Archive for December, 2009
Most of us would rather not go to a hospital. When we do go, it often seems that most of the staff aren’t too happy to see us there either. Individual medical professionals and staff can sometimes be friendly one-on-one, but nobody greets you, nobody welcomes you, and you spned most of the time sitting around in uncomfortable chairs, reading dull magazines, and trying to not breathe the air in the cramped waiting rooms.
I don’t write this post as an endorsement of Kaiser, but I recently went to a Kaiser facility and was extremely surprised by the great service. It provides a great view into transforming of customer experiences. In the case of Kaiser, admittedly I was expecting the worst. The ‘Thrive’ branding seems so perfect, but how could a large company in such a tough industry transform such a typically negative experience into a positive one? Kaiser proved, at least in my case, that it could be done. Anyone who provides service to the general public could learn from the detailed and simple steps Kaiser has taken to make the customer experience far exceed the expectations. (more…)
It is interesting to see how the complex system of consumer spending, retail and the general economy are playing against each other this holiday season. Helen Bulwik, our retail expert at Bedrock Dissero, was recently interviewed for an ABC-TV report on retail trends in 2009. In this she pointed out that in 2008, there were 70+ percent discounts on products prior to Christmas. This was necessary to get shoppers into stores and behind the scenes, there was a great amount of excess inventory that retailers knew needed to be reduced quickly in the face of weak consumer demand.
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Michael Kanazawa shares recent insights and tips about the no-nonsense, results-driven approach to driving business breakthroughs found in his new book Big Ideas to Big Results.