Customer Service Tip: Hire Grandmothers
Recently, I’ve been seeing the state of U.S. health care up close and personal. Since I’m usually disgustingly healthy with no chronic conditions, I don’t have a “primary care physician.” Thus, I’ve been going the merry-go-around. GPs aren’t taking new patients and if they are, it’ll be two weeks - so only place I could go was an urgent care center (where I wait for three hours). The next appointment at the specialist is in July. I can’t get an earlier appointment without another referral, which has to come from my “primary care physician.” And around and around we go…
Adding insult to injury are the “typical” phone receptionists. Young (well, they sound that way), in a hurry, bored, and completely unconcerned about me and my health. Snip, snip, snap (that snap is of the gum.)
Luckily, the problem has resolved itself. But, the merry-go-round did move me to get a standard check-up, since it’s been a couple of years. So, I work the Blue Cross/Blue Shield list and find a doctor - gasp - that’s taking new patients. A grandmotherly-sounding woman answers, “Hold on a sec, let me grab the book.” We chat - she tells me “you’re so young!”(I loved that)…I’ve got an appointment next week. Through it all, she had a smile in her voice and seemed interested in me.
The irony here (and not just in the medical sector) is that receptionists are usually the last hired, first fired, lowest paid. This when they’re the first and best face to the patient, customer or client.
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Tags: customer service, marketing, marketing troubleshooting
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April 3rd, 2007 at 6:03 am
How sad and how true! In so many fields, where the majority of sellers are small operators (doctors, chiropractors, lawyers, accountants, funeral homes, etc.), desperate owners, unable to muster the bargaining power of larger entities, control the only costs they can (labor) in an attempt to make a profit.
So many operators are taught that they must wring every bit of excess out of their expenses, so they hire the least expensive people for the technically-simple jobs like receptionist or data entry clerk. Unfortunately, these are the jobs where easy mistakes (the kind that low-cost workers make) turn into the biggest problems.
Of course, simply paying $1 more an hour won’t get you the best person for the job. Usually, the difference between bad and okay is much smaller than the difference between okay and Fabulous.
And while hiring grandmothers might be a good solution for today, I worry that the politeness that you’ve encountered is not age-based, but generation-based. What happens when the 20-something receptionist of today becomes a grandmother? Does she automatically become sweet and charming?
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:04 am
Great post. I worked for a small tech company - all very young and hip, except for our grandmotherly, 70-ish receptionist. Lena was a doll - very warm and lovable. She made everyone who walked in the door feel great. (Much nicer than either of my “real” grandmothers, by the way.)
Mass General Hospital has elderly folks manning the desk in the room where the families of people having surgery wait. They’re very kind, supportive, and helpful even though, as my recent experience tells me, they really don’t get that a married woman can have a different last name than her husband.
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:32 am
Timothy - now there’s a frightening thought - the 20-something as a grandmother. We can only hope they learn and grow. After all, I was young and stupid once too. I’d suggest grandmother is more a state of mind - it’s about caring, nurturting, warmth. And there are many young people who are wonderful (pierced eyebrows and all.)
Maureen, Yep, and they also have difficulty understanding a woman who doesn’t have (or want) children and is blissfully happy as a single. (”Dont’ worry, dear, you’ll meet someone.”) That said, I think retirees can be great - they don’t have anything to prove, they like to keep busy and they’ve got a wealth of life experience from which to draw.
April 4th, 2007 at 8:22 am
The other great thing (from a penny-pinching standpoint) is that retirees normally work cheap. Better still, they usually don’t care about their hours (if you hire financially-secure folks) and can deal if you don’t give them lots of work each week.
Writing a funeral industry blog, I counsel my readers to hire as many part-time retirees as possible. First, because funeral service is not that physically demanding. Most entry-level workers open doors for viewings and answer the phone. Second, the kind of retirees that look for work are also usually well-socialized, meaning they have a large group of friends, to whom they’ll “evangelize” if you treat them well. Third, since the funeral industry experiences busy and slow periods (I once sat two weeks at the funeral home before getting a new client), funeral providers need flexible staffing that can handle such periods.
October 8th, 2007 at 8:53 am
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