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March 16th, 2005
A message from Mike Jacoutot to all SHC Associates

What business are we in?

Dear Valued Associates,

As we move closer to the final four months of our fiscal year, I want to re-emphasize our commitment and investment in you-the people, the face and the brand of Supplemental Health Care. We will continue to train and communicate with you on a regular basis. To that end, I would like to take this opportunity to share a recent experience I had as a customer with you.

I was in a local convenience store, the same store I have purchased my coffee from every single time I headed either to the office or the airport. Over the past couple of months, I noticed the store was starting to look disheveled and not as clean as it once was. The coffee didn’t seem as hot and was not as high quality as usual. Last Tuesday, I purchased gas and while the tank was filling I walked inside to purchase coffee. It was about 6:30 AM, and I noticed the coffee wasn’t very hot and surmised it had been made the night before. I walked over to the cashier and asked him if there was any freshly brewed coffee. His response was “that’s not my department, Jamie is in charge of the coffee and she is in the bathroom.”

“Not my department”, I thought to myself. This store cannot be more that 700 square feet and this guy tells me”It’s not my department”. Needless to say, I walked out of the store, did not purchase coffee, and drove off with my full tank of gas in quest of a decent cup of coffee. “They just lost a customer”, I said to myself. You see, I purchased gas there every week. I purchased coffee there three days a week. That store had close to100% of my gas and external coffee purchases. They treated me like a $1.19 coffee customer that was easily replaceable, not the $1600 a year customer that I actually was. They clearly did not understand the “lifetime value of a customer.”

Just then I thought to myself, “I wonder if the owner knows how poorly this employee treated a valuable customer? I wonder if management communicated and communicated how important each customer is to the welfare of the store? I wonder if the employee was trained on customer service? I wonder if the employee CARED about where he worked and the effect of his behavior on the overall business?”

This is what prompted me to write this memo. Supplemental Health Care, ladies and gentleman, is in the customer business first and foremost. We have two sets of customers: client and talent. Our core values of I CARE apply to both.

If one of our customers has a problem that you have been alerted to, don’t ever pass the buck to someone else or another department. Do the necessary leg work to make sure that customer problem is handled by you in the most professional manner possible. Say “thank you and thank you for choosing Supplemental Health Care.” Every week or two when we receive a paycheck we need to remind ourselves of one thing and one thing only: “This is our customers’ money” and we should be thankful that with nearly 400 health care staffing companies out there, they chose to share it with us! Jack Welch, former CEO of GE used to say: “Companies cannot guarantee job security, only customers can.”

Please make a commitment to yourself, your teammates and your company, that you will never say “that’s not my job.” In return I assure you that this customer focused attitude starts at the top with me! Let’s lead the industry in service excellence. One touch, one phone call, one placement at a time.

Mike Jacoutot
President and CEO
Supplemental Health Care