EP236: Customer Experience Advice: When Building to Simplicity, It Has to Be Perfect, With Liliana Petrova, CEO/Founder at The Petrova Experience

In this podcast, Liliana Petrova, CEO/Founder at The Petrova Experience, translates her experience as director of customer experience at JetBlue to the health care industry. Her advice is practical and designed to actually work in environments as complex and regulated and driven by safety concerns as the airline industry—and also, coincidentally, health care.

In the past in health care, some have perhaps underestimated the impact of customer experience. But it’s hard to continue to do so in the face of Forrester research showing customer experience drives revenue growth by double digits compared to laggards in markets where there’s competition. Actually, this growth difference is true even in some markets where there’s not much competition. Why? Because when the customer experience is really bad, customers might choose to abandon the service/care altogether and just not return at all, anywhere. And Gartner touting facts such as 89% of companies these days are competing on a customer experience battleground.

But back to today’s conversation. Somewhere in the middle of our chat, Liliana says, “When building to simplicity, it has to be perfect.” I loved it! This is a really simple, if you will, maxim with a lot packed into it that we spend some time unraveling. One spoiler: Good customer experience makes it easy for customers, makes it simple for customers. And second, perfect means perfect from the patient’s or customer’s point of view, not ours.

One of the parts of the conversation I loved was Liliana’s dissection of just the physical space of a typical waiting room from a customer standpoint. I never thought about it before, but that desk that the front office staff usually is sequestered behind? That tall desk with the glass window? It resembles a payday loan place in a bad neighborhood. What’s the subliminal message there?

Liliana wrote a few articles about lobby design, among other topics, by the way; and the links are in the show notes.

I met Liliana at the Pharma CX conference hosted by PanAgora.

Learn more at thepetrovaexperience.com.

Liliana Petrova, CCXP, is a proven leader in the field of customer experience (CX) and innovation. She pioneered a new customer-centric culture, energizing the more than 15,000 JetBlue employees with her vision. She has been recognized for her JFK Lobby redesign and facial recognition program with awards from Future Travel Experience and Popular Science.

Liliana shares her “how” through an online membership group for customer experience professionals. Learn more about the Petrova Method, a step-by-step process of CX design and organizational culture in Culture Starts at the Top and CX Design Makes Form and Function Beautiful.

In 2019, Liliana founded an international customer experience consulting firm that helps brands improve customer experience. To elevate the industry, her firm, The Petrova Experience, manages a digital membership organization for customer experience professionals to grow CX careers and stay up to date on CX news and trends. Liliana lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and daughter.

02:54 What health care stakeholders can learn from Liliana and the airline industry.
04:10 What drives customer loyalty?
06:21 What sparked JetBlue’s initiative to change their customer experience strategy?
08:40 The Cleveland Clinic Words Matter video.
08:57 Building to simplicity, perfectly.
11:00 Technology and customer experience solutions.
13:35 The importance of the waiting room within the patient journey.
19:16 “You just need the right design that is outcome driven.”
20:32 Liliana’s advice for moving toward apps and technology.
22:19 “What problem are you solving, and is this a real problem?”
23:50 The importance of customer research.
24:16 EP232: Jon Skinner of The Verde Group.
24:48 The end of the journey as a touch point.
25:08 EP226: Devon Herrick and surprise billing.
29:05 Customer loyalty as a return on investment.
29:17 Why improving customer experience is so difficult … and the roadblocks in the way.

Learn more at thepetrovaexperience.com.