I last wrote a blog a long time ago (and we have yet to get any complaints).
It is a new year, and it is time to start up again. I want to start it like every New Year by honoring my grandfather, Elmo Chapin.
This Saturday is the anniversary of his birth. At Willmar Electric, we call it Elmo Chapin Day. I even have a particular Jacket I wear to celebrate.
My 2024 started with a visit to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. It is quite the place. Many consider it the best hospital/clinic in the world. If you haven’t been, I suggest keeping it that way, but if you get sick or injured, I recommend going there to get healed.
My visit was for a follow-up visit three months after my neck surgery. The visit should be my last visit and the end of a nearly two-year ordeal to eliminate the pain in my neck.
The customer service at Mayo is off the charts fantastic. They celebrate Elmo Chapin Day every day.
Over the last six months, I have had roughly 15 different appointments with them. Each of my interactions left me impressed with them.
During the past two years, I have had about the same number of appointments with a local unnamed health organization. About half of them left me wanting to advise them on customer service. It isn’t that the local people were bad. It was more like they were average, somewhere between Target and Home Depot.
My Mayo appointments were on time. Locally, they could be up to 30 minutes late, even if it was the day’s first appointment.
My wife, Sue, and I stayed at a hotel this week and walked to the clinic for my appointments. Because we were in Minnesota, there was a system of skyways and subways we could take to make sure the entire 15-minute walk was indoors. But if you ever walk that far on an indoor system, you know it is more complex than using the sidewalks. Each time we paused to read a sign to ensure we were going in the right direction or hesitated momentarily, somebody would ask if we needed directions. Everyone who helped us had a name badge on and worked for Mayo. Even if we were several blocks from the clinic, these people stopped to help us before starting their shift (or after it was over).
It is exactly how Elmo Chapin would have done it. If he saw somebody needing help, he asked them if he could help them.
A few weeks ago, I missed a pre-appointed check-in call. When I called Mayo back, the person answered the phone, saying she was in the sports medicine department. I apologized and said I had the wrong department. She then asked me the purpose of my call, and I told her why I was calling. She asked for my name and my date of birth. I gave it to her, and she said she would handle the call. She did.
When I had the same situation with another medical facility, they politely told me I had the wrong place and then sent me on a long journey through their phone system. It is how we have all come to expect things.
Elmo Chapin would want to help you solve your problem, not send you on your way.
So, on January 6, Elmo Chapin Day, I encourage you to go the extra mile for someone else. It will make you feel great. It will make the other person feel like you care, leaving them impressed. It is a win-win situation.
Feel free to do it every day. My Grandpa did and so do the people at Mayo.