Can I bring my dog? That’s a question Amber gets asked a lot. It has nothing to do with a company that specializes in the placement and recruiting of healthcare professionals. But Amber gets that it really has EVERYTHING to do with being named one of America’s fastest growing private company by INC Magazine.
Dwight Cooper, Co-Founder and CEO of PPR Healthcare Staffing, wowed the audience with stories of guts and glory. His goal was to be the Nordstrom or Ritz Carlton of nurse staffing, not a commodity. Nurse retention is key to their reputation, and if that means they need to find an apartment that will take a 40 pound dog, they will do it. It also means scoping out great restaurants in a new city before the nurse moves there and buying a gift certificate or having groceries delivered.
Training, accountability, and rewards are Dwight’s secret to success.
In order to identify gaps between where they were and want to be, he decided to look internally at their culture. His internal NPS question was not whether or not the company was worth recommending (as an employer) but rather co-workers were asked if they could recommend each other. It clearly separated the pack from service leaders to those who needed “help moving onto another career.” One of those people that rose to the top is Amber. She has a following. Serving is in her DNA. She now gets rewarded for cultivating that kind of loyalty.
Dwight is so serious about service as a retention tool that he has “institutionalized great service.” We “met” Jenny. Her job is to look for ways to wow their client nurses and make them feel at home. She’s the purveyor of all tchotckes and fun things that make people feel special. I want that job.
The coolest and simplest solution to creating wow experiences was what they call “Best Answers.” They identified their 64 most common questions ("Can I bring my pet?" being one of them) and brainstormed on not just the right answer, but the best way to answer. With caring and enthusiasm.
Bigger is not better. Better is better. PPR may only own 3% of their marketplace, but the two competitors (that own 80% of the market together) cannot boast being SHRMs best places to work for four years running.
I found Dwights presentation very informative and idea sparking. So much so that I contacted him just days after the conference for advise. He really got my wheels started and I am well on my way to planning for our first NPS go at it. Thanks in advance Dwight
Posted by: Terrance C. Johnson | January 30, 2008 at 06:20 PM