Are you investing more and more to improve patient outcomes—but seeing your customer satisfaction scores drop?
Do all parts of your health care organization—including those contracted out or operated by volunteers—truly understand the meaning of "customer service"—and is everyone trained to deliver it consistently?
Today's health care organizations are struggling for market share and managing their patient interactions and performance measures have become fundamental to survival. As recently as 15 years ago, hospitals and other specialty clinics didn't worry about patients' perceptions. Doctors made almost all referrals, and employers' insurance or Medicare paid most of the cost.
Seismic shifts within the industry require that, more than ever before, organizations must be on top of every aspect of operations, including those that are contracted out or manned by volunteers. Today, individual consumers are much more likely to be paying a significant percentage of the cost of their care—and they're also more likely to be taking part in the decision of which providers to use.
Only 6% of customers will tell you about their experience, but a third will tell friends, family or colleagues. If they have had a bad experience with your organization, studies show you will be the last to know directly—although you'll definitely feel it on the bottom line.
How can you collect information about what patients and prospective patients are experiencing—information that you can apply effectively to improve communications, process, procedures, billing, infrastructure, hiring guidelines, customer service training and more?
Mercantile Systems can help. We'll assist you in identifying, auditing and analyzing all your Customer TouchPoints—from Web sites to appointment call centers; from admissions and waiting rooms to emergency rooms; from cardiac rehab to birthing rooms; from health answer-lines and online FAQs to bill processing and complaint resolution; and from support groups to educational programs and collateral materials.
Using a huge base of multi-cultural "secret shoppers" we'll provide real consumer feedback—actionable data—that looks at the customer experience in all its points of impact, to help you not only understand patient and family needs in all their complexities, but translate that understanding into sound operational direction and improvements—improvements that are vital to your organization's survival.
