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If you work in health care or manage a medical practice, you are aware of all the radical changes in technology, medicine, social values, and interpersonal relations over the past few years and you probably do not expect the next several years to be less stressful and less uncertain. To ensure your practice and your provider’s success, you may need to adjust how your team interacts with patients – starting with the first area of patient interaction.
Patients who seek care for their health problems are looking for some measure of kindness when they approach the window of your office’s receptionist. Many are already apprehensive about their clinical condition and adding to that problem is their concern about the financial impact of their visit on the family’s budget. The medical group’s unwillingness to rethink how it greets patients as they approach the receptionist sets the stage for the patient to feel mishandled or underappreciated.
This initial patient interaction stage must be evaluated and recognized as an area of improvement. If not handled properly, it will significantly affect how a medical practice or provider is graded as a group in the field of patient experience and managing patient expectations. Every medical office needs to recognize that people hold on to negative experiences and are not likely to change their mind after that negative experience. The best way to avoid negative bias is to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Listed below are the five additional patient experience mistakes that can cost your group, if they are not recognized as being priorities for both your staff and your patients.
Mistake #1 - Educated patients are taking control of their health care.
When health care is treated like any other paid service, an unhappy patient will move along to a new facility or doctor if they have a bad interaction – whether it is with the doctor or the support staff. Educating, training, or adjusting staff to make changes needed is required to ensure that your staff understands the value of patient appreciation and providing the patient with a positive experience.
Mistake #2 - Patients are customers, and just like customers, patients have options.
It should be recognized that patients are customers who are concerned about their future and do not want to be in a medical practice requesting help. They feel vulnerable and out of their routine comfort zone. Reminding your staff that a patient is a customer who has multiple health care choices, but chose to come to your practice, will help your staff understand the value of providing your patient with a positive experience.
Mistake #3 – Dr. Google is becoming the patient’s best friend.
Research indicates that many patients arrive at the doctor’s office already with some information on their condition. Various websites already have provided the patient with free access to learn about their health condition. Popular medical sites such as WebMD.com give the patient the preliminary education they are looking for, so they are already armed with medical information even before they see the doctor or their support staff.
Mistake # 4 - Surveys are carrying more weight.
Outside surveys are becoming even more popular and are carrying additional weight when combined with various social media outlets. All types of surveys and reviews are being used to measure not only the care the patient received, but also the interpersonal relationship between the patient and the doctor, and the patient’s experience with the medical practice’s support staff. Some surveys cover all levels in the practice area, down to the cleanliness of the reception area or the patient’s treatment area, and even the adequacy of the parking lot. These surveys are conditioning patients to recall their entire experience. With a patient experience plan in place, excellent service becomes second nature and will be recognized by those surveyed.
Mistake #5 - Patient-centered care is customer service, too.
It’s not just about the obvious. Excellent patient (customer) service extends beyond a pleasant demeanor. The patient experience does not start or end at the doctor’s office. Perception is built by gathering information from multiple channels, whether it is through review sites, office visits, or surveys. It is necessary to consider the importance of those channels when looking to build patient loyalty.
To avoid the mistakes listed above, the more progressive medical practices are training their staff to anticipate the customer service needs of their patients, much like other major service industries. By rolling out a patient/customer experience training program, they can prevent these mistakes from ever happening and affecting their potential revenue. This training should focus on integrating the following strategies into their daily work habits to provide their patients with exceptional customer service while they are guests in their practice.
1) Patients are the lifeline to building the future of their practice.
Patients are comparing their health care services to other companies that routinely provide high-end services to their clients. Whether groups like it or not, their front-line personnel are compared to five-star hotel receptionists, who are expected to greet their customers both pleasantly and professionally after a long day of traveling and required business functions. Every medical group must understand that patients have options when they select a medical practice and they expect to be treated with respect and transparency, and not just another person to be cared for at the end of a long day. The same level of service needs to be delivered in the doctor’s office no matter what time of day it is because for that patient, the personal problems and subsequent disposition of the medical staff is not their problem. All they want is someone to listen and help them take care of their medical problem. Their long-term loyalty to the group will be solely dependent on how well each personal interaction is handled. Remember that the patient is a person first and not just a customer. We must approach each patient with humanity first, and then customer service.
2) Be courteous and respectful.
Remind your staff to be courteous, always polite and to use good manners. By treating a patient how they expect to be treated, you are showing the patient that you respect them and care for not only their health but also their feelings. The health care worker must understand that the patient is viewing their interactions with staff and providers as being symbolic of the overall group’s brand identity. The group’s leadership needs to select and train their workforce to recognize their importance in how patients view their clinical offerings and their interactions with the patient.
3) Never show indifference to patients.
Losing patients before they complete their treatment regimen is a significant liability issue for any medical practice. In an article written by Strive Labs CEO and Co-Founder, Scott Hebert, DPT, wrote: “Patient churn is too big of a problem to ignore, and it can have a profound impact on your clinic’s bottom line.” In addition to the rather obvious missed revenue opportunity, a churning patient represents a practice liability, because an unsatisfied patient is significantly more likely to leave you a negative review online — or turn the experience with your practice into a cautionary tale for friends and family members. Either way, it’s bad for business — and your reputation.
4) Don’t contradict, argue, or match wits.
It’s tough for a health care worker who is continually being bombarded in a high-pressure environment to agree to disagree. When a person feels they are right or that their perception is the only logical one, they can be very stubborn in their understanding, and they will dig in their heels. It takes a strong person to allow others to have their opinion and not be judgmental about it. Any customer or patient relations training program to be deployed in a medical office must include skill training to teach the staff member how to diffuse an argument or disagreement. This situation can be dispersed by training your staff to consider the source of the conflict, respect the patient’s perception, and then teach the staff member to tell the patient that they never thought of it that way and ease away from the discussion. Their absence will help diffuse the situation.
5) Tell patients you appreciate their business.
How you relate to a patient will speak volumes to them about how much you appreciate their loyalty, all because they chose your practice for their health care. All patient and customer training programs should include discussions on making eye contact, shaking with a firm grasp, and always closing a personal encounter on a sincere and positive note. Health care workers need to understand that they are in the service business and that the patients they care for have options and they can easily walk out of the medical practice and share any negative experience on social media. Educating and reminding your staff on how easily a patient can leave your practice or share their experience with others, needs to be recognized and discussed at all the group’s town hall meetings.
6) Use plain terms and simple explanations.
We all want to appear to be super intelligent by trying to use complex terms to describe a situation because it creates leverage with the other parties engaged in the conversation. While some of this may be necessary when educating patients on their condition, any additional complex terms can easily annoy or even confuse the patient who is only there seeking help. Health care workers need to talk in a manner that keeps the patients engaged and helps them understand the topic at hand. The worker needs to use every day vernacular examples, so the patient quickly understands the reason that brought them to the clinic and what they need to do to get some relief from what ails them. The phrase “plain and simple” means precisely that – explain the topic using basic and simple terms, so the listener understands it. Using this method when discussing a patient’s condition isn’t just for the patient’s benefit because many confused patients ultimately call the office later in the day only to ask additional questions, which uses your staff’s time.
7) Good manners will get you everywhere.
Emily Post wrote, “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.” Proper manners are behaving in a way that is both aware of and considerate of the people around us. A person with good manners treats everyone with kindness and respect. It is knowing how to get along without causing offense or harm, no matter how much the current interaction is going south – especially when you are engaged in a tough conversation.
8) Keep seeing health care as a calling.
All health care workers need to know that their vocation of caring for sick and injured patients is a calling and not just a job and all training programs designed to teach customer service need to stress this point. Practicing your vocation means that you will work hard to eliminate all barriers that exist between the patient and the health care worker. Too often we underestimate the power of a simple touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring – all of which have the potential to turn a life or a bad interaction into a magical moment for both the patient and the health care worker. One that has meaning and a bit of affirmation of the dignity of both individuals interacting to find some common ground.
9) Stay in touch with patients.
The group needs to find ways to keep in contact with their patients, whether it is by giving them tips on how to remain healthy or the need for proactive and preventive medicine. The use of technology and social media, as well as handing out freebies at health fairs, giving patients informational brochures upon discharge, or even cards telling them how to contact the practice in case of emergencies, is quite helpful. Calling your patients is a significant signal that your group values the health and welfare of your patients. A phone call from either the doctor or their assistant goes further than any advertisement when building brand and doctor loyalty.
10) Keep your promises.
Do what you say you are going to do, should be a commonly shared mantra for the medical practice. While changing your mind from time to time when circumstances prevent you from keeping a promise, is just part of being flexible in life, regularly breaking promises to other people isn’t healthy. Here’s how to keep your promises: Pay close attention to your words – every word you communicate (through speaking or writing), as a patient may take your words as a promise. Study your patterns of making promises. Figure out when you tend to make careless promises and study the situations in which you do, so you can understand why you’re promising what you don’t intend to do. Take time and careful consideration before making a promise to someone. Don’t rush yourself into a promise that you won’t be able to keep. Even when you’re in a hurry, you usually don’t have an immediate sense of urgency about promising to do something. Stop yourself before you make a vow, delaying your decision long enough to think it through carefully. The more careful you become about making promises, the easier it will be to keep them.
The last step of deploying a patient/customer service program is handling the change in management that is required to train the staff. Accepting “No, we are not changing any part of the group to meet the needs of our patients better.” is unacceptable. Usually, you will be introducing this program to employees that have been in a group for a while and so to get them to buy into the new ideas will require constant reinforcement. It may take some time to align the focus of the group from the neutral zone to the notion that there are new deliverables that would better serve your patients. The following rules will be helpful when beginning your training program:
Rule #1 – Be consistent. Every policy, procedure, and list of priorities sends a message – make sure it’s the right message.
Rule #2 – Ensure quick successes. Look for ways to get the group’s employees to buy into the program – early on after its deployment.
Rule# 3 – Symbolize the new identity. Make sure the group’s logos and branding support the new identity of the group and the culture change.
Rule #4 – Celebrate all the group’s successes. Make sure the group’s employees recognize the work efforts involved as well as the success the group will enjoy. Stress the fact that the work completed will significantly enhance the care and service levels to the patients, which should feed the ego of the group to do more and more in the future.
And lastly, do not forget how vital the buy-in is of the clinicians of the group. They must be introduced early to the new patient/customer service program and embrace it so that their employees will recognize that these efforts are focused on providing a high quality of care throughout the enterprise. As the French philosopher Albert Schweitzer once stated, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it’s the only thing.”
References
1. Peters, T. “The Excellence Dividend: Meeting the Tech Tide with Work that Wows and Jobs that Last.” (New York, Vintage Books, 2018).
2. 10 Strategies to Provide Patients with Superior Customer Service. Becker’s Hospital Review 2010 Dec 20.
3. Shell MA, Buell RW. Why anxious customers prefer human customer service. Harvard Business Review 2019 April 15.
4. Matt Brannon. 13 Ways to improve customer services at your medical practice. Blog post Sept 7, 2018.
5. 5 Reasons Why Customer Service Matters in Healthcare. https://www.pointsgroup.com/5-reasons-why-customer-service-matters-in-healthcare/Feb. 25, 2014
6. Senge P, Kleiner A, Roberts C, et al. “The Dance of Change: A fifth discipline resource.” (New York, Doubleday, 1999).
7. Bridges W. “Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change.” (Boston, Da Capo Books, 2017)
8. Michelli J. “The New Gold Standard – 5 Leadership Principles for Creating the Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.” (New York, McGraw Hill, 2008).
Mr. Turner is chief executive officer of Indianapolis Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
If you work in health care or manage a medical practice, you are aware of all the radical changes in technology, medicine, social values, and interpersonal relations over the past few years and you probably do not expect the next several years to be less stressful and less uncertain. To ensure your practice and your provider’s success, you may need to adjust how your team interacts with patients – starting with the first area of patient interaction.
Patients who seek care for their health problems are looking for some measure of kindness when they approach the window of your office’s receptionist. Many are already apprehensive about their clinical condition and adding to that problem is their concern about the financial impact of their visit on the family’s budget. The medical group’s unwillingness to rethink how it greets patients as they approach the receptionist sets the stage for the patient to feel mishandled or underappreciated.
This initial patient interaction stage must be evaluated and recognized as an area of improvement. If not handled properly, it will significantly affect how a medical practice or provider is graded as a group in the field of patient experience and managing patient expectations. Every medical office needs to recognize that people hold on to negative experiences and are not likely to change their mind after that negative experience. The best way to avoid negative bias is to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Listed below are the five additional patient experience mistakes that can cost your group, if they are not recognized as being priorities for both your staff and your patients.
Mistake #1 - Educated patients are taking control of their health care.
When health care is treated like any other paid service, an unhappy patient will move along to a new facility or doctor if they have a bad interaction – whether it is with the doctor or the support staff. Educating, training, or adjusting staff to make changes needed is required to ensure that your staff understands the value of patient appreciation and providing the patient with a positive experience.
Mistake #2 - Patients are customers, and just like customers, patients have options.
It should be recognized that patients are customers who are concerned about their future and do not want to be in a medical practice requesting help. They feel vulnerable and out of their routine comfort zone. Reminding your staff that a patient is a customer who has multiple health care choices, but chose to come to your practice, will help your staff understand the value of providing your patient with a positive experience.
Mistake #3 – Dr. Google is becoming the patient’s best friend.
Research indicates that many patients arrive at the doctor’s office already with some information on their condition. Various websites already have provided the patient with free access to learn about their health condition. Popular medical sites such as WebMD.com give the patient the preliminary education they are looking for, so they are already armed with medical information even before they see the doctor or their support staff.
Mistake # 4 - Surveys are carrying more weight.
Outside surveys are becoming even more popular and are carrying additional weight when combined with various social media outlets. All types of surveys and reviews are being used to measure not only the care the patient received, but also the interpersonal relationship between the patient and the doctor, and the patient’s experience with the medical practice’s support staff. Some surveys cover all levels in the practice area, down to the cleanliness of the reception area or the patient’s treatment area, and even the adequacy of the parking lot. These surveys are conditioning patients to recall their entire experience. With a patient experience plan in place, excellent service becomes second nature and will be recognized by those surveyed.
Mistake #5 - Patient-centered care is customer service, too.
It’s not just about the obvious. Excellent patient (customer) service extends beyond a pleasant demeanor. The patient experience does not start or end at the doctor’s office. Perception is built by gathering information from multiple channels, whether it is through review sites, office visits, or surveys. It is necessary to consider the importance of those channels when looking to build patient loyalty.
To avoid the mistakes listed above, the more progressive medical practices are training their staff to anticipate the customer service needs of their patients, much like other major service industries. By rolling out a patient/customer experience training program, they can prevent these mistakes from ever happening and affecting their potential revenue. This training should focus on integrating the following strategies into their daily work habits to provide their patients with exceptional customer service while they are guests in their practice.
1) Patients are the lifeline to building the future of their practice.
Patients are comparing their health care services to other companies that routinely provide high-end services to their clients. Whether groups like it or not, their front-line personnel are compared to five-star hotel receptionists, who are expected to greet their customers both pleasantly and professionally after a long day of traveling and required business functions. Every medical group must understand that patients have options when they select a medical practice and they expect to be treated with respect and transparency, and not just another person to be cared for at the end of a long day. The same level of service needs to be delivered in the doctor’s office no matter what time of day it is because for that patient, the personal problems and subsequent disposition of the medical staff is not their problem. All they want is someone to listen and help them take care of their medical problem. Their long-term loyalty to the group will be solely dependent on how well each personal interaction is handled. Remember that the patient is a person first and not just a customer. We must approach each patient with humanity first, and then customer service.
2) Be courteous and respectful.
Remind your staff to be courteous, always polite and to use good manners. By treating a patient how they expect to be treated, you are showing the patient that you respect them and care for not only their health but also their feelings. The health care worker must understand that the patient is viewing their interactions with staff and providers as being symbolic of the overall group’s brand identity. The group’s leadership needs to select and train their workforce to recognize their importance in how patients view their clinical offerings and their interactions with the patient.
3) Never show indifference to patients.
Losing patients before they complete their treatment regimen is a significant liability issue for any medical practice. In an article written by Strive Labs CEO and Co-Founder, Scott Hebert, DPT, wrote: “Patient churn is too big of a problem to ignore, and it can have a profound impact on your clinic’s bottom line.” In addition to the rather obvious missed revenue opportunity, a churning patient represents a practice liability, because an unsatisfied patient is significantly more likely to leave you a negative review online — or turn the experience with your practice into a cautionary tale for friends and family members. Either way, it’s bad for business — and your reputation.
4) Don’t contradict, argue, or match wits.
It’s tough for a health care worker who is continually being bombarded in a high-pressure environment to agree to disagree. When a person feels they are right or that their perception is the only logical one, they can be very stubborn in their understanding, and they will dig in their heels. It takes a strong person to allow others to have their opinion and not be judgmental about it. Any customer or patient relations training program to be deployed in a medical office must include skill training to teach the staff member how to diffuse an argument or disagreement. This situation can be dispersed by training your staff to consider the source of the conflict, respect the patient’s perception, and then teach the staff member to tell the patient that they never thought of it that way and ease away from the discussion. Their absence will help diffuse the situation.
5) Tell patients you appreciate their business.
How you relate to a patient will speak volumes to them about how much you appreciate their loyalty, all because they chose your practice for their health care. All patient and customer training programs should include discussions on making eye contact, shaking with a firm grasp, and always closing a personal encounter on a sincere and positive note. Health care workers need to understand that they are in the service business and that the patients they care for have options and they can easily walk out of the medical practice and share any negative experience on social media. Educating and reminding your staff on how easily a patient can leave your practice or share their experience with others, needs to be recognized and discussed at all the group’s town hall meetings.
6) Use plain terms and simple explanations.
We all want to appear to be super intelligent by trying to use complex terms to describe a situation because it creates leverage with the other parties engaged in the conversation. While some of this may be necessary when educating patients on their condition, any additional complex terms can easily annoy or even confuse the patient who is only there seeking help. Health care workers need to talk in a manner that keeps the patients engaged and helps them understand the topic at hand. The worker needs to use every day vernacular examples, so the patient quickly understands the reason that brought them to the clinic and what they need to do to get some relief from what ails them. The phrase “plain and simple” means precisely that – explain the topic using basic and simple terms, so the listener understands it. Using this method when discussing a patient’s condition isn’t just for the patient’s benefit because many confused patients ultimately call the office later in the day only to ask additional questions, which uses your staff’s time.
7) Good manners will get you everywhere.
Emily Post wrote, “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.” Proper manners are behaving in a way that is both aware of and considerate of the people around us. A person with good manners treats everyone with kindness and respect. It is knowing how to get along without causing offense or harm, no matter how much the current interaction is going south – especially when you are engaged in a tough conversation.
8) Keep seeing health care as a calling.
All health care workers need to know that their vocation of caring for sick and injured patients is a calling and not just a job and all training programs designed to teach customer service need to stress this point. Practicing your vocation means that you will work hard to eliminate all barriers that exist between the patient and the health care worker. Too often we underestimate the power of a simple touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring – all of which have the potential to turn a life or a bad interaction into a magical moment for both the patient and the health care worker. One that has meaning and a bit of affirmation of the dignity of both individuals interacting to find some common ground.
9) Stay in touch with patients.
The group needs to find ways to keep in contact with their patients, whether it is by giving them tips on how to remain healthy or the need for proactive and preventive medicine. The use of technology and social media, as well as handing out freebies at health fairs, giving patients informational brochures upon discharge, or even cards telling them how to contact the practice in case of emergencies, is quite helpful. Calling your patients is a significant signal that your group values the health and welfare of your patients. A phone call from either the doctor or their assistant goes further than any advertisement when building brand and doctor loyalty.
10) Keep your promises.
Do what you say you are going to do, should be a commonly shared mantra for the medical practice. While changing your mind from time to time when circumstances prevent you from keeping a promise, is just part of being flexible in life, regularly breaking promises to other people isn’t healthy. Here’s how to keep your promises: Pay close attention to your words – every word you communicate (through speaking or writing), as a patient may take your words as a promise. Study your patterns of making promises. Figure out when you tend to make careless promises and study the situations in which you do, so you can understand why you’re promising what you don’t intend to do. Take time and careful consideration before making a promise to someone. Don’t rush yourself into a promise that you won’t be able to keep. Even when you’re in a hurry, you usually don’t have an immediate sense of urgency about promising to do something. Stop yourself before you make a vow, delaying your decision long enough to think it through carefully. The more careful you become about making promises, the easier it will be to keep them.
The last step of deploying a patient/customer service program is handling the change in management that is required to train the staff. Accepting “No, we are not changing any part of the group to meet the needs of our patients better.” is unacceptable. Usually, you will be introducing this program to employees that have been in a group for a while and so to get them to buy into the new ideas will require constant reinforcement. It may take some time to align the focus of the group from the neutral zone to the notion that there are new deliverables that would better serve your patients. The following rules will be helpful when beginning your training program:
Rule #1 – Be consistent. Every policy, procedure, and list of priorities sends a message – make sure it’s the right message.
Rule #2 – Ensure quick successes. Look for ways to get the group’s employees to buy into the program – early on after its deployment.
Rule# 3 – Symbolize the new identity. Make sure the group’s logos and branding support the new identity of the group and the culture change.
Rule #4 – Celebrate all the group’s successes. Make sure the group’s employees recognize the work efforts involved as well as the success the group will enjoy. Stress the fact that the work completed will significantly enhance the care and service levels to the patients, which should feed the ego of the group to do more and more in the future.
And lastly, do not forget how vital the buy-in is of the clinicians of the group. They must be introduced early to the new patient/customer service program and embrace it so that their employees will recognize that these efforts are focused on providing a high quality of care throughout the enterprise. As the French philosopher Albert Schweitzer once stated, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it’s the only thing.”
References
1. Peters, T. “The Excellence Dividend: Meeting the Tech Tide with Work that Wows and Jobs that Last.” (New York, Vintage Books, 2018).
2. 10 Strategies to Provide Patients with Superior Customer Service. Becker’s Hospital Review 2010 Dec 20.
3. Shell MA, Buell RW. Why anxious customers prefer human customer service. Harvard Business Review 2019 April 15.
4. Matt Brannon. 13 Ways to improve customer services at your medical practice. Blog post Sept 7, 2018.
5. 5 Reasons Why Customer Service Matters in Healthcare. https://www.pointsgroup.com/5-reasons-why-customer-service-matters-in-healthcare/Feb. 25, 2014
6. Senge P, Kleiner A, Roberts C, et al. “The Dance of Change: A fifth discipline resource.” (New York, Doubleday, 1999).
7. Bridges W. “Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change.” (Boston, Da Capo Books, 2017)
8. Michelli J. “The New Gold Standard – 5 Leadership Principles for Creating the Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.” (New York, McGraw Hill, 2008).
Mr. Turner is chief executive officer of Indianapolis Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
If you work in health care or manage a medical practice, you are aware of all the radical changes in technology, medicine, social values, and interpersonal relations over the past few years and you probably do not expect the next several years to be less stressful and less uncertain. To ensure your practice and your provider’s success, you may need to adjust how your team interacts with patients – starting with the first area of patient interaction.
Patients who seek care for their health problems are looking for some measure of kindness when they approach the window of your office’s receptionist. Many are already apprehensive about their clinical condition and adding to that problem is their concern about the financial impact of their visit on the family’s budget. The medical group’s unwillingness to rethink how it greets patients as they approach the receptionist sets the stage for the patient to feel mishandled or underappreciated.
This initial patient interaction stage must be evaluated and recognized as an area of improvement. If not handled properly, it will significantly affect how a medical practice or provider is graded as a group in the field of patient experience and managing patient expectations. Every medical office needs to recognize that people hold on to negative experiences and are not likely to change their mind after that negative experience. The best way to avoid negative bias is to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Listed below are the five additional patient experience mistakes that can cost your group, if they are not recognized as being priorities for both your staff and your patients.
Mistake #1 - Educated patients are taking control of their health care.
When health care is treated like any other paid service, an unhappy patient will move along to a new facility or doctor if they have a bad interaction – whether it is with the doctor or the support staff. Educating, training, or adjusting staff to make changes needed is required to ensure that your staff understands the value of patient appreciation and providing the patient with a positive experience.
Mistake #2 - Patients are customers, and just like customers, patients have options.
It should be recognized that patients are customers who are concerned about their future and do not want to be in a medical practice requesting help. They feel vulnerable and out of their routine comfort zone. Reminding your staff that a patient is a customer who has multiple health care choices, but chose to come to your practice, will help your staff understand the value of providing your patient with a positive experience.
Mistake #3 – Dr. Google is becoming the patient’s best friend.
Research indicates that many patients arrive at the doctor’s office already with some information on their condition. Various websites already have provided the patient with free access to learn about their health condition. Popular medical sites such as WebMD.com give the patient the preliminary education they are looking for, so they are already armed with medical information even before they see the doctor or their support staff.
Mistake # 4 - Surveys are carrying more weight.
Outside surveys are becoming even more popular and are carrying additional weight when combined with various social media outlets. All types of surveys and reviews are being used to measure not only the care the patient received, but also the interpersonal relationship between the patient and the doctor, and the patient’s experience with the medical practice’s support staff. Some surveys cover all levels in the practice area, down to the cleanliness of the reception area or the patient’s treatment area, and even the adequacy of the parking lot. These surveys are conditioning patients to recall their entire experience. With a patient experience plan in place, excellent service becomes second nature and will be recognized by those surveyed.
Mistake #5 - Patient-centered care is customer service, too.
It’s not just about the obvious. Excellent patient (customer) service extends beyond a pleasant demeanor. The patient experience does not start or end at the doctor’s office. Perception is built by gathering information from multiple channels, whether it is through review sites, office visits, or surveys. It is necessary to consider the importance of those channels when looking to build patient loyalty.
To avoid the mistakes listed above, the more progressive medical practices are training their staff to anticipate the customer service needs of their patients, much like other major service industries. By rolling out a patient/customer experience training program, they can prevent these mistakes from ever happening and affecting their potential revenue. This training should focus on integrating the following strategies into their daily work habits to provide their patients with exceptional customer service while they are guests in their practice.
1) Patients are the lifeline to building the future of their practice.
Patients are comparing their health care services to other companies that routinely provide high-end services to their clients. Whether groups like it or not, their front-line personnel are compared to five-star hotel receptionists, who are expected to greet their customers both pleasantly and professionally after a long day of traveling and required business functions. Every medical group must understand that patients have options when they select a medical practice and they expect to be treated with respect and transparency, and not just another person to be cared for at the end of a long day. The same level of service needs to be delivered in the doctor’s office no matter what time of day it is because for that patient, the personal problems and subsequent disposition of the medical staff is not their problem. All they want is someone to listen and help them take care of their medical problem. Their long-term loyalty to the group will be solely dependent on how well each personal interaction is handled. Remember that the patient is a person first and not just a customer. We must approach each patient with humanity first, and then customer service.
2) Be courteous and respectful.
Remind your staff to be courteous, always polite and to use good manners. By treating a patient how they expect to be treated, you are showing the patient that you respect them and care for not only their health but also their feelings. The health care worker must understand that the patient is viewing their interactions with staff and providers as being symbolic of the overall group’s brand identity. The group’s leadership needs to select and train their workforce to recognize their importance in how patients view their clinical offerings and their interactions with the patient.
3) Never show indifference to patients.
Losing patients before they complete their treatment regimen is a significant liability issue for any medical practice. In an article written by Strive Labs CEO and Co-Founder, Scott Hebert, DPT, wrote: “Patient churn is too big of a problem to ignore, and it can have a profound impact on your clinic’s bottom line.” In addition to the rather obvious missed revenue opportunity, a churning patient represents a practice liability, because an unsatisfied patient is significantly more likely to leave you a negative review online — or turn the experience with your practice into a cautionary tale for friends and family members. Either way, it’s bad for business — and your reputation.
4) Don’t contradict, argue, or match wits.
It’s tough for a health care worker who is continually being bombarded in a high-pressure environment to agree to disagree. When a person feels they are right or that their perception is the only logical one, they can be very stubborn in their understanding, and they will dig in their heels. It takes a strong person to allow others to have their opinion and not be judgmental about it. Any customer or patient relations training program to be deployed in a medical office must include skill training to teach the staff member how to diffuse an argument or disagreement. This situation can be dispersed by training your staff to consider the source of the conflict, respect the patient’s perception, and then teach the staff member to tell the patient that they never thought of it that way and ease away from the discussion. Their absence will help diffuse the situation.
5) Tell patients you appreciate their business.
How you relate to a patient will speak volumes to them about how much you appreciate their loyalty, all because they chose your practice for their health care. All patient and customer training programs should include discussions on making eye contact, shaking with a firm grasp, and always closing a personal encounter on a sincere and positive note. Health care workers need to understand that they are in the service business and that the patients they care for have options and they can easily walk out of the medical practice and share any negative experience on social media. Educating and reminding your staff on how easily a patient can leave your practice or share their experience with others, needs to be recognized and discussed at all the group’s town hall meetings.
6) Use plain terms and simple explanations.
We all want to appear to be super intelligent by trying to use complex terms to describe a situation because it creates leverage with the other parties engaged in the conversation. While some of this may be necessary when educating patients on their condition, any additional complex terms can easily annoy or even confuse the patient who is only there seeking help. Health care workers need to talk in a manner that keeps the patients engaged and helps them understand the topic at hand. The worker needs to use every day vernacular examples, so the patient quickly understands the reason that brought them to the clinic and what they need to do to get some relief from what ails them. The phrase “plain and simple” means precisely that – explain the topic using basic and simple terms, so the listener understands it. Using this method when discussing a patient’s condition isn’t just for the patient’s benefit because many confused patients ultimately call the office later in the day only to ask additional questions, which uses your staff’s time.
7) Good manners will get you everywhere.
Emily Post wrote, “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.” Proper manners are behaving in a way that is both aware of and considerate of the people around us. A person with good manners treats everyone with kindness and respect. It is knowing how to get along without causing offense or harm, no matter how much the current interaction is going south – especially when you are engaged in a tough conversation.
8) Keep seeing health care as a calling.
All health care workers need to know that their vocation of caring for sick and injured patients is a calling and not just a job and all training programs designed to teach customer service need to stress this point. Practicing your vocation means that you will work hard to eliminate all barriers that exist between the patient and the health care worker. Too often we underestimate the power of a simple touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring – all of which have the potential to turn a life or a bad interaction into a magical moment for both the patient and the health care worker. One that has meaning and a bit of affirmation of the dignity of both individuals interacting to find some common ground.
9) Stay in touch with patients.
The group needs to find ways to keep in contact with their patients, whether it is by giving them tips on how to remain healthy or the need for proactive and preventive medicine. The use of technology and social media, as well as handing out freebies at health fairs, giving patients informational brochures upon discharge, or even cards telling them how to contact the practice in case of emergencies, is quite helpful. Calling your patients is a significant signal that your group values the health and welfare of your patients. A phone call from either the doctor or their assistant goes further than any advertisement when building brand and doctor loyalty.
10) Keep your promises.
Do what you say you are going to do, should be a commonly shared mantra for the medical practice. While changing your mind from time to time when circumstances prevent you from keeping a promise, is just part of being flexible in life, regularly breaking promises to other people isn’t healthy. Here’s how to keep your promises: Pay close attention to your words – every word you communicate (through speaking or writing), as a patient may take your words as a promise. Study your patterns of making promises. Figure out when you tend to make careless promises and study the situations in which you do, so you can understand why you’re promising what you don’t intend to do. Take time and careful consideration before making a promise to someone. Don’t rush yourself into a promise that you won’t be able to keep. Even when you’re in a hurry, you usually don’t have an immediate sense of urgency about promising to do something. Stop yourself before you make a vow, delaying your decision long enough to think it through carefully. The more careful you become about making promises, the easier it will be to keep them.
The last step of deploying a patient/customer service program is handling the change in management that is required to train the staff. Accepting “No, we are not changing any part of the group to meet the needs of our patients better.” is unacceptable. Usually, you will be introducing this program to employees that have been in a group for a while and so to get them to buy into the new ideas will require constant reinforcement. It may take some time to align the focus of the group from the neutral zone to the notion that there are new deliverables that would better serve your patients. The following rules will be helpful when beginning your training program:
Rule #1 – Be consistent. Every policy, procedure, and list of priorities sends a message – make sure it’s the right message.
Rule #2 – Ensure quick successes. Look for ways to get the group’s employees to buy into the program – early on after its deployment.
Rule# 3 – Symbolize the new identity. Make sure the group’s logos and branding support the new identity of the group and the culture change.
Rule #4 – Celebrate all the group’s successes. Make sure the group’s employees recognize the work efforts involved as well as the success the group will enjoy. Stress the fact that the work completed will significantly enhance the care and service levels to the patients, which should feed the ego of the group to do more and more in the future.
And lastly, do not forget how vital the buy-in is of the clinicians of the group. They must be introduced early to the new patient/customer service program and embrace it so that their employees will recognize that these efforts are focused on providing a high quality of care throughout the enterprise. As the French philosopher Albert Schweitzer once stated, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it’s the only thing.”
References
1. Peters, T. “The Excellence Dividend: Meeting the Tech Tide with Work that Wows and Jobs that Last.” (New York, Vintage Books, 2018).
2. 10 Strategies to Provide Patients with Superior Customer Service. Becker’s Hospital Review 2010 Dec 20.
3. Shell MA, Buell RW. Why anxious customers prefer human customer service. Harvard Business Review 2019 April 15.
4. Matt Brannon. 13 Ways to improve customer services at your medical practice. Blog post Sept 7, 2018.
5. 5 Reasons Why Customer Service Matters in Healthcare. https://www.pointsgroup.com/5-reasons-why-customer-service-matters-in-healthcare/Feb. 25, 2014
6. Senge P, Kleiner A, Roberts C, et al. “The Dance of Change: A fifth discipline resource.” (New York, Doubleday, 1999).
7. Bridges W. “Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change.” (Boston, Da Capo Books, 2017)
8. Michelli J. “The New Gold Standard – 5 Leadership Principles for Creating the Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.” (New York, McGraw Hill, 2008).
Mr. Turner is chief executive officer of Indianapolis Gastroenterology and Hepatology.