Healthcare providers are increasingly realizing that patients are also consumers. This means that consumer focused healthcare needs to be the focus of healthcare operations. People will go where they are treated well, and that includes patients in the healthcare industry. Here are five ways that healthcare facilities can be more focused on customer service.
1. Consider the Patient’s Schedule
Perhaps the biggest blunder in healthcare customer service is the industry tendency to run behind schedule. Try to leave enough wiggle room in your scheduling so that a few appointments that run over schedule do not make things hopelessly behind the rest of the day. When your patients aren’t forced to wait around and waste their time, they will be much more satisfied with their overall experience. You should always be looking for adjustments you can make to become more efficient and punctual.
2. Break out the Stopwatches
One of the best ways to ensure that things run on time is to get out the stopwatches and time your interactions. When you know how long an average appointment should be, you can more effectively schedule appointments. Knowing how long appointments should run also lets healthcare workers more effectively manage their time and keep things moving along smoothly. Taking this level of care to keep things running on time is one of the five great ways to offer consumer focused healthcare to patients.
3. Keep the Focus Away from Profit
Even if your healthcare facility is for-profit, you need to take a page from the non-profit industry and turn employee focus away from profit. People who work in the non-profit industry can more readily identify with the goals of the organization. They are happier in their work and more dedicated to providing quality customer service. Make your mission to have your employees come into work dedicated and focused on creating the ideal work environment dedicated to consumer focused healthcare.
4. Know How to Handle Customer Complaints
A key area where healthcare organizations fail to provide good customer service is the way they deal with patient complaints. People are stressed out and are often emotionally distraught when they are in a healthcare setting. They get emotional and easily upset. This leads to ready complaints, and each member of your organization needs to know how to handle customer complaints. If they cannot deal with the complaint, your workers need to know how to direct patients to the correct location where they can get the help they need.
5. Don’t Act Like Patients Are Invisible
It is extremely frustrating for patients when healthcare workers avoid eye contact with them or act like they don’t see them. Avoiding this is one of the instant ways that you can raise the level of customer service that you provide patients. All of your employees need to be taught not to avoid eye contact with patients and to respond to them promptly whenever they ask for assistance.
Turning your healthcare facility into one that provides topnotch customer service does not happen overnight. You need to train your employees so that they know the best ways to ensure that patients feel like they receive good service during their visits. With patience and persistence, you can transform the customer experience for your patients. They will be more satisfied with the service you provide. Start the changes by implementing the five methods above to make your healthcare facility more consumer focused.
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