Most physicians I work with believe they know their patients well. And they do. But they know mostly about their patients’ health because when time is precious, the focus has to be on your patients’ health and well-being. But what do your patients think about the service your practice provides? Does a long-time patient feel known when they walk in the door and welcome? Do they feel comfortable calling and talking to a staff member about one of their concerns? Do they love you but get grumpy with your office staff?
When we survey patients, our client physicians are often very surprised to learn what their patients are thinking about their service. Whether it be the reading material in your office, the dated décor in your waiting room or the abrupt nurse who sets them on edge when she is taking their blood pressure, your patients have opinions. Sometimes these opinions are shared with you but most often, they are shared with someone outside your practice.
While it is a good idea to do a service check periodically (mystery shopping!), having a systematic intake process for your patients is good business. Collect your patient’s email address and send them a survey or a link to a survey post visit. Having data can keep you on top of service bumps before they impact your bottom line.
Surveying your patients can turn up interesting information – perhaps parking is a problem at your building, or your new office is hard to find and signage is non-existent, or they have to wait too long in your waiting room or maybe they are wondering why they have to complete that paper form every time they come to your office.
Patients are changing and you want to be able to change with them to meet their expectations. Keeping track of your patients and their preferences and concerns helps you provide better service to new and existing patients. You want to make service corrections before you lose patients or fail to attract new ones.
Your goal is to provide quality health care to your patients, but you can’t leave out the fact that your business is service-oriented. Surprisingly, many aspects of a physician practice have to do with customer service. From a patient’s point of view, the little things do matter. By incorporating a simple follow-up survey into your routine, you are alerting your patients that the little things and the big things also matter to you. Give them the signal that you do care about them and are working to make your relationship with them positive. At the same time, you will be collecting feedback that can help your overall service delivery be noteworthy.
