One of the many benefits of writing this blog has been some of the great people I have had the chance to meet as a result along the way. .Frank Eliason, Senior Director of National Customer Service for Comcast Cable is one of those individuals who I've gotten to know and co-present with at a couple of conferences. Frank has made a legend of himself in the corporate customer service world and has been written about in Business Week, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal to name a few. So when it comes to customer service, I tend to take his opinions to heart. The last time we were together in Chicago, he was telling me the story about Zappos, (the online shoe retailer that was recently sold to Amazon for the equivalent of $1.2 billion in stock) and about how their CEO, Tony Hsieh turned this internet start up into one of the most successful internet businesses of all time principally by being obsessed with creating an outstanding culture of service. So when I was recently contacted to see if I wanted an advanced copy of Hsieh's new book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, I was more than a little intrigued and agreed.
In reviewing the book, there is background on Hsieh's upbringing, early career start-ups, and ultimately how he got involved with creating Zappos. From there it reads quite differently from many business books I have read with many personal stories and anecdotes from Hsieh and his staff, however the message is not entirely new or inconsistent with I have always believed in...create a winning culture and your brand will be successful.
Zappos' goal is simple: have the best customer service in the world. For Zappos, customer service is not a department but rather a core purpose that transcends every aspect of the business. To accomplish this goal, everyone has to be on board. As the company was struggling in their early existence to survive, the staff created a set of 10 core principles for which everyone is now screened before hiring and evaluated against to remain employed by Zappos.
As we grow as a company, it has become more and more important to explicitly define the core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategies. These are the ten core values that we live by:
These principles are not merely words talked about at orientation or hanging on a framed picture in the hall, but are truly the core values for which the Zappos brand and company exists. Hsieh points out to "Hire slowly and fire quickly" is one of their secrets of success. With these values firmly committed to, Hsieh has challenged each of his staff to make at least one improvement each week to make Zappos better reflect its core principles.
The end of the book and "the end game", as Hsieh calls it, is all about Happiness. He's passionate when he talks about customer happiness, employee happiness, and [leadership] happiness - "the goals of happiness aren't mutually exclusive." From there he challenge his readers to think about happiness and what it means to them. A few example questions he poses:
- What is success?
- What is happiness?
- What am I working towards? (Make sure that the answer to this question supports the answers you gave for the first two.)
- Make a list of the happiest periods of your life, and find the connecting threads.
- Where's the opportunity for you to live your happiness?
- What is your company's core values and higher purpose?
- How do you relate to them?
So if you have read this far, you may be asking why have I written about this book and this topic? The answer lies in the following question....if an online shoe store could turn themselves into a billion dollar enterprise with wildly loyal customers by focusing on culture and service, what do we need to do accomplish the same goal? I look forward to hearing your suggestions and continuing the discussion!
4 comments:
Thanks for the post Marty!
I agree that the concept of happiness/customer focus needs to become a core value of the healthcare delivery system that is being built.
The challenge is daunting. The root cause of the problem is that the USHC industry has been built to focus on the providers of care instead of the patients.
I look forward to future posts.
A critical key to shifting the culture is to measure happiness/satisfaction and support/incent people to walk the talk.
PJ - I think you are right in your assessment on the root of the problem. All too often individual needs are placed about those of the patient or institution.
As to shifting the culture, I do agree that satisfaction needs to be measured and supported, but I think I (and the book) would disagree on the happiness part...to me happiness is an intrinsic value. People choose whether or not they are happy. It may be influenced by their environment, but each individual has a choice on how they respond. People need to make an honest assessment about what makes them happy and determine if they are in the right place to make that happen. As Quint Studer would say, if they have a purpose, are doing meaningful work, and are making a difference I think most would people would feel happy with their situation. If not, then they need to determine which of the above isn't happening and act accordingly. Thanks for the comments!
I think that we as "team members" sometimes forget what our purpose is. We start thinking about "me" and forget about we, and about who our customers are. I have worked at Disney World in FL, and the employees there are proud to work there, and be a part of the magical experience of its guests. In the healthcare industry we provide a different kind of magic but it is still an experience that is remembered, whether good or bad. I think that we have stopped taking pride in our work, whether it be delivering meals with a smile or being there to comfort a patient who is scared. It all makes a difference in making a better work place.
Marty,
I really appreciate this post. I think a lot of people are working simply to find a way to provide for their families, which is a good reason, but are unable to find happiness in the repeating parts of the job. I don't have a lot of experience in the industry yet, but have realized that you can't manufacture happiness. As you mentioned, it's intrinsic. One can behave as if they are happy, yet still be unhappy. The question now becomes, how do we help people feel happy from day to day? In this industry, it needs to be patient focused as already mentioned. As leaders in health care, we need to foster a culture of service. The staff serving the patients, going above and beyond their expectations, top management serving the staff. One of the best examples I have seen is the CEO of JetBlue, David Neeleman. He regularly jumps on flights as a flight attendant, checks bags and even loads bags on the planes. It keeps him humble. These are things that he is not expected to do, but he chooses to do. He chooses his happiness as you mentioned. I know these are a lot of random thoughts, hopefully they make sense.
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