I was recently dining with friends at a restaurant after having just completed a workshop on service recovery. During my workshop, I had talked about the typical restaurant experience where the wait staff asks how everything is, and, regardless of what you really think about the food, you say, “fine.” I find that about 98 percent of my workshop participants report that they say “fine” in many less-than-satisfactory situations just to avoid confrontation. Read more...
I’ve said this a thousand times: trust is a fragile thing when it comes to the patient experience. I recently had some minor surgery that I’d been planning for some time. Because of my rigorous travel schedule, taking the time out for surgery is no small feat. So I had gone through all the pre-operative steps, including teaching, history, and physical, and was all set except for knowing the time of surgery. I was told that I would be contacted the day before my surgery and given the schedule. Of course, I had to have someone drive me to and from the hospital, so that meant that neither of us knew how much of our day would be required. Read more...
Today has been an exercise in patience. I know that I’ve said this hundreds of times, but it really is the little things that matter in customer service. Let me give you a few examples:
Today my scheduled was booked with back-to-back appointments leaving the remainder of the week reserved for cross country travel. Stuck in a snowstorm in bumper to bumper traffic was the first domino that fell for me today. That delay caused me to miss my 9:00 Doctors appointment which was 30 miles from my office. Rescheduling was not an option or it would cause me to have to cancel surgery for next week which had required that I eliminate travel completely for the following 3 weeks. So you can see how it goes. Read more...
I really love this time of year. The lull that we have around the holidays gives me the chance to reflect on the previous year and set my sights on the great opportunities that lie in the year ahead. Plus, there’s something so refreshing about having a whole year spread out before me with nothing but possibilities! January is a time for setting goals for myself and for my business. It gives me direction and helps me stay aligned with my mission and vision (I have a personal mission and vision as well as for my business.). Read more...
Have you ever had someone surprise you and tell you that you made a huge difference in their life and yet you had no idea of your influence? This has happened to me a number of times, and the older I get the more I realize that, when you are following your passion, great things happen–not only for you, but for those around you as well. I think this happens more often than we realize, and, unfortunately, many people live their entire lives never knowing how they helped to shape others’ lives. One seemingly small encounter sends into motion a ripple that touches others who then go on to send out more ripples, and, pretty soon, one encounter has become a wave. Read more...
One thing I love about my work (and there are many things to love) is the opportunity to meet and mingle with others who are as passionate about improving the patient experience as I am. When I look at my travel schedule this week, it might appear draining, but, in reality, it has been a rejuvenating experience. That’s because I’ve been able to meet and mingle with people who are in the trenches, doing great things for patients and their communities. That always helps me re-connect to purpose at the same time. Read more...
I had an interesting revelation recently that I wanted to share. In my consulting work, I am frequently asked to help clients understand the patient experience behind the HCAHPS scores. One area that many organizations struggle with is cleanliness. When the cleanliness score goes down, all eyes are on housekeeping, right? Conventional wisdom suggests that, if the scores are bad, it must mean an environmental service is doing a poor job. Well, before you start harping on the housekeeping crew, you might want to take a closer look around and make sure you understand how the patient defines cleanliness. Next, you’ll want to examine some habits that are giving you a bad rap. Read more...
Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing the movie The Mighty Macs. It’s a story of a fledgling women’s college basketball team that rose to the national championship in the early 70’s at a time when the words “women” and “athletics” were rarely spoken in the same sentence. Read more...
Remember the scene from the movie A Few Good Men when Jack Nicholson’s character shouted from the witness stand, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”? I often feel like shouting that myself. There are so many times I face off with leaders who want us to come in, wave the magic wand, and fix their patient satisfaction scores rather than facing the truth about the underlying culture that is at the root of poor patient satisfaction. Read more...
What goes up must come down, right? This indisputable law has been regarded as a hard, fast fact for hundreds of years, but it doesn’t have to apply to your patient satisfaction scores. Just because your scores go up, doesn’t mean they have to fall again. And on the flip side, just because they go up, doesn’t mean they’ll stay up.
I was recently chatting with a client about what it takes to sustain positive change and I was shocked to realize how many leaders assume that positive changes aren’t sustainable. Read more...
