In healthcare, customer satisfaction can be a real challenge. In a Hospital setting, who do you suppose we are benchmarked against? For starters, there are other hospitals nearby. In fact, within the county we operate, there are 12 other hospitals. But we do have to consider that when it comes to customer service, we find ourselves competing with:

Outpatient Centers
Medical Clinics
Hotels
Airlines
Coffeehouses
Supermarkets
And even Disney World…
Yes, Disney World (and Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera)…Sounds strange, doesn’t it?

The Real Challenge
As if being held to such high customer service standards was not enough, consider the nature of the services that hospitals have to provide. How many hotels find themselves having to feed & bathe their customers? How often does a Supermarket employee have to perform a life saving procedure? How many coffeehouse employees must have an understanding of how their product can interact with other products in a way that might cost their customer their life? Hospitals Deal with all this and more. Yet often are held to the same standards for customer service.

How Customers Arrive
When you go out to dinner, what mood are you typically in? How about when you visit a hotel? Or consider buying a car? Most of the time, when we as consumers interact with these service providers, we are in a good mood, excited, optimistic, etc. Not so with the majority of patients.

How many of us can think of something we would rather do this weekend than visit the local Emergency Room?

Outside of giving birth, there are very few reasons to look forward to a hospital visit, especially an unplanned one. Picture this: last weekend I was in Orlando, having fun - everyone was smiling, even the shrubbery looked happy…the hotel was excellent, clean, impeccable service…dinner was superb, the wait staff was friendly…and then, BOOM, I get in a car accident and I am off to the ER – bringing with me expectations of how I will be served. First thing I think is “great, some thing is wrong with my health. And when it comes to my health, no one else can be as worried about it as I am, right?”

In some industries the customer arrives in a positive state of mind, and all one has to do is maintain that excitement or build on it. In healthcare, there is fear, worry, even panic…this has to be dealt with before expectations can even be met.

Imaging being a waiter in a resturant where from the moment you start your shift you have you section filled, every table sat with customers who are starving, even to the point that they might die if you do not serve them right away or if you serve them the wrong dish. Then imagine the cooks and dinning room managers requesting updates and changing the menu throughout the 12 hour shift.

After all this you find out that your demeanor, how much you smiled, and if you went the extra mile for each of the custmers was being measured….

End of Part I…

Next time tune in for the positive side of all this!

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