By Steve Sullivan, National Sales Director

I spent an eternity last week with U-Haul trying to solve a simple moving problem. I may as well have been looking for the Coke recipe or Google’s current search algorithm.

We were looking for a certain sized trailer for a family member’s move to a new city. But searching for the trailer online, getting help from customer service, and then seeing the difference between what exists at the local U-Haul center and what appears online—each person we talked to seemed to have been speaking a different language. And this is not complicated stuff.

Most of the challenges stemmed from their approach to my simple questions—they only looked at it from their vantage point. They were unable to solve problems from the customer’s point of view.

Lots of wasted time, effort and money later, we got packed up and on our way, but it felt like an unnecessary ordeal.

Being inwardly focused and covering internal needs first rather than solving customer’s challenges is a recipe for customer frustration. If we don’t put ourselves in our customer’s shoes, we are going to miss easy ways to help them succeed.

Do our customers see the same result when they look for answers? Do we provide help? Do our systems allow us to address problems from the customer’s perspective? Are our customers more likely to be infuriated or informed?

These are questions healthcare providers, payers, and others providing services to the industry need to be asking.

About Hammock Healthcare Idea Email | This post is part of Hammock’s award-winning Idea Email series. Idea Emails are sent every other week and share one insightful marketing idea. Idea Email comes in two flavors: Original and Healthcare. To subscribe to the original Idea Email (general marketing ideas), click here . To subscribe to the Healthcare Idea Email (healthcare marketing ideas), click here.