Healthcare Providers are in a more competitive environment than ever before. Patients are making self-directed decisions and they are well informed about their options. There are many websites and other sources patients can access to get information ranging from clinical outcome measurement to peer experience accounts by other consumers.
Interestingly, their decisions are increasingly centered on level of service defined using criteria like wait time, staff attitude, question resolution and patient friendly billing/charge explanation (a diversion from clinical criteria). The impact of this shift in today’s market is magnified when one considers what we have learned about consumer behavior in other industries and how it may now apply to healthcare. For example, TARP conducted research cited in the book “Service America” by Albrecht and Zemke that revealed in part the following summarized findings:
Interestingly, their decisions are increasingly centered on level of service defined using criteria like wait time, staff attitude, question resolution and patient friendly billing/charge explanation (a diversion from clinical criteria). The impact of this shift in today’s market is magnified when one considers what we have learned about consumer behavior in other industries and how it may now apply to healthcare. For example, TARP conducted research cited in the book “Service America” by Albrecht and Zemke that revealed in part the following summarized findings:
- Unhappy customers who had a problem with a service organization will tell 9-10 people and 13% of customers who had a problem will tell >20 people.
- You will never hear from 60% of unhappy customers.
- Complainers are more likely than non-complainers to do business with companies that upset them.
- Of customers that do complain, 54-70% will do business with you again if the complaint is resolved and a staggering 95% will do business again if the complaint is resolved immediately or quickly.
- Customers who complained and had the complaint resolved satisfactorily will tell an average of 5 people.
- For every complaint received, 26 other customers have problems, 6 of which are considered "serious".
Powerful stuff!
In your organization you have probably heard management directives like “service is everybody’s job”. But how do you know how you are doing if the percentage of unhappy patients who complain is relatively low? You may have patient surveys conducted routinely and those often provide useful feedback and trend analysis driven by the questions constructed jointly by your marketing team and an external resource. But what about all of the patients who did not participate or were systematically excluded in those conventional methodologies? Remember, every unhappy customer is likely to tell 9-10 others about the bad experience they had but they are not likely to tell you!
Here is another methodology we believe every provider organization should embrace as part of a service management strategy – the "Moment of Truth Audit”. A “Moment of Truth” can be defined as any encounter a patient or prospective patient has with your organization in which they can form an impression about your organization. The Moment of Truth Audit approach involves:
- Discovery; an initiative designed to determine and define what Moments of Truth exist in your business. You might be surprised by how people form their opinions.
- Assessment; empirical and scientific evaluation of each Moment of Truth Outcome.
- Empowerment; a plan designed to empower the orgnization to manage service based on Moment of Truth Outcomes.
As one of our clients so aptly put it, “GET YOUR MOTO WORKIN!” (MOTO=Moment Of Truth Outcomes).
We are especially interested in your feedback related to this topic. For example:
What are you doing in your organization to improve customer service?
How do you measure service performance?
Do you have stories you are willing to share that might help other facilities?
Are you generally interested in improving patient service?
Would you consider using a professional services firm to help you improve financial service perception?
Please respond to this blog or just call us if you would like to contribute with peer comments about service management.
Jim Matthews; Principal, Nearterm Corporation
