I’m certain very few of us enjoy going to the doctor’s office for an exam or a medical need. Unfortunately many medical practices make the experience more “painful” by implementing negative or ignoring poor customer/patient experience practices. And, the patients aren’t the only ones suffering. The employees are on the receiving end of customer complaints that could be easily resolved. Often, employee experience suffers because they are not receiving the training and recognition needed either.

Here are a few examples of the “painful” patient and employee moments:

1. We’re not open yet… go away!

I arrived at 8:45 in the morning at a medical practice for a 9 o’clock business meeting. As I walked up to the door, an elderly man joined me and we noticed that the office was completely dark inside. At 8:55 an employee opened the door a few inches, stared at us and barked, “We don’t have any appointments today”. The man explained that he just wanted to reschedule an appointment while he was in the medical building area. She reluctantly let him in. I was given the same stare and told to sit in the waiting area inside. She mumbled to someone in the reception area and the man was finally assisted with the same poor attitude received earlier.

2. We’re a call center… well, not really

A medical group decided that all employees other than nurses would answer incoming calls on a main number. Nurses would receive only transferred calls. The group purchased a small call center system but barely used the features provided for best routing. Each employee was set up as an individual call center, not as an agent. When I asked about it, I was told there was no requirement for employees to login to the system and “we can barely get them to answer the phone.” Because of the lack of procedures for the system, the reporting showed crazy metrics such as the agent/employee never taking a break or leaving at all.

To add to this disorganized process, everyone multi-tasked answering calls, greeting patients walking in, scheduling appoints and even taking payments. The employees were clearly miserable and the patients were feeling that pain too based on comments I heard from them.

3. I’m a doctor and I love technology. I can do it myself.

Ok… you love the new technology, Doc. You have an iPad, iPhone, Mac, PC, and your home and office are filled with all the latest gadgets. That does not mean you are an IT or telecom expert. It just means you have hobbies besides your medical career.

I’ve seen doctors meet with vendors who are prepared to provide the best practice advise, but refuse to take the advice because they want to do it “their” way.

Please let the pros help you set up the proper call flow, settings, reporting related to the calls and other patient/provider contact methods.

4. Hire, train and engage the right people for patient interactions

Stop hiring process-only people to provide customer service in your offices and on your phones. Please spend some money on your most valuable office assets you have for patient retention: the people who work there. Don’t just stick them on the phone and hope for the best.

When did you last provide training for them on how to offer great customer service to retain your customer patients? If your focus is purely on the process and medical knowledge, your employees will focus on just that.

Be sure to reward your hard-working employees for creating great customer experiences. Avoid focusing just on the boring, “employee of the month” plaque and find unique ways to show appreciation to every employee who is observed going the extra mile to provide great service. And don’t forget to train your supervisors how to coach and motivate their customer-facing teams.

Avoid putting temporary bandages on your patient experience and employee experience/engagement and give them both the time and effort that they deserve. Your business and bottom line will be healthier than ever!