Month: November 2025

Found – a sector that lags behind Healthcare in CX

November 20, 2025

For more than 15 years, I’ve worked for companies that provide outsourced contact center services to health insurance plans. It is no secret that the healthcare sector is behind other sectors, especially in providing digital customer experience. Amazon has set a high bar, so every consumer expects an Amazon-like experience. Even though I am fresh from an inexcusably bad customer experience from a health insurance plan (see my post on Master Class in DSAT), I believe I’ve stumbled across one sub-sector that is worse.

In my most recent posts, I’ve shared that I had a heart valve replaced (open heart surgery) eight weeks ago. One of the recommendations the surgeon’s team made was ‘subscribe to a meal delivery service’ to reduce the manual labor going into mealtimes. It is amazing how many such services there are. Nearly every Facebook ad I am served up is a meal delivery service. They all have the same stock requests involving weight loss goals, managing conditions such as diabetes or gluten intolerance, or just making meal prep easier. Surprisingly, none of them have any heart-healthy choices. Somehow this corner of the population is not addressed at all. The marketer in me sees this as an opportunity, but these companies don’t even consider heart healthiness an option. All of them are tone deaf in their incessant email communication about weight loss goals. When you have open heart surgery, you lose about 15% of your body weight, so your weight is a different concern.

Although I will not identify any companies by name, I sampled from two meal delivery services. The first one (company A) delivered the meals for the week in a special package, which they asked me to leave on my doorstep after unpacking the meals. Nowhere in their communication did they say they only pick up their package on alternate Thursday afternoons. My HOA noticed and threatened punishment if I didn’t remove the package from my doorstep. Okay, so maybe execution is not company A’s forte. How was the food? It was somewhere between vintage TV Dinners and military surplus MRE. And not cheap. Company B did somewhat better on execution but did not allow any substitutions. None of their meals were anything I would have chosen, not to mention what I would have considered heart-healthy. It is all cheese-intensive slop. Although I immediately canceled all subsequent orders, they claimed my cancellation was late and sent me an identical order. Same slop, different day. Fortunately, I was able to give the food away but still had to pay for it.

Two miserable customer experiences. They didn’t have to be. What could they have done better?

  • Be clearer about your policies, especially regarding product returns.
  • Make it easy for people to buy from you. These meal delivery services all make you sign up with a credit card before choosing the first meal. This is backwards, not to mention a potentially sinister practice that ensures a horrible customer experience.
  • Own up to deficiencies in your product line. If you don’t have heart-healthy products, admit it. Don’t be so quick to book the order if you clearly cannot provide for the customer.
  • Ease up on the volume of emails. You’re on track to receive what I call The Groupon Award for Unreasonable Email Excess. Groupon was the king back in their day. I would receive 15 to 20 different emails per day from the online consumer marketplace. Same thing with food delivery services. I consider 15 emails a day from anyone to be excessive.
  • Answer questions from potential customers. All of these services have a “chat” or “contact us” feature on their websites. I’ve written to about 30 such companies to ask if they have heart-healthy meals. Guess how many responded. Yep, zero responses in the past 5 weeks. Batting .000. Not even the Mendoza Line is a reachable goal. Are you too busy to learn from potential customers? Did you not train the chatbot to understand the request?
  • Unsubscribe means just that. Take me off your list. Now.

Not that it is any consolation, but I believe I have found an industry that outdoes healthcare in providing a poor digital CX. And these are all newish companies, so there is no excuse for such poor operation.

Wait, what? Did they really say that?

November 15, 2025

You’ve probably heard these phrases somewhere in your journey. Maybe during interviews or discovery calls. There may be a kernel of truth somewhere, but they are really confessing some serious flaws in their business. This blog post describes how to decode those flaws and use them to your advantage.

If we close more deals, we will get more money for marketing.

Their truth: In my 30+ years as a marketing professional, I have seen no link between closed deals and increased marketing spend. This even applies to deals that were brought in by marketing. Somehow, the person I met at a trade show, who had never heard of our company, turns out to be an old friend of the salesperson. Spurious at best, but once that deal finally closes it will not lead to marketing getting any more money.

Honest answer: Use your CRM as the single source of truth. Make sure the deal has a marketing attribution. Maybe the first encounter was at a trade show or webinar. Perhaps the lead has been nurtured via campaigns. Look for some tie to a marketing program.

We prefer to promote from within.

Their truth: Although it may be true for disciplines such as engineering or clinical, promotions from within just don’t happen in marketing. In his recent CMO Ladder newsletter, Michael Wright notes that 21 new CMOs were announced globally last month: 9 women + 12 men, and NOT A SINGLE internal promotion. All external hires. Evidently, when it comes to succession planning, many companies are still outsourcing ambition. My experience is they see you for who you were when you joined. Whether it was the person who installed and maintains Salesforce, or the person who speaks to the press on behalf of your company, or the person who writes the LinkedIn posts, you are frozen in eternity in that role.

Honest answer: They probably do not promote marketers from within. Sadly, the organization views marketing as a clerical or administrative function rather than a key leadership role.

You own the marketing budget.

Their truth: Most organizations have levels of spending approval. But I’ve also been in companies where even a vice president had to seek approval for every transaction. Here is my example. A tradeshow booth was slightly damaged in shipping to the venue. I could repair it easily, but alas, the tube of super glue in my repair kit was dry. I ran across the street to Walgreens to buy a new tube. I fixed the booth, and the show went brilliantly. However, my expense report was rejected. Why? That $3 tube of super glue came out of nowhere and freaked out the finance people.

Honest answer: Be prepared to justify everything. Yes, everything.

We have no real competition.

Their truth: This is either coming from a stadium-sized ego, or someone who has a totally narrow view of a competitive landscape. Even if there are no direct competitors, you are still competing against alternative solutions, substitutes, and the customer’s budget. A prospect that chooses to perform a task in-house rather than outsourcing is a form of competition.

Honest answer: Go back to the problem your solution is meant to solve. Always ask who else is trying to solve the customer’s problem, not just those doing it in the exact same way you are. Successful companies got there because they provided a better experience than the existing competitors, not because they had no competition. 

You are our first marketing hire.

Their truth: This one should be a red flag during the interview process. Unless the company was literally founded last week, there is little chance that you will be their first marketing hire. Maybe not even their first full-time marketing person. I’ve heard this one a few times, only to find that there were lots of people who burned bridges with customers or salespeople, who may have had one of the skillsets of a marketer (graphic design, anyone?) but not the right combination of skills or considered the marketing role to be a sideline. The CRM is probably loaded with them.

Honest answer: Make the marketing role your own. Maybe you are the only person who has ever interacted with an industry analyst firm, or run trade shows, or developed a coherent product launch plan. Bring your own magic to the role.