The Experience Economy

I grew up eating pork chops and rice on every day ending in Y, with a rare spaghetti surprise on a Saturday. Needless to say — I do not have a refined palate and my desire to try new foods far exceeds my experience when trying that food. I’ve firmly held the belief that Michelin restaurants were for a select few, those with a palate that could appreciate the $400 meal they were paying for.

Ahead of my flight to Seattle this week, I picked up a book called Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara.

Game-changer.

A new version of Dillon got off the plane, one that is looking for any reason to get to NYC and experience what I read about. At a cliff notes level — this is the story of how Will and his team evolved Eleven Madison Park (EMP) from a 2-star restaurant to the #1 restaurant in the world.

I couldn’t help but stop and take notes throughout the read — there are so many valuable lessons and parallels to healthcare that got me jazzed up to write this article.

Will talks about the evolution in the US from a manufacturing economy to it’s current state of a service economy — over 75% of our GDP is driven by services. In a world that’s driven by services, delivering hospitality at an unreasonable level is the spark that kicked off their journey and what I believe will lead to the Experience Economy in healthcare.

Below, you’ll find my five favorite lessons that can be applied today:

Service is black and white; hospitality is color

“Black and white means you’re doing your job with competence and efficiency; color means you make people feel great about the job you’re doing for them”.

Taking care of patients and ensuring a successful clinical outcome is table stakes — truly engaging with those patients you’re serving is hospitality. At NRC Health, we’ve found that by making patients feel heard, partnered with, and understood, they’re more likely to leave the encounter as a promoter of the organization.

Consider how your team can learn the joys, fears, and goals of the individuals you serve ahead of their visit. Using this information to then co-design a care plan with the patient’s goals in mind is how we can begin delivering daily, legendary experiences.

Deliver legendary experiences

Will’s team “sought out ways to make their guests’ experiences more seamless, relaxing, and delightful”. Three words that are rarely, if ever, associated with an experience in the healthcare system.

These don’t have to be extravagant or expensive ideas — at EMP, this meant things like:

• Asking if customers used street parking and adding quarters to the meter while they eat.
• A customer was getting ready to leave NYC and Will heard that they were upset to end the trip without having a street hot dog. Will bought several $2 hot dogs, plated them, and delivered an unforgettable experience for the family.

In healthcare, there are a multitude of ways to consider delivering legendary experiences, a few random ideas:

• If you learn that a patient has a pet at home, have a team member or local pet sitter ensure that the pet isn’t an added worry for the family.
• When learning about a patient’s life outside of healthcare, try to incorporate those details in a conversation. Ex: “Hi Tom. I see that you’re a retired Colonel in the Air Force — thank you for your service. Would you like to be addressed as Colonel McKinney or do you prefer Tom?”
• If a patient has had a long stay and is craving food, consider having an UberEats pool to pull from (assuming it follows dietary/internal guidelines of course).

Hospitality is a dialogue, not a monologue

Will’s team was delivering exceptional service to customers, though he sought out ways to help the experience feel less transactional. An immediate opportunity that he saw, and that we’ve all experienced, was upon check-in.

Greeted by a host or maître de behind a podium, a quick glance at an iPad, table assignment, and you’re off. He compared this to how you’re greeted when you enter a friend’s house for dinner — open door, direct eye contact, and they welcome you by name.

EMP removed the podium and began printing out a “cheat sheet” of customers to welcome them by name when they arrived — the experience improved markedly.

Can you think of similar transactional interactions in healthcare that can be improved from an experience lens?

Tap into their passions and give them the keys

Will tells us how he exponentially improved the “programs” of EMP — think coffee, cocktails, dishware and linens, etc… all components of a successful restaurant that roll up to an ultimate outcome.

They committed to passion being a core value during their strategic planning meetings and found people passionate about the work that became “owners” of the program. One member is passionate about coffee and focused solely on making EMP’s coffee program the best around — and succeeded. Another is passionate about wine and helped curate a world-class wine list/experience.

When we think about healthcare, we all know that engaging the workforce is Issue #1, #2, and #3 on executive’s minds. Often wondering if it’s pay, less hours, etc that can get staff to stay — we should also consider giving team’s passion projects that “fill their bucket” while simultaneously improving the state of the organization.

An example from a partner of ours is a cardiologist that’s leading sustainability efforts for their system — he’s passionate about responsible use and renewable energy, making him a perfect person to lead efforts from a clinical leadership role.

If you take care of your managers and give them what they need to be successful, you put them in a better position to take care of their teams

There’s been an evolution in healthcare that has expanded the definition of “experience” — formerly solely focused on the patient — to include team members as well. If the team is cared for and in a position to succeed, patient outcomes generally improve.

Will experienced this when working through some manager conflict and realized that most of their “put employees first” mindset was being applied to the front-line staff — those working the dining room and kitchen, not the managers.

Through this conflict he realized that taking care of his managers is equally as important as the rest of the staff — in fact, managers thrive when they’re put in a position to succeed with autonomy.

We often see Nurse Managers, and other leaders that have been promoted because they’re exceptional at their job, not get the training and tools needed to be successful as a manager.

Consider training programs for all new leaders and facilitating feedback sessions about what can be improved on the front-line; they often have a pulse on the issues that may go unnoticed at a board level.

This training should cover how to have constructive conversations with the team, both from a recognition and opportunity standpoint; care team digests or summaries of these opportunities are low-hanging fruits to consider.

Conclusion

In healthcare, we often look out of industry for inspiration on how to improve and deliver on customer expectations. Will’s journey is one of the clearest examples that focusing on delivering exceptional experiences is a tide that lifts all boats.

To thrive in this Experience Economy — we should consider how to wow our communities when they receive care, beyond the black-and-white, bringing color and hospitality to the forefront.