A Woman’s Touch: Up-leveling the Branded Customer Experience

I’ve never been more excited to go get my mammogram this year. Yes, you heard me right. I was excited. I remember what I experienced last year at the The Center for Women’s Imaging, Penrose St. Francis (CWI) and was blown away. Latte’s, gourmet cookies, lemon infused water, sugar hand scrub, trail mix, soothing environment…I was ready!

This year’s experience was exactly what I expected, building another layer of trust from the consistency of the delivery of service. I was in and out of there in 30 min…then treated to the goodies mentioned above. I had to question “did I just experience a spa appointment?” Well, it kind of felt that way.

It really got me thinking. Because so many services these days are inconsistent, unpredictable, and oftentimes disappointing. The follow through on the promise is neglected, overlooked, underwhelming.

But not here. Now, I am compelled to shout out to the women of Colorado Springs about this place, become the CWI advocate, support their cause, send them referrals. All because they paid attention to HOW they wanted their patients to experience their brand of service. It’s that easy.

A multi-sensory experience. From the moment you walk into the lobby, noticing the cushy chairs, popular (and updated!) women’s magazines, hearing the soft ‘watercolors genre’ music in the background, the welcoming voice of the receptionist at the desk, plush robes, all the way to the actual delivery of mammogram service (which is not the most comfortable process for any of us), the experience was caring and nurturing. These professionals get it. They are highly emotionally intelligent and aware of the patients’ needs to feel comfortable, cared for, and heard. They themselves are patients, when you think about it….and they did (think about it), a lot.

I love that. Women LOVE THAT.

From my experience working with women clients, they have a tendency to be more multi-sensorial and absorb their surroundings at a visceral and emotional level. I believe that’s what makes us so good at nurturing, being acutely aware, and tending to the needs of others.

We don’t have enough of this thoughtful brand consciousness in the service delivery world. But I hope to change that through what I do for a living.

So, what does it take to deliver on this type of highly relevant, on-brand customer service? Here are a few ideas:

• An acute awareness of what perception you (the business) desires to create, consistently, for the customer. (Its all in your Brand’s DNA.)
• A full understanding and ‘buy-in’ of what the brand is and what it stands for, for all stakeholders.
• An inculcation of all employees into the brand’s promise and how to deliver on it.
• Creative and distinctive ways the brand is infused into the systems and processes, leadership, and employee culture to enlist, equip and engage stakeholders to deliver on the promise through the customer (patient) experience,

It’s that simple…on paper.

The real work comes from the due diligence necessary to identify and define the unique attributes of the brand, creating the brand blueprint, and then begin to take ownership of it, and create the tangibles that make it come alive.

But it’s all worth it. It creates a visceral connection to not only your customers (which seems to be the only thing businesses consider important), but to your employees – those stakeholders that have the power to make everyday decisions to ‘show up’ on-brand…or not.

You might think this example I illustrated is too easy, and that there are other ‘harder’ service industries that don’t have such obvious solutions to creating a highly distinctive, consistent and engaging customer experience. I beg to differ. Every industry has the opportunity to up-level the customer experience in my mind, it just takes clarity on what your Brand DNA is all about, then, almost magically, it all opens up, and becomes obvious for where you begin to take action.

The Women’s Imaging Center ‘gets it’ from top to bottom, inside and out. It would be a different world if this kind of attention and brand consciousness was a priority and infused in all businesses around the world.

Lot’s to do, so little time. ;0)