Every medical practice should be looking at how well they are delivering good customer/patient service on a daily basis. Progressive practices conduct periodic customer service training programs for their staff. Do conduct a training program, consider having a rotation of meals where you explain the following:
- Who we are? Some basic information of who, what, where, why, how, and when - with a simple handout
- What do we do
- Our History
- Who our customers are (e.g. patients, family members, physicians, the community, etc.) - by the way most practices have at least a dozen customer groups that they need to serve effectively
Bring in staff in groups of 8 to 12 (depending of course on the size of your office) - buy them lunch and share this information in a positive manner. The goal is to have your staff be our best ambassadors both at work and outside of work. Of course, you as management have to live up to our own billing - otherwise the staff knows it (we can't feign to care and to provide quality service, etc.).
Two other thoughts...please make sure your staff knows that you can listen to their calls (for both legal and ethical reasons as well as the Hawthorne Effect which causes behaviors to change when individuals know they are monitored).
Lastly...there is probably no better customer service manual that I know than the passage from 1 Corinthians 13 - look at one section of the chapter below...
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
If your staff read this, every morning, as they arrived at work, it just might have a nurturing effect upon their lives.
Have questions? I’m here to help.
