By Steve Moran

While at the NIC 2024 spring conference, I was talking to Joe Walter, the director of sales and marketing for LifeWell Senior Living. I can’t quite remember how the topic came up, but we got to talking about customer and resident complaints, and how to best deal with them.

He had the most brilliant idea I have ever heard. Here is the question:

“What do I have to do to make it right?”

Then, of course, you have to go do whatever it is they say, or a little more than that.

That’s Nuts

I know you. I can read your mind. You are thinking that is the nuttiest idea you have ever heard; people will ask for all sorts of unreasonable, crazy things.

It turns out that part is not true.

• They will mostly ask for less than you would ever imagine.
• Even if they ask for more than what you think is reasonable, most of the time, the cost of providing it will be very, very small.
• Think about how you would react after complaining about some service or product if the company simply asked, “What would it take to make it right?” While this has probably not happened, if it did, I bet you would be reasonable, maybe even to the point of looking back later and wishing you had asked for more.
• If you on occasion get asked for something too big … do it anyway. The storytelling value will eclipse the cost 100 times over.
• It will feel so so good for you and for your team. You will be the company, the community, that does something very, very different — that stands for something very, very different.
• This also applies to team members.

Try it for a month; see how it goes. I already know it works for Joe, his team, and the LifeWell brand.