Trust is a Fragile Thing
Recently, I intercepted what could have been a travel disaster for me as I saw an airline attendant about to put the wrong shipping tag on my luggage. Fortunately, I was able to alert the attendant and make sure the ...
Archive: Articles - Service Excellence
10 Tips for Training Staff on Service Recovery
The key to successful service recovery lies in creating an environment where employees feel prepared and empowered to handle whatever comes their way. Only when employees feel prepared and empowered will they be able to view a complaint as a ...
Service Recovery: 5 steps for making things right
We’ve all had bad customer service experiences at hotels, restaurants, airports, and, yes, even healthcare organizations. But the real test of service excellence comes when a bad experience is swiftly and honestly addressed and turned around. When a customer complains, you ...
To Cure Sometimes, Relieve Often and Care Always
Ambroise Paré is credited with these words and while Paré, the uneducated son of a country artisan who became a great surgeon, said them in the 16th century, they still resonate today. In fact, a Google search of the phrase ...
5+ Secrets for Powerful Phone Connections With Patients (and Prospective Patients)
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 ...
What Can You Do in Eight Seconds? You may be surprised
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, ...
Silence Isn’t Always Golden: 3 tips for confronting problem behaviors head on
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 ...
Mission Critical: E + E = Service+
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 ...
Making Your Customer Service Job Descriptions Fit Everyone: Senior leaders, managers, and staff
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 ...
Getting Physicians on Board With Service: Five steps to building buy-in
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 ...
