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Do you Put Your Customers First?

12 May, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

I once went for a job interview with an insurance company.  Parked right outside the front door was the biggest Mercedes Benz I have ever seen, with the legend MD stencilled above the parking space.

As I walked away from the door the Mercs gradually got smaller and smaller.  It wasn’t, needless to say, the right organisation for me.

Contrast that with the Virginia Mason cancer centre in Seattle.  They have a “patients first” approach.  Instead of patients being ushered from appointment room to surgery to waiting room and back they are seen in well appointed naturally lit rooms where the doctors and technicians come to them.  The doctors work in windowless cubicles deep inside the building.

When it was introduced some of the doctors left in disgust.  What is more interesting though is that the centre is now regarded as one of the best in the US.

I wonder what the food is like.

Mercedes

Image by David Villarreal Fernández

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: customer focus, purpose

About the Author

James Lawther
James Lawther

James Lawther is a middle-aged, middle manager.

To reach this highly elevated position he has worked in numerous industries, from supermarket retailing to tax collecting.  He has had several operational roles, including running the night shift in a frozen pea packing factory and carrying out operational research for a credit card company.

As you can see from his C.V. he has either a wealth of experience or is incapable of holding down a job.  If the latter is true this post isn’t worth a minute of your attention.

Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to read it and decide for yourself.

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