The 3 C's of Consumer Service

There are 3 basic things that all consumers who enter a medical office expect:

• Competency
• Courtesy
• Cleanliness

First, I will address the more general - no duh types of things. Every patient has a right to these things don't they? I mean if you are going to seek medical attention of any kind you expect and have a right to have someone who is competent. You also have the right to courtesy, of course, by nature of being human. Of course you expect any medical facility to be clean, even sterile. If you do these three things consistently and well, you will get straight 3's on patient satisfactory surveys. You could have the most competent, courteous staff and the cleanest office, and you will still only get a 3. However, if you should happen to violate any of the 3 C's, that is where the 2's and even 1's come in. You will consistently be rated as unsatisfactory or very unsatisfactory in those circumstances.

Competency:

Competency and treatment are of course different - as are different doctors, but the expectation of competence is standard. This is not to say that different practitioners may treat different issues in different ways, but the basis of the course of treatment should be sound in any case. Competency is not limited, however, to the doctor. A person hired by the doctor whose role includes any specific task is also expected to be competent. There is little room for incompetence in the dental field of course. The kicker is in perception. While the doctor will be held to the highest standard of competency, so will the rest of the staff, in whatever roles they play. It is clear that the person who does billing or insurance reimbursement will also reflect on the practice - whether competent or not.

Courtesy:

Next is the issue of common - or rather uncommon courtesy. This may seem rather simple and rather straight forward. Yes, all people have the right to be treated with courtesy. But what about when the office is really busy and you are behind schedule? What about when someone is really hurting so they're a little on the short side anyway? What about the person who is visiting you for the first time and forgot their method of payment at home? Let's look a bit more practically at courtesy. Two people come to you for a needed crown. Both are in the office for 1 hour and both will pay the same rate for the crown. One is struggling with something totally unrelated when they come in, but the appointment was scheduled some time prior and they had no choice. This patient was short with the staff and with the doctor, and was treated the same way in return. The other patient was pleasant and was treated thus. Even though it may seem justified, one patient has no more or less right to courtesy than the other.

Cleanliness:

Imagine for a moment walking into a medical office only to find a dirty diaper sitting open in the waiting area along with a mess of newspapers, magazines, and other materials littering the table. What is your first impression? What are you most likely to notice as you continue through the rest of your experience in this office? Do you think that your first impression will be the lens through which you see the other aspects of the office and even the staff? Absolutely. Clearly, every aspect of the experience in your office becomes interrelated. Spots on the assistants uniform become apparent. Stains on the ceiling that were present before you moved in become part of the experience for you. Even a seemingly harmless spec on the mirror in the bathroom could be the proverbial last straw for this patient.

So, as you consider the relatively no brainer 3 C's of Medical/Dental Office Customer Service, I hope that you better understand the enormous impact that these simple things have on the whole consumer experience within your practice.

Written by: Mr. Travis A Frederickson
travis@creatingchange.com

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