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Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday – December 19, 2024: Thing Aren’t Always What They Seem
Last week, CNN aired a segment where their correspondent, Clarissa Ward, helped free a
man from prison in Syria following the downfall of dictator Bashir Assad.
The man acted as if he had been imprisoned for months and was another victim of Assad’s brutality. However, it soon became apparent he was actually part of the Assad regime and had only been held for a short time because he had supposedly extorted money from his colleagues. By the time this became public knowledge, the man had disappeared into the wind. Whoops.
The man who assassinated the CEO of United Healthcare was first thought to be a former insured who had suffered because of the company. It turned out although he had significant health issues, he was not a UHC customer and he came from a wealthy Baltimore family. He also may have intended to kill other insurance executives. Whoops.
In Gaza in November, there was outrage when a staff member of the World Central Kitchen was killed during an Israeli raid on Hamas operatives. Yet, last week it was revealed that the man killed had taken an active part of the massacre on Israeli civilians in October 2023. Not only that, but WCK then fired 62 employees who were found to have ties to Hamas. Double whoops.
With technology that allows news to be reported almost instantaneously, it’s difficult to determine if what we’re seeing is accurate. In today’s environment, one news source picks up another’s reporting, then this is repeated again and again on social media, and the inaccuracies become embedded in our minds. Meanwhile, by the time the truth comes out, the media have moved on. Or, like in the case of the Syrian prisoner, it’s too late to fix the error.
We need to step back and allow stories to unfold in more detail before jumping to a conclusion when a breaking news banner comes across the screen.
Too often, what we think we see at first is not the full story.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – December 12, 2024: Sickness in the System
Monday, after an intense manhunt, police in Altoona, PA arrested the man suspected of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson the previous week.
‘The killing has captured the attention of the country, with many people expressing more outrage about the way United Healthcare treats its customers than about the murder itself.
All health insurance companies deny coverage to insured patients as part of their business model. But UHC has a denial rate more than double that of its competitors. We know the alleged murderer had serious medical issues over the last few years, but we don’t yet know if he felt personally harmed by UHC.
My family has experienced UHCs mistreatment firsthand. But we didn’t 3D print a gun and stalk its CEO. Being treated poorly by a company is not a justification for murdering its executives. If it were, we’d have dead execs everywhere we turn, because someone, somewhere has an ax to grind with just about every company on the planet.
The American health care system has serious problems. Too often, people treated for serious illness wind up in bankruptcy because of exorbitant bills they can’t pay. Even worse, people die—not because their illness is untreatable, but because their insurance company refuses to approve the medical care that would save them.
The solution is not to kill the executives and extoll the murderers, but to use this as a chance to shed light on the problem so it can be properly diagnosed and treated. Otherwise, we are likely to see the problem of violence grow and metastasize. And that cures nothing.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – December 4, 2024: Getting Customer Service Right
| Let’s be frank: In most cases today, customer service really sucks.
We’ve all had to deal with cable or internet providers that send you down a dark hole of automated phone trees, bots, and other diversions. Or the companies that outsource their customer service functions offshore to people whose English skills are minimal at best. And don’t get me started on the hassle of dealing with most health insurance companies, medical providers, or pharmacies. If you weren’t feeling unwell when you started, you will be by the time you’re through with the interaction. That’s why it was such a great surprise to have not one but two customer service interactions this week that were resolved quickly and effectively. In the first case, I completed a survey about the company’s service that was actually read by someone at the company who took my comments to heart! They contacted me to confirm they had seen my comment, taken action to resolve the situation, and were now following up to make sure I knew this was fixed and to offer a free month of service for my trouble. The second situation involved a Cyber Monday promotion where the company’s website didn’t provide the correct promotional discount advertised. I emailed the company and they called me back to say they knew about the problem and would fix it manually. Then they confirmed that had been done. What makes these interactions different? In both cases, I was able to reach a live human being at the end of a customer input channel. There were no automated systems, bots, or AI assistants to get in the way. Both had someone who actually monitored customer communications, had the authority to fix the problem, and then responded in a timely fashion. And both took the time to make sure I felt appreciated as a customer. How much actual customer service are your customers really getting? Automated systems are great in some ways, but the bottom line is human beings still need to be involved to handle situations that are out of the norm. If you want to stand out from the crowd, try treating your customers like their business really matters. Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
Let us help your business rise to the top. linda@popky.com |
Top of Mind Thursday – November 28, 2024: Beyond Thanksgiving
Today was Thanksgiving in the United States—the day when we celebrate the Macy’s Parade, the National Dog Show, the week’s great Black Friday sales, big football games, and a lot of great food.
Oh, and we also try to take a few minutes to be grateful for what we have—though sometimes that seems to get lost in all the noise.
This year has been particularly challenging at times. We’ve gone through a particularly nasty polarizing presidential election, with much disruption expected in the year ahead. We’ve seen an alarming rise in hate crimes and violence in our streets and on college campuses, which appears likely to continue unabated. The war in Ukraine is approaching its third anniversary. A ceasefire in Lebanon may signal at least a temporary end to Hezbollah’s year of attacking Israel, but the situation in Gaza is unresolved and over 100 hostages have still not been returned home.
Amidst all of this, we have a one-day American holiday we spend with family and friends, and, as we avoid discussing hot, controversial topics, we try to remember to be thankful.
Maybe it’s time to rethink this concept. Instead of assigning a single day of gratitude, what if we focused on what we could do to make things just a little better every single day of the year? Instead of facing events we don’t agree with or don’t understand with violent protests, why not try to brainstorm a way to make things better? Instead of focusing on who to blame for situations that didn’t go our way, what about trying to learn from our mistakes so we can do better next time?
We may not be able to fix everything that’s broken, but maybe we can make a little bit of progress in the right direction. For that, we can truly be grateful.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com