It’s been said that customer service is the most important metric within a company. And at Vital Interaction™, we fully agree.
The quality of a company’s customer service can mean the difference between solid sales, smooth conflict resolution, healthy customer satisfaction scores, and standing out from the competition.
In a nutshell, great customer service improves the relationship between your brand and your customer, ultimately leading to a higher customer retention rate.
The same concept applies to health care—now more than ever. Modern patients expect the same level of customer service from healthcare providers as they get from airlines, hotels, delivery companies, and other industries.
In short, the “retailization” of healthcare means excellent customer service is crucial to a medical practice’s success.
It also means that retaining patients is becoming harder.
So, to keep pace with modern patient demands, how can medical practices improve their relationship with patients? More specifically, what are some ways medical practices can improve the healthcare customer service experience and ultimately improve their patient retention rate?
Let’s take a look.
"Customer service is a company’s most important metric—even for medical practices."
Key Metrics in Healthcare Customer Service
Patient satisfaction surveys continue to show the importance of high-quality customer service in the healthcare industry.
Why? Because good service leads not only to good outcomes but to solid patient satisfaction. And that’s why we’re all in this industry, right?
While patients expect high-quality customer service, practices can deliver by:
Providing easy access to their scheduling team
Sending important information to patients from providers
Displaying first-rate customer service skills
But how do you know if your efforts are successful?
At Vital Interaction™, we use a handful of key metrics to determine our success in providing excellent customer service:
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Capacity to manage customers’ requests
Keeping support request-ticket count under 50
Ticket response rate
Having a support site
Let’s take a closer look at each of these components and how they help improve the patient experience.
The Role of NPS Scores in Healthcare Customer Service
For those unfamiliar with NPS, it’s the score customers give when recommending your business or service to friends and family.
Why is this important?
Because asking customers—or patients—to recommend you shows you stand behind your business and services.
Trust in your practice is vital to success. The higher the trust, the easier and faster it is to cultivate new patient relationships and nurture current ones.
By improving the quality of customer service your practice delivers, you can boost your NPS score and set yourself apart from other practices in your area.
Quality Healthcare Customer Service Means Putting the Patient First
In addition to a solid NPS score, efficiently managing patient requests is critical to your practice’s success.
Most callers find it frustrating to be on hold for more than a minute. If a patient waits too long, their trust in your practice naturally declines.
For example, imagine a pediatric clinic. A mom calls needing to schedule an urgent visit for her child but can’t reach anyone. She’s less likely to give your practice her business and may go elsewhere.
At Vital Interaction™, we face similar challenges with hundreds of clients. Keeping our practice administrators happy is our daily goal, so we have measures in place to prevent situations like the one above.
We strive to:
Keep our support request count under 50
Respond to requests in 30 minutes or less
Keep our phones covered at all times
Likewise, keeping your patients happy is your daily goal. The same “ticket” principle applies to your medical practice.
For example, at Vital Interaction™, we aim to keep the ticket count at 50 or less. If it exceeds 100, we add a team member to help.
Similarly, when your providers are overwhelmed, you can include another provider to share the load.
Improving the Healthcare Customer Service Experience through First-Rate Support
Providing access to helpful resources and information is key to keeping customers happy.
These resources include a support site that:
Is easy to navigate
Provides readily available information
Allows customers to give feedback
Equally important is consistently monitoring and updating your site and resources.
For example, we recently updated our support site to further streamline the customer service experience and help guide our clients in the right direction.
Updating your practice’s website to:
Look presentable
Include key facts about your practice
Make it easy for patients to find your locations
These are all important parts of offering solid support.
Let our system go to work for you so your staff can provide a more dedicated and effective in-office patient experience. Call (512) 487-7625 to learn more or get started today.