Customer service in the medical practice – Are you losing additional revenue opportunities?

3) Never show indifference to patients.

Losing patients before they complete their treatment regimen is a significant liability issue for any medical practice. In an article written by Strive Labs CEO and Co-Founder, Scott Hebert, DPT, wrote: “Patient churn is too big of a problem to ignore, and it can have a profound impact on your clinic’s bottom line.” In addition to the rather obvious missed revenue opportunity, a churning patient represents a practice liability, because an unsatisfied patient is significantly more likely to leave you a negative review online — or turn the experience with your practice into a cautionary tale for friends and family members. Either way, it’s bad for business — and your reputation.

4) Don’t contradict, argue, or match wits.

It’s tough for a health care worker who is continually being bombarded in a high-pressure environment to agree to disagree. When a person feels they are right or that their perception is the only logical one, they can be very stubborn in their understanding, and they will dig in their heels. It takes a strong person to allow others to have their opinion and not be judgmental about it. Any customer or patient relations training program to be deployed in a medical office must include skill training to teach the staff member how to diffuse an argument or disagreement. This situation can be dispersed by training your staff to consider the source of the conflict, respect the patient’s perception, and then teach the staff member to tell the patient that they never thought of it that way and ease away from the discussion. Their absence will help diffuse the situation.

5) Tell patients you appreciate their business.

How you relate to a patient will speak volumes to them about how much you appreciate their loyalty, all because they chose your practice for their health care. All patient and customer training programs should include discussions on making eye contact, shaking with a firm grasp, and always closing a personal encounter on a sincere and positive note. Health care workers need to understand that they are in the service business and that the patients they care for have options and they can easily walk out of the medical practice and share any negative experience on social media. Educating and reminding your staff on how easily a patient can leave your practice or share their experience with others, needs to be recognized and discussed at all the group’s town hall meetings.

6) Use plain terms and simple explanations.

We all want to appear to be super intelligent by trying to use complex terms to describe a situation because it creates leverage with the other parties engaged in the conversation. While some of this may be necessary when educating patients on their condition, any additional complex terms can easily annoy or even confuse the patient who is only there seeking help. Health care workers need to talk in a manner that keeps the patients engaged and helps them understand the topic at hand. The worker needs to use every day vernacular examples, so the patient quickly understands the reason that brought them to the clinic and what they need to do to get some relief from what ails them. The phrase “plain and simple” means precisely that – explain the topic using basic and simple terms, so the listener understands it. Using this method when discussing a patient’s condition isn’t just for the patient’s benefit because many confused patients ultimately call the office later in the day only to ask additional questions, which uses your staff’s time.