February 1st, 2010
Where do the vast majority of your patients and potential patients interact with you? Not in person. Not via email. By phone. That’s right; the telephone remains one of the most significant contact points in healthcare. Unfortunately, while significant, it ...
January 1st, 2010
Eight seconds. That’s how long it takes to form a first impression. If you think about your own interactions, you can quickly see the validity of this statistic. Whether at a job interview, a social event or a retail setting, ...
September 1st, 2009
Whoever coined the phrase “silence is golden” was not talking about a management technique. It’s widely accepted that positive reinforcement is one of the best ways to increase good behavior. But don’t be fooled into thinking that ignoring overtly bad ...
July 1st, 2009
The importance of superior customer service in carrying out your organizational mission should be clear to all employees. However, sometimes the employees who work most closely with the greatest number of customers can lose sight of that essential connection in ...
January 1st, 2008
When I ask groups of healthcare workers, "Who is responsible for customer service?," I really expect everyone from the CEO to the newest housekeeper to raise their hands. While "customer service" needs to be part of everyone's job description, it ...
September 1st, 2007
You’ve completed the staff training for customer service. The managers are fully on board. You’ve established the standards and clarified everyone’s accountability for results. There are action plans in place with measurable results. It’s beginning to feel like all the ...
January 1st, 2007
“I wouldn’t come back to this hospital again, even if they offered my family free healthcare for life!”
Imagine passing a young mother as she storms out of a busy emergency department. She’s speaking loudly and angrily into her cell phone, ...