The document discusses the importance of customer service in today's competitive hospital environment. It argues that customer service should be as important a goal as clinical quality and can be a strategic differentiator. Hospitals will need to focus on individual consumer experiences and anticipate their needs through active listening strategies and real-time problem solving. Customer feedback loops will also be important to continuously improve service. Elevating customer service will require measuring service levels and examining cultural norms that may hinder service.

1. Today's Hospital Customer Service
Mission Critical in
Today’s Marketplace
Thomas Roman
www.linkedin.com/in/tomroman/

2. • Examine what confronts today’s
competitive hospital care environment
• Discuss ways in which Customer Service
can be designed into the health-care
delivery systems
• Look at the impact of social networking,
connectedness and new rules of Customer
Service

3. • It is tangible, impactful and
actionable
• Customer Service is linked to
functional quality and measured by
attributes commonly experienced
by consumers
• Elevating customer service to the
same level of importance as clinical
quality requires two things: data
about service levels and a look at
hospital practices and cultural
norms that may get in the way of
service

4. • Through the mid 1990’s, treating or thinking of patients as,
“Customers” would have generated outrage among health-
care workers and administrators
(Howard 1999)
• Although patients may be consumers of our services,
physicians have traditionally been considered hospitals'
primary customers
• Patient’s don't differentiate between employees and
independent medical staff members when they form their
opinions about their hospital care
(Sanford 2011)
• 30 percent of today’s financial reimbursement is tied to a
standardized survey, the Hospital Consumer Assessment of
Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS)

5. • The factors of emotions, trust
and control can influence a
customer experience
• An organization’s commitment
to an emotional platform can
facilitate decisions regarding its
processes, people and physical
assets
(Dasu, Sriram, Chase, 2010)

6. • Different stages of the
service cycle and different
service offerings will lead to Positive
Hospital Discharge
different emotions
• For example, at a general
hospital, the parents of a
healthy new baby will be in a Neutral Admission
very different emotional place
than the relatives of a patient
who has just been admitted to
the intensive care unit Treatment
(Dasu, Sriram, Chase, 2010) Negative Problem
Discovered
Time

7. • Consistent customer service performance goes a long way
toward building trust
• Although credentials, testimonials and recommendations
are frequently important factors in trust, many customers
make their judgments based on other cues, including a
person’s behavior, problem solving skills and ability to
communicate clearly

8. • Service providers design for control in two ways:
– allowing people to have behavioral control over parts of
the service delivery process
– through cognitive control where even though
customers can’t influence the process, they can see
enough of the system to know that it’s well managed

9. • Customer service is a strategic imperative that belongs at
the same table as strategic planning, marketing
communications, branding and advertising
• Without a solid customer service focus, hospitals may begin
to lose important managed care contracts and contracting
abilities and therefore lose a large percentage of their
insured customer base and have trouble remaining
competitive in their area

10. • Customer service has to moved from being considered a
“cost” to one of investment
• It is very quickly becoming a calculated driver that will be
vital in providing brands with unique points of
differentiation and businesses with sustainable competitive
advantage
• In this age of service transition and increasing managed
care market competition, hospitals must remain focused on
quality and the consumer's needs, wants, and demands

11. • If your customer service is to become a strategic
differentiator, it has to embody a new set of rules,
guidelines and best practices
(Jaffe 2010)

12. – As was evidenced by the “Motrin Moms” story,
Johnson & Johnson’s inability to address a mob
of angry bloggers cost the brand its entire
campaign
– A listening strategy tied to customer sentiment
needs to be on, 24 x 7 x 365

13. • Every single employee in an organization
represents the company
• They are a window into or out of the business;
and as far as your customer is concerned, they
are the only window

14. • Train customer service to anticipate and respond to
customers who have a word-of-mouth distribution platform
such as a website, blog, podcast or, community pulpit
• Be proactive with collecting information from customers—
either through registration forms, profiles or surveys
• Ask them explicitly: do you have a blog, and if so, document
the URL and research the blog

15. • “Customer Service” should not be any different from
“serving customers”
• Be specific; suggest ideas; offer information of value; or
recommend solutions from which both you and your
customers will benefit

16. • Solve problems in real time
• The more time that elapses between problem and solution,
the greater the risk of that problem mushrooming out of
control

17. • Building on several of the earlier new rules is one fairly
counterintuitive one:
– service can actually become a source of revenue for hospitals—not just
directly (i.e., new business from old customers); but also indirectly
(i.e. new business from new customers.)

18. • The more time elapses, the more likely a customer is to
move a problem from the private to public and intensify it
to a fever pitch

19. • Marketing is not a campaign; it’s a commitment
– We need to visibly demonstrate our commitment to our customers in
practice and in action
– They need to explicitly feel its effect and benefits

20. • Old customer service “spoke when it was spoken to”
– New customer service anticipates requirements, listens
attentively for customers in need, and proactively
searches for problems to fix
• Whether anticipating next steps or responding to a clear
and present complaint, as long as there’s action, there’s the
potential to turn a negative into a positive

21. • Feedback loops need to be active, direct and effective at
improving, evolving and moving the business forward
• This highlights an organization with an entirely new set of
criteria, beliefs and characteristics that reflect a company
truly in touch with its customer base

22. What does
What is How can you be sure
being “show
“backstage” in that customers who
ready” mean?
your are wrong are wrong
organization? with dignity?
Are employees ever
guilty of providing
robotic service?
What opportunities How do they know?
are there to teach
customers
something they How does the
may not have Everything Speaks
known before? philosophy apply to
your work setting?

23. • Value is based on unique, personalized experiences of
consumers
• Customer service will need to be as important a goal as
clinical quality
• The ability—or inability—to serve customers in this way will
prove to be the ultimate differentiator that separates the
winners from the losers
• Organizations will have to learn to focus on one consumer
and their experience at a time, even if they serve 100
million consumers

24. Questions?
www.linkedin.com/in/tomroman/

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World: Does it Matter?" Journal of Healthcare Management 44.4 (1999):
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• Sanford, Kathleen D. "A New Customer Service Partnership for Hospitals
and Physicians." Healthcare Financial Management 65.12 (2011): 48-52.
ABI/INFORM Complete; ProQuest Health Management; ProQuest Research
Library. Web. 6 Jan. 2013.
• http://changethis.com, The Customer Service Manifesto
Joseph Jaffe Published March 3, 2010 6:00 p.m, Accessed 12/21/2012

26. • Dasu, Sriram, and B. Chase Richard. "Designing the Soft Side of Customer
Service." MIT Sloan Management Review 52.1 (2010): 33-9. ABI/INFORM
Complete; ProQuest Health Management; ProQuest Research Library.
Web. 1 Jan. 2013.
• Thorpe, Dayle I. "Total Quality Service: Principles, Practices, and
Implementation." Academy of Marketing Science.Journal 25.1 (1997): 90-
2. ABI/INFORM Complete. Web. 6 Jan. 2013.
• Fottler, Myron D., et al. "Comparing Hospital Staff and Patient Perceptions
of Customer Service: A Pilot Study Utilizing Survey and Focus Group
Data." Health Services Management Research 19.1 (2006): 52-66.
ABI/INFORM Complete; ProQuest Health Management. Web. 6 Jan. 2013.
• Havenstein, Heather. "Motrin Aching from Social Media Backlash."
Computerworld 42.47 (2008): 10-. ABI/INFORM Complete; ProQuest
Research Library. Web. 1 Jan. 2013
• Snow, Dennis. Lessons from the Mouse: A Guide for Applying Disney
World’s Secrets of Success to your Organization, Your Career and Your
Life. Orlando Fl, Snow and Associates, 2010

27. • Thorpe, Dayle I. "Total Quality Service: Principles, Practices, and
Implementation." Academy of Marketing Science.Journal 25.1 (1997): 90-
2. ABI/INFORM Complete. Web. 6 Jan. 2013.
• Fottler, Myron D., et al. "Comparing Hospital Staff and Patient Perceptions
of Customer Service: A Pilot Study Utilizing Survey and Focus Group
Data." Health Services Management Research 19.1 (2006): 52-66.
ABI/INFORM Complete; ProQuest Health Management. Web. 6 Jan. 2013.