers. On countless occasions reasons for delays go unreported or worse when you get information it’s something like – ‘ATC has put a hold on air traffic so we have to wait to hear back from them before we can take off. Thanks for your patience.’ Then they offer no communication (or water or food) often for an hour or more! This is how mutinies are born!

So to have an explanation for something that we all have been thinking about for a long time (or at least I have) was refreshing and I can go with it. For now. I still cannot figure out why or how an Ipod or headphones would interfere with communications so maybe that will be explained on my next flight. But I am not counting on that.

I have to go to Minneapolis next week for a meeting or two.  It’s a one day trip out of necessity as I have things going both before and after that require my being close to the office.    It’s about a 2 ½ – 3 hour direct flight to get to Minneapolis from a New York area airport.   Kind of like going to Chicago and it’s normally pretty easy and reasonably priced to get to Chicago.   

Not so much for Minneapolis.   Direct flight – (and there are a few but not many choices) – $ 1,470.00.   No I did not use Priceline as I need to be there at a particular time and cannot deal with the uncertainty that is Priceline.   But going through Detroit to get to Minneapolis and coming back to New York City through Cincinnati the fare was $ 163.00.   Not $ 1,163.00.  $ 163.00 ROUND TRIP!  I am thinking it is unlikely the Detroit and Northern Kentucky (where the Cincinnati Airport is located) Airport authority is that strong a lobby to build traffic for wayward travelers, (however it would be terrific idea if they had!).  But by flying more total miles and taking 4 planes instead of 2, I saved more than $ 1,300.00  

How can this make any sense?   It doesn’t for me so it must make sense for the Delta/Northwest right?    Both Detroit (Northwest) and Delta (Cincinnati) have hubs in these cities and have many flights going every which way from those hubs.   So I imagine that there are unsold seats on planes leaving from those hubs and somehow it makes good business sense (to the airline) to fleece the customer who wants to go direct from New York to Minneapolis.   What they end up with is a customer who is aggravated and I have not even gone to the airport yet.   Yes I will be fine and people who live further from major cities like New York have to deal with this all the time.  

I have done quite a bit of traveling this year and plan to continue that trend.  I have not had big time complaints with the airlines this year.  Most flights I have taken have been reasonably on time and the service (less and less) was pretty much what I expected.   Yet out of all the things I have done this by far bothers me the most.   

Customer loyalty?  Why would I be loyal to an airline that runs me through the wringer?   Why would you?   It’s not a service proposition – domestic air travel here in the United States is pretty uniformly dreadful.   So price continues to rule the day.   Would I have paid more to go direct?  Yes but nowhere near $ 1,300!  

I’m willing to bet that almost all people do not run their business this way.  How long would our companies last if we did?   What say you?  

The opening of two sparkling new baseball parks in the Metropolitan New York area gave critics and fans (sometimes they are one in the same) plenty of things about which to complain and praise.   I was at Citi Field (maybe we should call it U.S. Government Field) opening night.  The ballpark is beautiful but of course compared to rickety old Shea Stadium that’s not saying much.  Yet I grew up watching the Mets at Shea.  Citi Field seems to me like another team’s ballpark.   I expect that to change when I attend more games but I could not even get to see a third of the stadium as I actually was there to watch a baseball game.   One comment I heard was that the Mets (and Yankees too I presume) are more interested in attracting consumers than baseball fans.  At an average ticket price of well over $ 100 many baseball fans are priced out of the equation. 

I read this morning that despite the current deep recession live concert sales are up more than 18% 2008 over 2007.  And if you have paid any attention to live concert ticket prices they appear to me to be no less expensive than baseball games at the new parks (or football games for that matter) – probably a good deal more.    Of course $ 200 plus for Miley Cyrus is something I cannot fathom.   And I have gone to the New York Philharmonic a few times recently and their ticket prices for a good orchestra seat are slightly less than a good seat at Citi Field. 

But live concerts are a better value by far in my opinion.   And I love sporting events.   Yo-Yo-Ma and Miley Cyrus don’t have off nights when they perform.   Or if they do it’s for the most part unnoticed by those in attendance.   The orchestra, the ensemble, and frankly all the professional in the performing arts (on and off Broadway are great examples) have a much higher standard of accountability than athletes.   How do professional baseball players, football players and other athletes not know the rules of the game?    If a pitcher has a bad game he comes out in the third inning.  I don’t believe I have ever heard of an artist leaving the stage saying ‘I just don’t have it tonight’ – or their manager pulling them off stage for the same reason. 

There’s no question in my mind what is the better value.  That does not mean I won’t be going back to Citi Field to see my beloved Mets soon, (and I will also venture to the Bronx to see the Yankees even though I cannot stand them though I do like Jeter) because I’m a baseball fan.   But people that go to live concerts are there for the performance and experience.   I am not certain of the same with sporting events anymore. 

Agree?  Disagree?  What do you think?