News Releases

Customer Focus Garners Global Award

Houston, Texas, December 12, 2003 -- Earlier this year, hospitals across the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System set a new standard for customer service through a strategy so inventive that it has received global recognition. Memorial Hermann’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiative was among 14 international companies to win a 2003 Peppers & Rogers Group “1 to 1” Innovator Award. The prestigious marketing awards program recognizes the successful and measurable impact of customer-based initiatives in organizations worldwide.

“Our goal is to recognize a firm’s creative excellence in maximizing the value on the investment in its customer base,” said Don Peppers, partner, Peppers & Rogers Group. “Each year we are privileged to review the best that the world has to offer.”

In the highly competitive healthcare industry, where hospitals vie for preferred customers, excellent customer satisfaction is a critical key to success. Aiming to improve volumes of preferred customers, Memorial Hermann contracted with the Turning Point Group to design a customer vision and strategy that included a customer database, an intranet-based marketing campaign tracking tool and preferred customer satisfaction tracking tools. Two teams were also assembled to develop standards for telephone customers as well as for face-to-face customer interaction.

By utilizing preferred customer feedback, Memorial Hermann improved communication at its hospitals and increased awareness of products and services by targeting preferred customers before, during and after their hospital stays.

“For any successful business to continue its growth, relationships with the right customers must advance after the initial service,” said Thomas Downing, managing partner of The Turning Point Group.

Rod Brace, CEO of Memorial Hermann Fort Bend Hospital added: “The comments we have received from patients have a passion about them which shows that we have moved from providing a service to creating an experience.”

All Memorial Hermann CRM program goals were exceeded or met, including improved customer satisfaction scores of 8.5 points and an increase in employee mystery shopper results from 76 to 93 percent. To build upon this platform, the System’s CRM department has developed a 12-month plan to provide employee training.

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