When Disaster Strikes
Posted on March 28, 2007 - Filed Under General |
How you react when something bad happens in your practice can often be more important than how you react and act when things are going well.
I’ve been following the menu foods recall with interest as I have cats.  I find it interesting to notice how different companies involved in this recall handle themselves (or not).  I am making judgements based not only on the quality of the food but on how these companies treat their understandably frightened customers.
I went into acupuncture because it’s a safe medicine. What if something happens after a treatment that a patient thinks is the result? Do I completely discount their experience or do I listen? Do I offer to see what I can do to help? If the patient is really unhappy with me, will I refer them to someone else?  Often it’s the first moments and the first report of the problem that can diffuse a situation. If you are open to the experience of the patient and say wow, that’s horrible and then listen to what they want as well as assuring them that it’s not a typical response to acupuncture, often you will get farther than the dogmatic, “It’s not the acupuncture.”
Letting people know you care about their experience is probably the most important thing when a disaster strikes. I have been reading a blog that discusses the response of Hills to the recall. Everything about the response is completely impersonal and out of touch of the veterinarian’s experience. It is also completely uncaring and unresponsive to a question and several letters posted in the comment section of this post.
At this point, people have made up their minds about the company and they will have to work far harder for damage control afterwards.
What would have been different if they had had representives call or email or fax every veterinary clinic they did business with the first day of their voluntary recall, stating that they were taking these steps for these reasons. What if they had reassured veterinarians that they were having a third party assay done (even as we speak) of the ingredients in the batches of food that might be affected? Once this proceedure was done, what if they had immediately faxed the results to the veterinarians, and made sure any other foods were also recalled?  Once the problem was found in the wheat gluten, what if they had tested the wheat gluten in all their foods and immediately faxed the results to veterinarians after that? Yes it would have cost money, but think of the customer confidence in the company.  I’d consider doing business with a company that responded like that and feel good about telling others about it too.
When disaster strikes, remember it is often the most memorable moment for your company. I should hope that no acupuncturist has to handle the disaster the size of this one but we each have our little problems. Handle those with compassion for the patient affected.
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