Long before Hep C Connection, Ann Jesse (formerly Harlan) was the founding Executive Director of a New Orleans food bank called the Community Food Distribution Center (CFDC), described as one of the first programs of its kind in the US. In addition to a large central storage area, 17 distribution centers served those needing help […]
Category: Healthcare
Ann Jesse dedicated herself to providing Hep C sufferers peace of mind, along with education and access to needed clinical and emotional resources. It started with Hep C Connection’s He!p Line. Notes an organization brochure back in the day: “How He!p Line works…Positive screening for HBV and/or HCV triggers a notification letter to the donor, […]
Ann Jesse didn’t just talk about change. She made it happen. Along the way, she enhanced many lives nationwide. She founded multiple organizations. Hep C Connection is the one I knew best. A brochure summarizes the organization’s focus, which ultimately became their most extraordinary customer service contribution: “When donors test HBV/HCV positive, give them more […]
My longtime friend, Ann Jesse, just died. Ann didn’t just practice stellar customer service, she created it. When diagnosed with Hepatitis C in the nineties, she started a national Hep C support organization to provide the help and answers she hadn’t been able to find anywhere else. The Hep C Connection grew to one of […]

Amid COVID-19, mask wearing has become a huge political football. As a matter of common sense and exercising critical thinking skills, wearing a mask is not about politics. It’s about our health collectively, and about showing respect for the health of others. Period.

Customer service isn’t one-size-fits-all. While there are some policies that merit universal application, such as listening to and acting upon customer concerns in a caring and substantive way, preferences can vary considerably. What do companies do to best identify what most customers want and expect, understanding that not everyone will be happy? In the words […]

In search of a qualified functional medicine specialist with whom I could partner to improve my health, I discovered a huge abyss of customer service attitudes. The first candidate lost the opportunity to serve me after saying the doc didn’t offer short, complimentary meet-and-greets to determine if a positive connection exists. Oh, and I […]

There’s been a lot of talk about over-communicating with customers during COVID to make sure they know they’re acknowledged and cared about. However, there are definite exceptions—in this case it involves a prospect but the same principles apply to existing customers. A few weeks back, I checked into Inogen, a portable oxygen concentrator company just […]

As important as providing and documenting great customer service is, discovering and acting upon customer dissatisfaction may be even more important. According to a recent business2community.com article: “Customer complaints provide valuable data…There are more of these than you may realize. A study by 1st Financial Training Services found that 96% of unhappy customers don’t complain, however, 91% […]

Hopefully, one of the most enduring COVID-19 crisis legacies will be a corporate culture where customer service reps offer an open hand to help versus a clenched fist. For far too long, corporate America has largely embraced the clenched-fist policy, in which customer service is provided in as small increments as absolutely necessary. In many […]