Lessons in Service Excellence

Neeli Bendapudi, Ph. D.Fisher College of BusinessThe Ohio State University

Columbus OH 43210(614) 292-2959

Bendapudi_1@cob.osu.edu

Thinking Outside the Box

Look at the world through your customer’s eyes

Production orientation or marketing orientation

Attributes versus benefits

What we make versus what is sold

To develop a relationship,

know what your customers are really looking for

What is this customer really buying?

Toothpaste

Beer

Nails and hammer

Healthcare is a fascinating service

to study

Being a patient is just about the least

amount of fun one can have as a

consumer

Mayo Clinic ProfileIntegrated multi-specialty group practice ─ inpatient and outpatient

Academic medical center focused on patient care, education, and research

Physician-led

Three clinic campuses in Rochester, Scottsdale, and Jacksonville and a regional network of smaller practices

Mayo Clinic Growth

One Location

Outpatient Clinic

$381 million in revenue

7,500 FTE employees and students

Multiple locations

Clinic, hospitals, primary care network, lab testing, medical technology development, and health publishing businesses

$4,135 billion in revenue

38,000 FTE employees and students

1983 2001

Research Problem

“The Ideal Service Experience”

Disciplines StudiedMayo Rochester

Emergency Department

Medical and Radiation Oncology

Orthopedic Surgery

Cardiology

Cardiac Surgery

Executive Exam

Endocrinology

Mayo Scottsdale

Dermatology

Family Medicine

Transplant Surgery

Gastroenterology

Thoracic Surgery

Urology

Neurology

MethodsInterviews

Personal interviews with individuals and groups (patients and Mayo staff)

Telephone interviews with patients

Participant Observations

Hospital rounds

Exam-room observations

Inpatient and outpatient experiences

Mayo One

Surgeries

Lessons from the Mayo Clinic

Lesson #1: Create Value Through Values

The right employee values translate to superior

customer value.

Organizational Values

Organizational values always matter, but are

especially critical in organizations characterized by:

Intensity, dynamism, and complexity

High physical and emotional stress

High need for collaboration

High need for team members to have confidence in one another

Mayo Hires for Values

All job descriptions contain the technical skill specifications and the core Mayo principles.

Behavioral interviews emphasize employee values.

Mayo Reinforces Values

All allied health staff go through a 2½ day orientation program

Mix of professions and ages

Role playing and discussion

Integrate with work group orientation

Why So Extensive?

Growth!

Illustrate “lived” values

Beyond Orientation

Ongoing education

Organizational storytelling

Wedding pics here

Payoffs

Pride in working at Mayo

Sense of belonging

Reduced turnover

Creating Value Through Values:Implications for Marketers

Articulate your cherished values.

Hire for values. Talent isn’t enough.

Make reinforcing values everyone’s job.

The Container Store

Lesson #2: Managing the Evidence

Medical Services Are:

Intangible

Complex

Inherently personal

Personally important

How do patients evaluate medical service quality?

Orchestrating the Clues of Service

Humanics:Clues Emitted by People

Mechanics:Clues Emitted by Things

Humanics

“The wearing of business attire rather than white coats is recognized by our patients as a unique dress code that projects an aura of expertise and respect for the patient accompanied by warmth and friendliness.”

Mayo Clinic Model of Care

Mechanics

Minimize impression of crowding

Facilitate way-finding

Accommodate families

Be pleasing to employees

Enhance practice integration

Relieve stress and offer a place of refuge

Create positive distractions

Convey caring and respect

Symbolize competence

The issue for managers is not whether humanics and mechanics clues will tell a story of the service – because they will.

The issue is whether the clues will they tell the right story.

Managing the Evidence:Implications for Marketers

Know the story you want to tell

Articulate a clear strategy to guide evidence-management efforts

Orchestrate what customers can see and understand in the service experience

Chico’s

Lesson #3: Team Service

Mayo Clinic patients don’t just get a doctor, they get the Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic Team Service Model

Pools talent where needed

Fosters organizational competence and stamina

Leverages peer pressure

Team Service

Team service makes the most sense when:

Customer demand is uneven and sometimes urgent

Customer needs are diverse requiring a portfolio of skills at the ready

Speed and accuracy are essential

Multiple service providers contribute to the customers’ experience.

Team Service Reinforcers at Mayo Clinic

One overriding principle

A consensus culture

Institutional primacy

Free cooperation

Team Service: Implications for Marketers

Offer the customer the whole company not just a piece of it.

Give the team a theme -- a reason for being, a common purpose.

Leverage peer performance pressure.

Walgreen’s

Lesson #4: Systematic Knowledge Sharing

Systematic knowledge sharing is critical to the collective competency of the organization.

Medicine is too complex for any one person to authoritatively master all its developments and nuances.

The patient, as a human being, is too complex for any one caregiver to understand the psycho-social aspects of care.

Prerequisites for Systematic Sharing

Motivation to share

Ability to share

Motivation to Share

Collaborative culture

Aligned compensation systems

Ability to Share

Facilitated contact

Technology

Facilitated Contact

Weekly grand rounds presentations

Physician meetings

Technology

Electronic Medical Record

Systematic Knowledge Sharing:Implications for Marketers

Encourage a learning organization.

Encourage a teaching organization.

Make it rewarding for employees to share.

Make it easy for employees to share.

Giant Eagle

Lesson 5: Experience-based Branding

More American consumers prefer Mayo Clinic to any other institution if they have a serious medical condition and their personal finances or health plan are not an impediment.

More than 90 percent of patients willingly say

good things to others about Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic leaders through the years have intuitively understood

that Mayo caregivers are the “living brand.”

Mayo Clinic invests in performance rather than promises -- the essence of

experience-based branding.

“There’s a humbling lesson here for marketers. Great brands, in the end, require great products or great services. Perhaps we in marketing exaggerate our importance in the building of great brands, particularly great service brands. The things we do to create buzz in the marketplace are clearly secondary to word-of-mouth in consumer’s selection of healthcare providers.”

-- Kent SeltmanDirector of MarketingMayo Clinic

Experience-based Branding:Implications for Marketers

Companies cannot buy strong brands; they have to earn them by pleasing customers.

The more consequential, complex, and variable the service, the greater customers’ need for brand reassurance.

“. . . if we excel in anything, it is in our capacity

for translating idealism into action.”

-- Dr. Charles Mayo