Customer Service

A new business was opening and one of the owner's friends wanted to send flowers for the occasion.
They arrived at the new business site and the owner read the card.
It said "Rest in Peace".
The owner was angry and called the florist to complain. After he had told the florist of the obvious mistake and how angry he was,
The florist said:
"Sir, I'm really sorry for the mistake, but rather than getting angry you should imagine this: somewhere there is a funeral taking place today, and they have flowers with a note saying 'Congratulations on your new location'."


While funny, it does bring to light the issue of good customer service and what affects mistakes can have on your customers/patients and the need to diffuse a situation. Staff often has a hard time understanding how customer service is applied to the medical practice. It is a manager’s job to help them understand that they are representing the practice. To the patient-they are the practice.

Often we forget that the patient or customer has a choice, they can go elsewhere. In the medical practice that is still true and you may say that you are the only practice in your community town-that just means they will drive a long ways to go to a doctor or not go to anyone. That is not helping the patients or the practice. Customer service or patient service is a key component to the medical patient and is everyone’s responsibility. However, it falls heavily on the front desk staff. They often the have contact with the patient or have an opportunity to make a lasting impression. They are the first and the last person that the patient sees during a visit and can be the only contact on the phone or via e-mail. Remind them that how they treat the patient and their family will go a long way in helping the patient being satisfied with their visit and want to keep using the practice. By keeping satisfied returning patients this in turns help to assure that the practice will need staff and their job. If there are no patients coming in, why does the practice need a front desk person or any staff?

Take the time to assess your practice’s customer service and see if improvements can be made. Consider taking customer service training. There are countless books, DVDs, videos, conference, etc on customer service and many are either developed for the medical practice or might work. A free one can be found at http://tinyurl.com/m37evp