“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”
~ Lou Holtz - Former football coach, author, motivational speaker
In today’s competitive home care marketplace, increasingly the decision to use one provider over another is based solely on the agency’s ability to deliver noticeably superior customer service. The only way to consistently deliver superior service is by creating and maintaining a culture that is dedicated to customer service.
How to create that culture is one of the top questions I am asked. And unfortunately there is no magic answer. It takes a total commitment to creating the culture from the top to the bottom of the organization and time. The good news is that to outshine your competition may not take perfection right away. Also, as I like to point out, it costs no more to deliver great service than to deliver bad service. In fact, it can be shown that it is more cost effective to provide great service.
Home care is populated with incredible people; home care people are wonderful and caring individuals. Home care as an industry, however, does not get the credit it is due because of its longstanding poor customer service practices. Historically, agencies have not been compelled to invest in customer service. As a result, now they have to devise a program to make customer service a priority in their agency culture. If you were asked to name three companies that you admire most for their customer service experience, which would you name? A bank, a restaurant, an airline or a department store may come to mind, but probably not a home care agency.
A truly great example is Southwest Airlines. They have a very unique culture, one that has survived despite tremendous growth. Many parallels may be drawn between their business and a home care agency. Both have a workforce that is spread out geographically and don’t have the opportunity to all come together at one time. They both provide services that are dependant upon being on time and delivering on the expectations of their customers. And both must deliver extraordinary service while tightly controlling costs. One need only look at Southwest’s success to realize the value in creating a business model and a culture that are based on a foundation of customer service. An interesting statistic that belies this point is that the market capitalization of Southwest Airlines now exceeds the combined market value of all of the major airlines in this country combined.
You agency’s leadership must be steadfast in their belief that their unique advantage lies with the ability to provide great service. You must encourage your staff to find ways to add those little unexpected personal touches to what you do. Those small efforts will ultimately be repaid with enormous returns of goodwill in your community. This behavior is cultural and must be encouraged and empowered. After a time, these types of random acts of service will just happen naturally. Until that time the Customer Service Champion in your organization will need to watch for acts to recognize; dig for opportunities; help staff realize them; and of course, be on the lookout for overkill or acts that don’t make sense (financially or otherwise) or are not consistent with the agency’s values.
To your customers, the true mark of your agency’s commitment to service excellence will not be what is seen in your marketing brochure, but rather the way that your agency responds when something goes wrong.
By partnering closely with the other medical professionals involved with your patients’ care, you will make them look better as a result of your customer service focus. Since there is no blame in a true and strong service culture, it allows the physicians and others to be viewed as allies and not adversaries. This brings additional value to your relationship with these important health care professionals. And, it ultimately will increase their loyalty, and the number of referrals and recommendations that you receive from them.
What your agency does when there is a problem will determine your long-term success. You must empower your staff to rejoice whenever there is a problem! Every problem is a golden opportunity to build a stronger relationship with your customers. Studies have shown that customers whose complaints are handled satisfactorily and in an expeditious manner are more likely to purchase additional services than those who experienced no problems with your services. Since most of your competition probably runs from problems, this ability becomes a tremendous strategic advantage.
The opportunity is to build strong relationships with your referral sources by being visible and proactive when there are problems. This single strategy will grow your stream of referrals better than any other strategy you may implement. By maintaining high values and resolving problems that arise, you are building a very strong foundation for being a preferred provider for many years to come.
Service recovery or conflict resolution is all about keeping your customers satisfied and loyal users of your services despite problems that have surfaced. This means that even if there is a service disaster, your customer still views your agency as the best to provide the services required. It is the special effort that your customers will come to expect from your agency when something has gone a little or a lot wrong for them. Service recovery is all about restoring trust when your customer is most likely to doubt your agency’s abilities.
The other thing that conflict resolution provides as a benefit is the opportunity to “train” your patients and clients as well as your staff. Every interaction surrounding a service problem will be valuable to the training process. This means that you will want to document many of these service recoveries to use with future staff training. It will also underscore the importance of clear communication.
The economics of service recovery are easy to quantify, if you do nothing you lose customers and undermine your entire program. If you are able to satisfy your customer’s problems you will actually end up with more loyalty than if there were no problems. And while we would not suggest you create problems just to solidify your relationships with your customers, you must see problems as great service opportunities. Your staff will really shine once they are great at problem resolution.
Nothing is gained by winning an argument and losing a customer.
Since we know that customers won’t always seek us out to report service problems, we must be adept at probing for information and detecting problems. In your satisfaction surveys or customer service profiling, always be on the lookout for suggestions for improvement and complaints. Respond and let your survey respondents know that you appreciate their input and will use their response to aid with service improvement and report back to them. Invite them to establish an ongoing dialogue with your agency to keep them providing additional ideas and suggestions.
Remember the golden rule: to treat others, as you would like to be treated. Think of how you would like to have the problem resolved if the tables were turned. Don’t spend your time thinking about how it should be resolved to best suit your agency. In other words, always put yourself in the customer’s shoes when analyzing how to best fix a service breakdown.
When a customer lodges a complaint, it can either be resolved or not, and if resolved, it can be resolved quickly or not. Quick resolution is the ideal situation, but not all situations can be resolved quickly. All situations must be analyzed quickly and communication regarding the problem and potential resolutions shared with the customer. Ignoring a problem is the worst thing that can happen. Any amount of time that elapses between your being made aware of the complaint and your taking action is going to be perceived by the customer as you ignoring them.
Remember that any problem that was significant enough to warrant complaining by your customer cannot be ignored or put on a list of low priority items. If your customer felt strongly enough to bring it to your agency’s attention, then you must treat it with equal priority. On the first contact, you must tell them what to expect.
Your competitors may try to copy many things that you do, but they’ll never be able to replicate your legendary service culture.
The bottom line is this: Resolution of customer complaints, concerns or problems and the return of that customer to a state of satisfaction with your agency have a profound effect on your agency. It has an enormous financial reward for the agency. It enables continued growth and saves on marketing expenses. It is critical to the long-term success of your customer relationship program. And, it will create stronger teams within your agency with greater pride and loyalty. Problems provide ongoing diagnostics of your service program. And, you will be building a strong bond between the agency and your staff as well as your agency and its customers.
Take a walk in your customer’s shoes. What do they like? What are their needs? How do they view your agency and the services it provides? These are things that you must know in order to accurately target your message to your intended market. This is accomplished through several activities designed to keep in touch with your customer.
Research! Research! Research! How many potential patients does your referral source serve? What is the typical referral (e.g., illnesses, companionship needed, Alzheimer’s or dementia, chronic vs. acute)? Which other agencies do they send referrals to and why? What do we do great? What needs work?
Have a system in place to trap the compliments as they are received and include them in your overall evaluation. Look not only at who is complimenting the agency but also why. What is important to this person and what made a big enough impact to motivate them to take the time to let your agency know what a great job it did? These are important elements to consider as you are updating your customer profile.
Whatever you do, do research regularly and consistently and use the data to improve your marketing and customer service initiatives. The best time to ask someone for a referral is when they are pleased with your services. Ask for referrals in the course of your research. Include a return form with your satisfaction surveys that asks for three referrals. Make sure your investment in satisfaction surveying and quality improvement has a positive impact on your image, relationships with customers and marketing program.
Excerpted from 101 Home Care Promotional Strategies That Deliver Legendary Results Without Busting Your Budget by Michael Ferris.