Customer Service Basics
I am so excited that summer is here, and I hope you are as well! As we gear up to soak in the sun, sand, sounds, and smells of my favorite season, I want to invite you all to remember a few customer service basics to make this season most pleasant for ourselves as well as the patients we help to hear better every day:
Phone hold etiquette: Always ask permission before placing a caller on hold, and always thank them when you pick the call back up. This only takes a couple of seconds, and it goes a long way in making the patient feel our Serendipity professionalism that is much better than just “mediocre!”
Welcome the patient and set expectations quickly: Every patient who walks through your door should receive a genuine, authentic welcome from you, including sincere eye contact. Then tell them what to expect – “take a seat, please fill this out, the provider will be with you shortly…” This is vital in making them feel at ease and at home in what can be perceived as an uncomfortable environment, and a patient who feels at home in your area is much more likely to tell their family and friends about the positive experience you created. If you’re on the phone when a patient comes in, acknowledge them by being sure to make eye contact, smile, and gesture for them to take a seat. Then as soon as you hang up, speak to them and make them your first priority!
Keep your welcome area and offices clean and tidy at all times: We all know that feeling of “eww, gross!” when we enter a restroom that isn’t clean, especially if it is in a restaurant! But how often do you notice it when things ARE clean and spick-and-span? We tend to just accept tidy areas as the general background of life, without making much of a mental note about it, but we absolutely remember a “gross” or “dirty” environment. So in this age of social media and Yelp reviews, every effort we make to keep a neat and tidy workspace becomes part of the positive patient experience that YOU help create. Make a point to visually inspect your areas on a regular basis in order to keep them clean, bright, and inviting.
Be prepared: When you have your work staged for the following day by pulling charts, confirming appointments, and preparing forms, you ensure that you are making the workflow of the day go as smoothly as possible.
Be a hearing ambassador! I invite us all to re-kindle our passion for helping patients hear better. What are your favorite sounds of summer? The ocean, lawn sprinklers, children laughing, birds chirping, bees humming? My favorite sounds in life are the wind, the water, and my mother’s laughter. So imagine what your life would be like if these sounds went away. When you are jazzed and excited about better hearing, this will undoubtedly show and spill over to your patients. Enthusiasm is contagious!
This summer is going to be a busy season for sure, and I look forward to working with each and every one of you to bring better hearing to the world!