The “Secret” to Ultimate Customer Service and Care: A Simple yet Powerful Concept

by JERRY STONE

When I first heard of Fred Lee’s book, “If Disney Ran your Hospital - 9 ½ Things You Would Do Differently”, I assumed it would be restricted to improving customer service within a hospital setting. Having spent the last 13-plus years working exclusively with physicians, helping them improve customer service and process efficiency within their office’s, and another 15 years prior to that with a major airline, after reading Fred’s book I knew he was onto the “secret” of providing the ultimate in customer service. After reading Fred’s book in 2004, because I was so favorably impressed by Fred’s approach to providing outstanding customer service; I contacted Fred and asked if my business partner and I might meet with him. Fred was very accommodating. My business partner and I flew to Orlando and spent several hours with Fred and his delightful wife, sharing a meal and exchanging ideas regarding what it means to provide outstanding customer service in a healthcare environment. Fred even offered to review our patient feedback system, M3-Patient Experience.

Fred wrote to us several days later and said, “I liked all the questions in your survey and could honestly not think of anything I felt was not covered. It is really an electronic work of art. You are to be highly commended. I can recommend it highly…”. As you can imagine, we were so pleased and just overwhelmed with a huge sense of gratitude. What a tremendous affirmation! And then it hit me; outstanding customer service is NOT a “secret” at all, but rather the simple, yet powerful concept of relationship.

Having learned from Fred, “there are three levels of caring – competence, courtesy and compassion.” I must confess, I had spent most of my 25 years of professional life thinking I had this “customer–service-thing” figured out. Know your job, and be professional and courteous! I thought that was it. I had spent a significant amount of resources training and retraining support staff to ensure their competency, and was always willing to embrace the latest in various organizational-behavior improvement techniques; everything from buying all of the staff motivational books, to inviting in time-management experts to speak to us. On and on we’d go, all in hopes of obtaining the “high” level of customer service – competency and courtesy.

When I understood what was missing from the “equation” – compassion -- it became clear that providing the ultimate in service and care is all about relationship, not formula or equations.

Fred and his wife had taken the time to allow a relationship to form between my business partner and me. My business partner and I had taken the time and energy to pursue the relationship, doing our part along the way. And, it’s the same for all of us, including your patients. The relationship that exists between the provider and the patient is THE key, and the relationships that exist between your staff and the patient are so very important as well.

Another thing we learned from Fred, first-hand, was what he means by, “close the GAP between knowing and doing”. As we began to distribute M3-Patient Experience to our clients, we began to hear back from them how very powerful real-time patient feedback can be. Because the M3 patient feed-back system notifies front-line supervisors real-time, via e-mail, whenever a patient has provided comments or feedback that warrants follow-up, oftentimes, while the patient’s comments are just minutes “old”, front-line supervisors can share positive feedback with their direct reports, reinforcing competent, courteous, and compassionate care. Likewise, support-staff couching and counseling can occur as soon as possible, oftentimes immediately following the patient’s encounter, should the patient’s experience deserve such immediate attention.

So, instead of waiting weeks or even months to get the typical patient satisfaction survey results back, which may create more frustration than real opportunity for improvement, deploy M3-Patient Experience into your practice today which will empower your leadership team to create that ultimate patient experience, one that your patients will want to tell their family and friends about. Have your staff “close the GAP between knowing and doing” by acting on patients feed-back as soon as possible to effect positive change within your practice. Focus on relationship.