Much of healthcare revolves around providing excellent customer service for all patients. Everything from a good bedside manner to effective practice management software can go a long way towards making your patients’ experience better, help to build trust in your clinic, and establish your name as a quality healthcare provider in your area.
If your practice is struggling with customer service issues, it’s important that you do what you can to turn this around. Sometimes an office cultural shift is needed, but usually following some simple yet foundational best practices can have dramatic effects on patient satisfaction and ultimately on the overall success of your practice.
Continue reading to learn why you should always aim to provide the very best customer service that you can to your patients.
Respect Your Patients
Paramount for instilling a positive customer service experience for your patients is to treat them with respect. Naturally, respect in your practice can manifest itself in many ways. Maintaining good manners is a good place to start. Make sure to also listen to your patients and consider their opinions within reason. Respect their time and go through everything in a clear way step-by-step with each patient. Keep your promises with patients and make an effort to remember their details. Stay in touch with your patients with a periodic follow-up email.
Each of these methods demonstrates to your patient that they are valued and respected when seeking care at your practice. While they may appear obvious to many practitioners, this foundational requirement is vital for improving your patients’ customer service experience.
Your Patients Are Customers
While it may seem morbid at some level to perceive your patients as customers, maintaining this attitude to a healthy degree can actually improve the customer service in your practice. At its foundations, your patients are your customers and, if you are treating your practice as a business, you will find yourself making more financially-grounded decisions.
Treating your patients as customers will also help you to treat them appropriately. Naturally, you will explain concepts more plainly and straightforwardly to establish and maintain relationships. Keep the waiting room well-maintained and comfortable to sit in. And make sure that waiting times are kept reasonably short; however, if this is not possible then be upfront you’re your patients about the delay.
Furthermore, while repeat business is not necessarily something you should encourage or promote in your practice, seeing your patient relationship as a customer-based one may help you to treat your clientele in a more befitting manner. If treated well as paying customers, your patients will be sure to use your services if required in the future.
Use Effective Practice Management Software
Another foundational method for improving customer service in your practice is using effective practice management software. Choose easy to use software that is intuitive and reliable. Make sure that you and your staff are well-versed in the technical aspects of using this software. The appointment process for patients should be quick and easy to understand. You should also consider setting up an email reminder system to let patients know when they are scheduled. This can cause dramatic drops in missed appointments which will save both you and your patients valuable time.
When using this software, however, ensure that it is secure and protected from malicious attacks. The last thing you want is for patients’ information to be accessed without their consent. Naturally, this would dramatically decrease customer satisfaction.
Improving Customer Service Is Easy
With a simple change of attitude and with some technological efficiencies thrown in, you should find that your patients are more satisfied with your practice. If in doubt, you can also periodically do an informal survey of your patients to see if there are any areas where they feel you might improve. Improving customer service is easy if your practice starts at and reassesses the basics and continues to strive for better.
