Economic Downturn
The economy is producing challenges for all industries – and healthcare is not immune. According to a recent McKinsey article, consumer companies are cutting back service levels, reducing staffing, and increasing prices. Not surprisingly, this is having a negative impact on customer satisfaction.
But savvy companies are challenging their long held beliefs about customer service levels to minimize wasteful spending while investing in true drivers of satisfaction. In call centers, this is particularly relevant. Research shows that two metrics are very important to consumers – how quickly the phone is answered and the time spent on hold. By ensuring that these are met, satisfaction levels will remain high.
At Beryl, we closely monitor customer satisfaction to ensure that we are focusing on and investing in what matters to your customers. This is especially important in times like this. In the healthcare industry, we cannot let our focus on patient satisfaction erode. I would like to start a conversation about how hospitals are using the difficult economy to target activities which can bolster patient satisfaction. Let me know what you are doing to maintain satisfaction in these challenging times.
Comments
These are great comments. I remember reading a book about a medical group that was suffering from low patient satisfaction due to high wait times. They looked at everything from adding new physicians to implementing a new scheduling system. The solution they came up with actually cost them nothing. They simply started communicating expectations to their patients by telling them in advance how long the wait was, thanking them for their patience and then apologizing for the long wait. Patient satisfaction immediately improved. If you just tell people what to expect, they'll understand.
The beauty of focusing on service to keep satisfaction levels high is that it doesn't have to cost a lot. Here's something we're doing. We were asked by one of our hospital presidents to go out and advertise/promote that our emergency department is under new management, so service is improving. Budgets being tight, I wasn't in a hurry to run out and pay to produce/place new advertisements to say "under new managment." Given the power of word of mouth in healthcare, instead we are focusing on working with the new ED management on improving the service experience. We conducted interviews with recent ED patients and identified the top things we could improve in the ED experience, and we're working with operations to re-engineer the arrival, triage and waiting experiences at that ED. Utilization may be down in healthcare for elective surgeries and retail business, but emergencies will continue to happen. Improving service in the ED is one area we can focus on that can help continue driving volumes without investing in an advertising campaign.
No matter what the economy is or is not, customer service does not have to suffer as a result. Paramount to any organization is that the staff always model the best in kindness, respect, honor, and professionalism. These human qualities and disciplines do not cost anything and are not affected by the economy. It is a matter of vigilance by you and for your customers.
As the economy makes it more and more difficult for patients to meet their financial obligations, we are seeing renewed focus from our hospital clients on the patient friendly aspect of our loan programs. With that said, the tightening of the credit markets has also increased interest in patient loan programs as a means to improve their revenue management. We anticipate that both of these trends will continue through 2009 and into the following year.