WestJet Airlines built their reputation breaking rules to improve customer experience. The Christmas Miracle video went viral showing WestJet staff run around buying Christmas gifts for travellers based on wishes they made as they boarded. Travellers got their wishes when they landed, and WestJet got famous. No rulebook could lay out the performance needed for the Christmas Miracle.
Medicare stands at the other end of the customer service spectrum. Over-regulation makes outstanding customer service all but impossible. Here’s how.
Regulation decreases quality.
Rules stop staff from thinking.
Rules mandate a one-size-fits-all approach to individual patients.
Regulation doesn’t keep pace with progress.
Regulators rarely know the job like front line workers.
Regulation impoverishes decision-making.
Thick rulebooks make staff hesitate, or freeze with indecision.
Rules are open to interpretation.
Rules never account for every possibility.
People can’t remember all the rules.
Rulebooks get long and cumbersome.
Regulation is expensive.
It requires hordes of managers to enforce.
Rules take hours to maintain…at huge cost.
Rules are costly to produce.
Regulation crushes ingenuity and personal effort.
Provider effort withers with command and control rules.
You can’t regulate innovation.
Regulation undermines leadership.
Top-down edicts to front-line workers don’t influence change.
Regulation assumes an air of infallibility and certitude.
Who decides which new regulations to adopt?
Regulations are complicated, but life is complex.
Healthcare should define great customer service, but it never will as long as it’s over-regulated. What can we learn from WestJet about customer service?