ON Chiropractic Fall 2013 | Page 12

COVER STORY / YOUR PATIENTS' EXPERIENCE Staff Most chiropractors in Ontario employ clinic staff to welcome patients, show them to their treatment room, document their patient files appropriately, process payment transactions and schedule follow up appointments. The role these staff members play in your patients’ experience cannot be overstated. Maximizing the value they add to your business is essential. You can do this by: • Finding and hiring great staff: Recruiting great people is always a challenge. Here is a way to think about recruitment that may make things easier. Disney, which was ranked recently as having the fifth best customer experience in the world, has a saying: “Hire attitude, not aptitude.” We tend to focus on whether or not an employee can complete the tasks associated with their role, as opposed to how they conduct themselves while completing those tasks. The concept Disney understands is that training a person to perform a task is far easier than training a person to be courteous, friendly and helpful. • Training your staff: Once you have found a staff member with a great at- titude, take ample time to ensure that they have the information necessary to do their job quickly and efficiently. Then follow up with ongoing coaching. • Empowering your staff: PWC found that 80% of consumers are willing to return to a retailer that has apologized following a bad experience. In health care, 66% became satisfied with their patient experience when their frustration was acknowledged. The trick is that the window of opportunity for this type of action is quite small. In fact, once the patient has left the clinic the moment has likely passed. So empower your staff to ask patients about their experience and to respond to any frustrations they may share. This can be as simple as offering an apology. Protect yourself by ensuring your staff knows when to involve you and when to take action of their own volition. It is critical, according to Upfold, to explicitly connect the tasks you are asking your team to perform to the benefits those actions have in the experience of your customers. This allows managers to paint a clear picture of what good service looks like. Upfold believes that there are a lot Above: A patient reading educational materials in the waiting area of Totem Lifescience in Toronto 12 FALL 2013 of employees who want to excel. What those employees lack is clear guidance and coaching. Clear and consistent coaching from you is a necessary ingredient to your team's success. Experience The conveniences you offer your patients matter too. There are a variety of things you can do to enhance the experience of your patients, by offering simple conveniences: • Entertainment: We already know that waiting is a major challenge for patients and providers alike. If you do have to ask your patients to wait, provide an environment that is welcoming and allows them to make use of the time they are waiting: ºº Provide a WiFi connection so your patients can get caught up with emails and social media connections while they wait, ºº Provide refreshments, especially at mealtimes, and, ºº Provide sources of information, such as literature or a video screen displaying chiropractic information. • Education: 60% of patients reported to PWC that they were actively seeking out educational resources and treatment options while in their provider's office. This holds true in the treatment room as well. Today’s health care consumer is increasingly curious. They expect to be well informed about the examination and treatment techniques you intend to use. They also want to fully understand your diagnosis and what it means to their experience as your patient and to their overall health.