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Joe Heuer is the author of The Pocket Guide to Patient Loyalty. His background includes the creation of the staff education department for a large multi-specialty clinic system.
Joe's presentations are funny, thought-provoking and educational. His audiences are jolted out of traditional thinking to rekindle the creativity, drive and humor that will help create patient loyalty in your organization!
To request your complimentary copy of The Pocket Guide to Patient Loyalty or for additional information please call 800-492-3548.
Sample Chapters:
The New Competition
What do Loyal Patients Do?
What do Patients Want?
What Else do Patients Want?
Think Like a Patient
The New Competition
Stop worrying about what other health care providers are doing because they are no longer your competition. You read that right. They are no longer your competition if your goal is to create the culture of service excellence that invites patient loyalty.
We know that the overall perception of customer service in health care is not stellar, to put it mildly. If your attention is on other health care providers then you are setting the bar way too low. Start thinking of your competitors as those organizations that are the best in the world at providing top-notch service. This will help you create the mindset that will move you in the direction of becoming a world-class service provider.
The best of the best includes companies such as Disney, Ritz Carlton and Nordstrom. It doesn't matter that they are not in your industry. What matters is that these organizations have created models for service excellence that are unparalleled. The principles of service excellence are universal, which means they transcend industry.
How much patient loyalty would you create if your service culture paralleled Disney's?
© 2005 Joe Heuer, excerpted from The Pocket Guide to Patient Loyalty
Contact Joe at joespeaks.com or 800-492-3548
What do Loyal Patients Do?
Loyal patients would rather fight than switch. (Yes, you really are old if you remember where that phrase came from.) Not only do loyal patients keep coming back, they also become your most effective sales force. Loyal patients tell the world how great you are. Considering that it costs approximately six times more to acquire a new patient than it does to keep an existing one, that is worth more than any advertising or marketing campaign you can undertake.
Loyal patients also tend to be more tolerant of delays and other minor problems. And they are more likely to stay with you even when they change insurance plans and have to pay more out of their own pockets.
Satisfied patients are not the same as loyal patients. Satisfied is a customer service term meaning excessively mediocre. People who consider themselves merely satisfied report that the will say adios in an instant if they think they will have a better experience elsewhere. Loyal patients will keep coming back even if it is a little less convenient and a little more expensive.
Do you want satisfied or loyal patients?
© 2005 Joe Heuer, excerpted from The Pocket Guide to Patient Loyalty
Contact Joe at joespeaks.com or 800-492-3548
What Do Patients Want?
Notice that I did not ask what your patients need. I know this may sound a little radical, but please take a moment to focus on what your patients want out of their encounter with you. Your patients want to feel better as a result of having come to you. They want to feel better emotionally as well as physically.
Think about it this way. Most people are not in a particularly good mood when they come to a hospital, clinic or doctor's office. They don't come in skipping and whistling a tune about how delighted they are to be there for a test, procedure or even the run-of-the-mill yearly poking and prodding. Anything you can do to make their visit a positive, or at least less uncomfortable, experience will be greatly appreciated. This is the responsibility of each and every person the patient encounters, from the receptionist to the doctor and everyone in-between.
Remember that positive experiences lead to positive relationships, and positive relationships are the foundation of patient loyalty.
Your patients want a positive experience. Give them one and you'll be on your way to earning their loyalty!
©2005 Joe Heuer, excerpted from The Pocket Guide to Patient Loyalty
Contact Joe at joespeaks.com or 800-492-3548
What Else Do Patients Want?
Your patients want you to care. Think of the word care as an acronym for:
Communicate
Attitude
Reliability & Respect
Empathy
Communicate simply means to tell people what they need to know in a clear and compassionate manner.
Attitudes are reflected through your interactions with your patients and are an indication of your feelings toward them.
Reliability is doing what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it.
Respect is showing proper courtesy. This used to be called common courtesy. Unfortunately, it's not so common anymore.
Empathy is attending to people with your heart.
Patient loyalty begins with me. That must become the mantra of every person in your organization!
© 2005 Joe Heuer, excerpted from The Pocket Guide to Patient Loyalty
Contact Joe at joespeaks.com or 800-492-3548
Think Like a Patient
In the movie Caddyshack, Bill Murray's character was trying, without much success, to catch a gopher that was tearing up the golf course where he worked. In a Blinding Flash of the Obvious he realized that to catch the gopher, he had to think like a gopher.
While I'm not suggesting you think of your patients as gophers (unless you are a veterinarian), there was a method to his madness that is relevant to you. If your goal is to create loyal patients, then start to think like a patient. In other words, put yourself in their shoes.
For example, how do you feel when you are forced to navigate a complicated voice mail system, which is the device of choice for organizations that want to annoy their customers without making the effort to do so live and in person. If you find it annoying, take that as a cue as to what your patients think about it!
Learn to think about the service you provide from the patient's perspective and you'll be well on your way to creating the positive relationships that lead to patient loyalty.
© 2005 Joe Heuer, excerpted from The Pocket Guide to Patient Loyalty
Contact Joe at joespeaks.com or 800-492-3548
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