Point of Care - Moment of Truth

In "At America's Service," Karl Albrecht merges Moments of Truth and defines it as an episode in which the customer comes into contact with any aspect of the organization and gets an impression of the quality of its service.

The originator of this concept is Jan Carlzon, the CEO of SAS Airlines. He demonstrated his abilities as a leader by turning around one travel agency and two airlines in Scandinavia. His greatest feat was the revitalization of SAS from losing 8-million-dollar per year to a 71-million-dollar profit in one year. How did this come about? The vision of the airline was clarified, establishing business travel as the company market niche.

Next, two key concepts were installed as fundamental operational practices. First, the organizational pyramid was flattened to reduce the management hierarchy, and then the pyramid was inverted to make the CEO responsive to the management level personnel, and the management personnel, in turn, to be sensitive to the front-line staff (ticket agents, flight crews and ground personnel). The second reform installed was the management of the "moments of truth." Each of SAS's 10-million annual business passengers comes in contact with five SAS employees in arranging and taking a flight on the airline. That meant the employees of SAS had 50-million opportunities per year to shine or fail with their guests. Each of those contacts can have an impact on the customer's perception of service quality. Therefore, each employee was first enabled to provide the highest quality of service through an extensive and intensive customer-service training process. Then, by inverting the pyramid, they were empowered to turn the company around through their daily interactions with the real "boss," the passenger. I would highly recommend Carlzon's book Moments of Truth to further your knowledge in this area.

An important point to consider relates to the difference between perception and reality. "It's not what is, but what appears to be that counts," is a phrase I heard once long ago, and in an idealistic response, I stated, "but you can't fool all the people all of the time, there must be substance and truth in the long run." In reality, it is the perception that counts, because that is the basis for the customer's decisions. So the "moments of truth" from initial awareness through continuing care become so very important. Each "moment of truth" can add to or detract from the perception of the quality of service, and when linked together form a chain of events which can win a missionary for your practice or become an inactive record in the filing cabinet.
These moments can be shining moments, neutral moments, or dull moments. A succession of shining moments can help build a high trust/low fear relationship. A series of dull moments or even one dull moment can lead to the loss of that relationship. A successful relationship is built one step at a time by paying attention to the small things that comprise the big picture. Stop and think about your favorite restaurant, hotel, or business establishment. I'll bet it's the extra steps or details that you did not expect, that brings you back with a smile. When you exceed the expectation, a shining moment is a result. When the expectation is unfulfilled, the result is a dull moment.

When a guest visits you in your home, do you look to the little extras to ensure a pleasant visit? Do you look forward to being a great host? Is the attitude experienced in your favorite restaurant or when you are having guests to your home the mood you want in your practice? Michael Leboeuf described the Greatest Management Principle in the book by the same name as "That which gets rewarded gets done." In his subsequent book How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life, he describes the Greatest Business Secret as "The rewarded customer buys, multiplies and comes back." The rewarded customer is the one who not only gets the results they expect, but they get more. Our guests will value being treated as guests in our practices and be rewarded by the attention to the "moments of truth."

So let's get down to business. We have taken the great work of Jan Carlzon and integrated the business model and process of Michael Gerber's "The E-Myth." The result of these insights, we created a "Point of Care Flow Model" that identifies the "moments of truth" in an end to end process. Our model is outlined below, demonstrating the critical moments in caring for a guest. Following the example of the Cycle of Service provided, or your version, list the events from initial awareness through continuing care, which generate a "moment of truth." Feel free to use this model as a guide to creating your process that you would like to use to take care of your guests.

 

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