In any business, especially in the field of healthcare, how you communicate with customers or patients is vital. Not communicating effectively can literally kill your customer service efforts—and your reputation. A colleague recently shared the following story.
Real World Story: My healthcare provider is the worst in communicating important information with me. Don’t get me wrong; I love my doctor. He’s probably the best doctor I’ve ever had. He is patient. He listens to me. He works with me to find the right solutions for my lifestyle and me. He’s simply the best.
However … the communication coming to me from his office is horrendous if nonexistent.
Because COVID-19 has changed just about everything, my doctor’s office has heavily pushed its online patient portal to communicate more efficiently and effectively. But they are simply not keeping up with their end of this dynamic.
I recently had an issue with a newly prescribed medication that was causing awful side effects. I tried communicating via the patient portal with my doctor to see what I needed to do. No one ever responded to me, although a telephone appointment was scheduled for me. But how would I know that I had an appointment? I never received a return email, a text or a telephone call to let me know that I had been given an appointment to talk with my doctor. I just happened to stumble on it on the patient portal a few days after sending my initial message. And on the portal, nothing indicated that I had a new appointment. I just happened to click on “Upcoming Appointments” just out of sheer coincidence.
I happen to keep a post office box because I was doing a lot of traveling before the pandemic. I use it for everything, but I don’t go to it very often unless I know I have an important letter or package. When I went last week, I had a package from my doctor’s office. It contained my annual stool sample kit. It was dated two months earlier. Again, I never received a text, patient portal email, or telephone call to let me know that the kit had been mailed to me. There was absolutely no communication from my doctor’s office to me. NOTHING. How aggravating, don’t you think?
Strategies that Turn it Around:
- Pre-communicate. With today’s technology, communication is as easy as it ever has been. There’s no reason why you can’t give customers and patients a heads-up when something important is on the horizon. “Hello, patient! Our records indicate that you are due for a colon cancer test. Please watch out for a stool sample kit that we’ll be mailing you soon.”
- Post-communicate. Once you take some sort of action on behalf of customers or patients, let them know. Send them an email, a text, or call them. “Hello, patient! Please know that we have scheduled a telephone appointment for this day at this time for you talk with your doctor.”
- Just Communicate! Simply put, there is no reason why you can’t be proactive with your communication. Don’t wait to hear from customers or patients when all they want to do is complain.
Remember: Communicating with customers and patients today is as easy as it ever has been. Don’t kill your customer service reputation by not communicating. Step up your communication efforts and get closer to that gold standard of service that we should all be striving toward every day.
What do you do to ensure that your organization utilizes all of its communication resources to keep customers and patients informed?