A Punch in the Eye, a Case of Croup and a Customer Experience Train Wreck

Cassidy, my 2-year-old daughter, hates socks. When she tries to pull off her socks, she sits down and pulls straight up, nearly punching herself in the face every time.

My wife, Kelly, and I think Cassidy finally popped herself in the eye Saturday afternoon when she started crying and her socks were suddenly missing, although we didn’t see it happen. She also sounded very hoarse, especially when she was crying, and developed a slight fever.

Two unrelated ailments, Kelly and I suspected, but we were more concerned about the eye. When Cassidy kept complaining that her eye hurt and our on-call pediatrician didn’t call back after an hour, I brought her to the emergency room.

That’s when the frustration began to set in.

After we checked into this major hospital, the triage nurse started asking questions and entering information into a desktop computer. When Cassidy cried, the nurse said it sounded like croup. I didn’t think much of it because I didn’t know what croup was at the time.

The RN came to get us with her pen and clipboard and started asking the same questions. She also asked if the triage nurse took Cassidy’s temperature and what it was.

You know, because it’s my job while I’m holding a screaming 2-year-old to make sure this information is passed along to the people who need it.

The doctor came to see Cassidy. No computer, no clipboard. He asked all of the same questions as the triage nurse and the RN. Then he did the standard exam – ears, throat, lungs.

When he heard her cry and cough, he said, “Wait, that sounds like croup!” Which the triage nurse had said more than an hour earlier, but that information wasn’t shared.

The doctor ordered x-rays to confirm his diagnosis and rule out other conditions. Croup is viral so antibiotics don’t help, but the doctor prescribed Cassidy a three-day steroid to help with the symptoms.

The nurse returned with the steroid and over-the-counter medication for the fever and the pain in Cassidy’s eye. She asked if the doctor looked at her eye.

You know, because it’s my job while I’m holding a screaming 2-year-old to tell the nurse what the doctor did.

He eventually came back, examined the eye, and found no abrasion.

On Monday, my wife brought Cassidy to the pediatrician for a checkup. The nurse and doctor both asked for a recap of what happened, which Kelly provided. They asked if the ER doctor gave any prescriptions.

Kelly explained to both of them that Cassidy was given a steroid. The doctor and nurse were also handed our paperwork from the hospital, which said what steroid was administered and how much.

The doctor said she wanted to continue with the steroid and gave us a prescription. Kelly called me after she left and asked if that sounded right to me. I said I would call the pediatrician to make sure she was on the same page as the ER doctor.

You know, because it’s my job to fill the communication gap between doctors.

I spoke to a nurse, who spoke to the pediatrician and called me back. The nurse said the doctor didn’t know about the steroid prescribed at the hospital, so we shouldn’t give the new medication to Cassidy.

“The doctor said to hold onto it,” the nurse said, assuming we had already picked it up. “Just in case somebody else gets sick.”

Wait a minute.

First of all, Kelly told the doctor and the nurse about the steroid from the ER and they were given paperwork that confirmed this information. So obviously the doctor was lying to cover her ass.

Second of all, we should hold onto it just in case someone else gets sick? If you prescribe medication to one person and they don’t need it, just give it to the next person?

We’re talking about prescription drugs, not a bottle of wine!

Clipboards instead of tablets. Reconciling different data collected by different people instead of having access to a single, accurate data source. Failure to share information from one facility to the next.

Failing to listen to the customer or read critical information. Making an incorrect recommendation and then lying about what happened to cover your tracks.

If you Google “bad customer experience”, you’ll probably see a slide show of something that resembles my visits to the ER and the pediatrician.

And a bad customer experience is something even the best marketing in the world can’t overcome.

Sure, the experience is magnified when it involves a child’s health. But would you stand for any of this if you were paying for any other service? Buying a refrigerator? Waiting 20 minutes to find out if the product you want is in stock?

Of course not.

Yet companies that can’t seem to get their act together are always looking for an outside scapegoat when business goes south. In many cases, they say the marketing didn’t work.

Before you decide your marketing didn’t work, step back and look at the situation objectively.

Do you have a marketing problem?

Or is it a process problem? A communication problem? A technology problem?

The goal of marketing is to deliver qualified leads. Once those leads are delivered, it’s up to your organization to convert those leads into customers so they deliver more leads and customers.

That requires the right people, the right processes and the right technology. That requires reliable data, easy access to that data, open lines of communication, and collaboration.

If any of these elements are missing, your organization, whether it’s a hospital, doctor’s office, professional service provider, restaurant or retailer, is dropping the ball.

It’s not your marketing’s fault.

Small businesses have always had one major advantage over the big boys – the ability to respond quickly to customer needs without jumping through corporate hoops and cutting through red tape.

Larger companies have more employees, processes, sources of data and technology to manage than small businesses. Many larger companies are struggling to get their people on the same page and integrate their processes and technology.

Bringing everyone and everything together into a single cohesive unit isn’t as complicated for small businesses. And thanks to cloud-based communications and customer relationship management (CRM) tools, enterprise-class services and capabilities are now available to small businesses for a reasonable cost.

Of course, implementing the processes and tools required to deliver the best possible experience takes effort. It takes planning. It takes an investment.

Unfortunately, small business owners tend to spend most of their on day-to-day tasks that keep the lights on instead of long-term, growth-oriented initiatives. They’re unable or unwilling to capitalize on this opportunity to level the playing field with large companies.

And business as usual continues.

The customer experience should be the first priority of every business, large or small. Publishers and advertising execs are learning the hard way as they try to figure out how to deal with the ad-blocking phenomenon.

You give your marketing – and your business – the best chance to succeed when you invest in the customer experience.

Deliver the kind of experience today’s empowered customer demands and they’ll sing your praises from the rooftops. And their Facebook pages. And Yelp reviews.

Fail to deliver and they may just write an angry blog about their experience. Unlike me, most of these disgruntled customers will name names.

In case you were wondering, Cassidy is getting better and the pain in her eye started going away the next day. Croup makes her sound like she’s been smoking two packs a day for 20 years, but she’s back to her normal, sassy self.