My health plan sent me an email. My wellness report is now online (the same report that required 20 minutes to complete the initial form and then two rounds of blood work since the lab messed up the first attempt, but I digress…). Just click the link and enter a user name that is impossible to remember (but at least they provided the cryptic username).

I click the link. I don’t have my new password and I’m not at the office to find it. So I click “reset.”

The first screen asks for the email. I click it. The spinning wheel of internet hell starts to turn.

The next screen asks for more information. I provide it and click reset again. And the wheel on the site goes round and round, round and round…forever.

Six attempts later I’ve emailed the health plan three times only to be ignored.

Here’s a powerful strategy: make sure your processes WORK. Your website, for example. Login. Reset. The whole enchilada.

The best service in the world is undo by niggling details like reset functions that don’t work.

And when something doesn’t work: FIX IT QUICKLY.

Nuances are important, but until you get the basics right consistently, not much else matters.

“It works.”  High praise indeed.