My article Organizational Empathy, from Top to Bottom has been published by Appliance magazine. I consider my experience as an HMO “customer” as a way to look how organizations instill and act on empathy at all levels.
I went online to make a medical appointment recently, and I was surprised that there was no place to explain my symptoms or reasons for needing to see the doctor. When I arrived at the clinic a few days later, a receptionist collected my copayment without any discussion of my situation. I found my assigned room and dropped check-in printout in the appropriate tray. After a moment, my name was called, and a medical assistant brought me back and began administering “treatment.” I was told to stand on a scale, and then brought to a room where she took my blood pressure. Then she wheeled over a device on a pole and produced a long metal probe. She advanced on me with it, pointing it at my face, without saying a word. Bewildered and slightly afraid, I soon realized it was a digital thermometer and that I was supposed to open my mouth (which I did, seconds before impact).
Tags: appliance, culture, empathy, hmo, medical, organization, temperature
having had a similar experience with my primary care doctor, i read this post with great interest.
i like your point about using tools like ethnography to “bring the organization a new understanding of the customer’s frame of reference” and i can see how your work would be very valuable to organizations who lack real customer empathy — but i wonder if it is as much about changing the organization’s culture as it is about equipping the people with the tools and insights generated from those tools.
it seems to me that most medical organizations, for example, are concerned first and foremost with the patients’ physical health instead of customer service or providing more holistic care — that mindset pervades the culture and manifests itself in the kind of experience you described.
Comment by denise lee yohn 11.28.09 @ 5:23 pmDenise – to me these are closely related. First the organization has to understand more clearly what they are trying to solve and for whom, etc. Then they have to act on that understanding to create processes that help people act on that understanding. There’s no way my HMO could possibly design a better intake experience if they don’t understand how I experience the intake process and how/why that differs from their intent.
Comment by Steve Portigal 11.30.09 @ 10:07 amagree — they’re closely related!
Comment by denise lee yohn 11.30.09 @ 10:28 am