Comments on: Procedures That Drive Customers Crazy

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:21:48 +0000

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This post was mentioned on Twitter by bwlight: RT @MichaelHyatt: New blog post: Procedures That Drive Customers Crazy http://su.pr/2dMta9...

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:53:10 +0000

I certainly share your frustration. However, I will say the medical field is the one field where "senseless" redundancy is essential.

In most settings an error or omission isn't a life or death matter. In a doctor's office, the most minor error or omission could kill you.

I'd say you did exactly the right thing: accept the fact that it is just going to take TOO darn long, and see what you can learn from it. ;-)

By: @heretolead

@heretolead — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:43:34 +0000

We recently redesigned our church communication card to stop asking certain questions. We weren't doing anything with certain information, so there's no reason to ask. Not sure why a church needs to know previous church membership or the age/grade of kids living in the homes. It's quite possible that we would get more information if we asked fewer questions. My recent post Finding Your Voice

By: Madden Corner

Madden Corner — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:40:46 +0000

I understand this all to well I'm in the military. Sometimes things can be simplified to flow better. Nice way to turn around the situation.

By: Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:13:13 +0000

I haven't read that. I'll have to check it out.

By: Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:30:42 +0000

My primary care physician is awesome—and an exception to the general rule. The front desk says, "If you haven't been called by a nurse within ten minutes, please let us know." I have never waited more than five minutes. Somehow, they have figured it out!

By: Lizaroonie

Lizaroonie — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:18:06 +0000

Mike, Seth Godin has a good blog post about linear and parallel.

By: Ron Edmondson

Ron Edmondson — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:16:01 +0000

I agree. I believe sometimes they are double-checking themselves, since your health is at risk and to avoid lawsuits, but acknowledging the multiple duplicate questions would help.

Because I'm a pastor in a military town I get to fill out paperwork and be interviewed frequently as a character reference for military and civilians seeking security clearance with the government. They ask the same question all the time, either in print, by phone or in person. Recently I received the exact same form 3 separate times. Honestly, I had forgotten some of my answers. Had I known the person 7 years or 6? Honestly I can't remember exactly, but it's more than 1 and it's long enough to observe their character. Interesting, the form actually says, "because of the complexity of this investigation you may receive this form numerous times." I still don't get it, but at least they told me in advance.

By: PJohno

PJohno — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:22:33 +0000

There is a great tool called Value Stream Mapping that is a great way to analyse these problems. It is possible to map the process flow and ask what are the value add steps in the chain and why are there all these queue and wait times, duplications in info flow, etc and what could a future state look like that could be much more efficient (and desirable to customers).

By: barbara

barbara — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:07:31 +0000

Agree, Michael – Would hate to have *add* a surprise to a major chains program. Sometimes I think they would rather *miss* a trend than re-do their plan-o-gram.