Change Management - Being Remarkable is the Only Option

Pressure from customers, pressure from the government, pressure from the regulator, pressure from the economic climate; whether you are in the public or the private sector being in business is tough right now. So what do you do to survive and prosper? Improve service, cut costs, and change your product. How about a fourth option, one that's cheaper, better and bound to get you noticed: be remarkable.

Being remarkable means to do something worth talking about, and doing something worth talking about gets you new customers, or existing customers buying more of what you offer; that's the private sector of-course. In the public sector it can actually have the opposite effect; that what you do is so smooth that you get less demand, less call backs and less visits. Sure they still talk about you but not to you. That's what you want isn't it? The customer asks for a service, and they don't need to come back because it worked so well.

And, by the way, the same principle works in services where compliance is required, like the criminal justice system, if you make it easy for the accused to comply they go through the system fast and once (unless they commit more crime which is a different issue).

So let's say you buy into the idea, you want to be remarkable, how do you do it? Here are the principles:

1. Study each point of interaction with your customer. For example, last week I was in hospital. The points of interaction were: the front desk at A&E, the nurse, the doctor, the consultant, the porter, the wheel chair, the food, the bed, the ward nurse, the anaesthetist, and the chemist.

2. At each point ask yourself, what really matters to the customer here? For example at the front desk I wanted to some empathy, at A&E I wanted to be told how long I had to wait and what was going to happen, next I wanted to see the person that could help (not the nurse or the Doctor), when I had my scan I wanted someone there that could tell me what the picture meant, I wanted to see the consultant fast to find out what might be wrong, and finally I after my operation I wanted to know if I was going to live (a bit dramatic I know but that's how you feel if you get no information). Do you see that straight away there are opportunities to save money and provide a remarkable experience?

3. At each point of interaction take it to right to the edge of your imagination. For example if what mattered to me was being seen by the consultant, getting my scan and finding out my course of action fast. Then why not study the type and frequency of demand into A&E and put the right consultants and machines there. I bet lots of people would be seen really fast, would get fantastic service, it would be cheaper, and many wouldn't end up in the ward.

4. If you have trouble going to the edge of your imagination think about other systems that work well and look for the lessons. For example what if you designed A&E like your local deli, everything you need is right there, and the expert is at the front.

But the knowledge of how to be remarkable is only any good if you are one of the people who A) want to do it, and B) have the guts to see it through, in other words you're remarkable!