When faced with the challenge of a serious illness, one often feels out of control and at the mercy of the medical community, i.e., being told, in a nice way, this is what we are going to do to your body for the next six months. But so far I have come to appreciate all the choices I have – spiritually, emotionally, and physically – and now that I have had time to process the diagnosis and grieve, I can now move into a focused plan to heal and be as proactive as I can. But I can’t help worrying about women who frankly aren’t as resourceful as I am. Where is the healthcare industry when it comes to helping them make choices? (more…)
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Making Choices (Even When You Feel You Don’t Have Any)
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012Fearing the First Chemo
Monday, January 23rd, 2012I am pretty sure I am not alone in this, but in my life I have done everything I can to avoid vomiting. I hate it when your body takes control and you are at the mercy of a response to an illness or toxic substance. So I was relieved when my oncologist told me that it was his goal to do everything in his control to keep me from throwing up during treatment. He even went on to say that some doctors think he goes overboard prescribing medicine to take three days after treatment to keep from getting ill. I say, “Go for it doc! Don’t listen to those guys.” In all seriousness, as a patient I hang on every word that somehow lets me know my care is not going to be ‘cookie cutter’ because I am not like everyone else. (more…)
It’s All About Me – Really!
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012On December 9th I blogged about the extraordinary mammography experience I had. The irony is that one month later I am moving headlong into a fight against breast cancer. It has been both a blessing (detecting the cancer) and a curse (having it alter my life). It would be easy and perhaps even understandable for me to curl up in a ball and hide for the next six months while I go through chemo, surgery and radiation, but that’s not me. At least at this point I don’t think it is. God has fortunately given me the ability to communicate, care passionately about how others are being treated, and help our clients see themselves through the patient’s eyes. So this time I’m the patient. I hope the experiences and observations I share in this blog will provide healthcare professionals with my unique inside perspective. Brooke Billingsley
There have been a lot of blogs and journals written by patients describing their bouts with cancer. This one is a little unique in that I hope to share my experience in a way that helps my healthcare colleagues think about what they do in the name of the patient experience. Even though we have for years observed healthcare through healthcare mystery shopping and employee perception deep dives, this is first hand, replete with the anxiety, fear, and confusion associated with being a cancer patient. (more…)
Struggling to Keep Pennies in Our Own Pocket
Monday, October 24th, 2011Is it just us or have you noticed how as consumers we have to be more diligent than ever if we want to keep from getting fleeced? Is it intentional dishonesty when the sale price doesn’t ring up at the grocery store or that you have to contact the cable company every six months to get the “special rate”? Is it simply incompetence when your bank reward dollars end up in another account or an online company says they can’t process a refund for 60 days? (more…)
Customers don’t want to hear about company rules
Friday, August 19th, 2011Customers don’t like rules – so one “turn on” is to avoid ever mentioning your business’s rules – in fact, avoid having any rules where customers are concerned.
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Acknowledging Customers Immediately is a Critical First Step in Establishing a Relationship
Tuesday, August 9th, 2011Our healthcare mystery shopping has shown that there is nothing more important in a customer/employee encounter than the first few seconds when the customer chooses to engage an employee. And acknowledging customers is perhaps the most important customer service behavior because it serves as the starting point for every encounter. (more…)
Customer Service Building Block II: Hiring
Monday, August 8th, 2011Organizations that believe in service excellence need to be selective in who they hire. The first sign that the organization is willing to carry out commitment is the implementation of a more discriminating hiring practice. This needs to coincide with a fundamental change in the kind of people hired. For instance, do prospects like interacting with other people? Have they had success providing service in the past? Are they team players and do they understand what motivates consumers?
The Reason Hiring Efforts Succeed: People who like customers are hired – The right people are now in place – Customer satisfaction increases because customers are responding to more customer-friendly behavior – Customer service becomes a competitive advantage.
The Reason They Fail: The criteria for hiring people shifts away from customer service and gravitates to more operational considerations – People who “don’t like people” are attracted to the organization because less is required of them.
“Fake it ’til you make it” only goes so far in customer service
Friday, August 5th, 2011I believe strongly that employees can be encouraged and/or trained to “fake it ’til you make it,” but in the end, patients respond most to a sincere expression of love either for the patient or their job. Shortly after we started conducting Deep Dives, I started asking nurses if they had a personal philosophy of care. By that I mean something that explains why they do what they do and how it affects their approach to patients. What I found is that experienced nurses could usually articulate what their mission was, whereas, younger nurses were still looking at it as a job. (more…)
Support for ‘Love Your Patients!’
Thursday, August 4th, 2011I am in the process of reading Love Your Patients! written by Scott Louis Diering, M.D. Doctor Diering is an Emergency medicine doctor and founder of Love Your Patients, Inc. It’s the kind of book I like to savor because his thoughts parallel what we have championed here at Perception Strategies for the past 13 and 1/2 years. One such parallel is our concern for a one-size-fits-all approach to customer service. Dr. Diering has a similar opinion when it comes to touching patients. He writes, “Only at our work do we touch our customers as part of the job. How we touch our patients makes all the difference.” He goes on to say, “Every time we touch someone, it should be a special touch, just for the patient. One touch does not fit all.”
Even though the idea of loving your patients shouldn’t be revolutionary, in reality it is. The hundreds of thousands of encounters we have experienced through healthcare mystery shopping shows us that a small minority of very successful employees work at a level of service that transcends the details of the experience. Everything they do is perfect because their warmth and sincerity overwhelm you. Shoppers may use other words to describe this phenomenon, but it is love they are feeling.
More on Love Your Patients! later.
Customer Turn On #1 – Make it all about the customer
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011Customers respond favorably to a stranger (employee) seemingly making it his or her goal in life to intently focus on their needs. It is an emotional high to perceive that another human being cares that much about you. It makes people feel special. From Turn Your Customer On: 23 Ways to Motivate Employees and Make Customers Love You (Amazon) by Billingsley & Billingsley, owners of the healthcare mystery shopping company Perception Strategies.