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If you want to develop patient loyalty and provide a better customer experience, consider improving customer care services. Excellent customer care services make patients feel appreciated, valued, and confident, which boosts your reputation and generates more leads through customer referrals. Below are six tips to help improve customer care services for your health facility.

Develop a patient-first mentality

Visiting a healthcare facility is often an intimidating experience for most patients. It’s essential to develop a customer care service plan for every point of contact. 

You should ensure that the patient experience makes the customer feel at ease and comfortable, from the initial contact with the front office employees to the waiting room, the appointment with nurses or doctors, and follow-up.

Hire the right staff

Having experienced and skilled nurses and doctors is not enough to provide an excellent patient experience. You further need to ensure that all patient-facing employees exhibit a similar level of client focus as your doctors. 

When hiring administration or front office staff, you should ensure that they have personalities that instill confidence in your customers. Look for qualities such as empathy and the ability to communicate effectively.

It is essential to hire customer care staff with medical assistant skills since patients may seek guidance. Remember to ensure that all your employees are HIPAA compliant to avoid hefty fines.

Make follow up calls

You should not stop caring for your patients as soon as they exit the healthcare facility. Instead, dedicate time to follow-up calls, system interaction, or text messages.  This helps to improve patient experience and get helpful feedback to gauge whether your services are up to the customer’s standard. Follow-up calls also help to uphold the reputation of your health facility. If you are having a hard time keeping up with follow-up phone calls and messages, you should consider hiring a medical answering service.

Listen and act on patients complaints and concerns

Ensure that you listen to every patient’s complaint and concern carefully and take the necessary action. This helps to build loyalty from your patients as they feel valued.

However, it is worth noting that some clients can be difficult to please even with the best services. Ensure that you investigate the validity of a complaint before taking any action to resolve it. Do not forget to inform your patients that their complaints have been appeased.

Communicate effectively

Ensure that your customer care team can effectively communicate with the patients while being courteous and respectful. The staff should respond to patient questions and offer guidance without making the client feel like an inconvenience. The customer care team should also ensure that patients feel valued, comfortable, and confident. 

Put systems in place

Be sure to utilize scheduling algorithms and routines to help limit tardiness and ensure there is enough time to spend with each patient. Billing systems allow healthcare providers and patients to stay on the same page, and in case of a mishap, there is a standard to revisit and correct the damage. 

Be sure to automate as many processes as you can. While you don’t want to take the human element out of your interactions with patients, automation helps to keep things running smoothly. 

Endnote 

Excellent customer service in any healthcare facility strikes a balance between care and empathy. Familiarize yourself with these tips to guarantee positive customer satisfaction.