Call your department to gauge service skills
Don’t risk turning away paying customers
Have you called your own department lately? The experience could be a real eye opener, says Eileen Shenker, a consultant who frequently works with front-line health care personnel on telephone skills and customer service strategies.
"When [managers] call in and get treated like garbage, they realize they have a problem," says Shenker, president of Success Seminars in Tucson, AZ. "If you don’t like what you hear, neither will your customers."
The point was underscored recently when her husband called to schedule an appointment with a specialist after receiving a referral from his general practitioner. "He hung up, and I asked if he had made the appointment," Shenker recalls. "He said, I’m not going there the nurse was mean.’ In 30 seconds, the person answering that phone had actually pushed a revenue-producing patient out the door. Nobody can afford to do that."
Potential customers often form their first impression of a hospital or physician’s office during the first few minutes of a phone call, she says. From that impression, they either intuit or imagine what the rest of the experience will be like and decide whether they want to come in or not.
"More technology pushes us away," Shenker says. "High tech means we need more high touch.’ When a caller actually gets to a human being after pushing this and selecting that automated option that human being had better be dripping with caring and compassion."
Shenker recently conducted a "telephone etiquette" class for front-line employees including emergency department, admissions, billing, and secretarial staff at San Bernardino County (CA) Medical Center. The class, also open to "anyone else designated by their department to attend," attracted 500 employees and was a huge success, says Jane Goetz, director of education.
The telephone seminar was part of an overall plan to make customer service a strategic goal for 1997, Goetz adds, noting that the push continues into 1998, as the hospital prepares to move into a new facility in the fall.
"We decided to look over the effectiveness of our behavior and set some customer service standards that we expect everyone to utilize," she says. "We made a customer-focused climate."
Goetz says she learned several things from the class, including the fact that the way she had been taught to answer the telephone is not the best way to make the caller feel welcome. Instead of "Education, Mrs. Goetz May I help you?" she now greets callers with, "Good afternoon, Education. This is Jane." The new greeting reflects three of the pointers Shenker shared with her audience:
• Always say "good morning" or "good afternoon."
• Always remember to include the name of your department.
• Make sure you say your name last, so the caller has a contact. "If they don’t remember anything else," Shenker notes, "they will have some connectedness to the facility."
She also offers the following telephone tips:
• Use the caller’s name as often as you can without being obnoxious. It’s not inappropriate, she adds, to ask the caller to repeat his or her name. "Stay away from sir’ or ma’am’ they can make people feel old, and the name is more personal. Use first name or last depending on the feel of the customer."
• Use courtesy terms. "Say, It’s a pleasure to,’ or "I’d be happy to,’ instead of "I can do that,’" Shenker advises.
• Always say "goodbye." "Most people don’t they’re just gone," she observes. "Make it human. Make it a transaction where the caller hangs up feeling good about you, good about the organization, and good about themselves."
• Avoid saying I don’t know’ or I can’t help you.’ Instead, Shenker suggests, say, "The best way I can help you is to either take a message, research it, and call you back, or have Sam [or whoever] call you."
• Never transfer a caller without speaking to them first. "Respond with, my pleasure,’ or I’d be happy to transfer your call.’ Say something."
• Match the pace of your speech to that of the caller by using a technique called "mirroring." There are slow talkers and fast talkers, Shenker points out. It builds trust and increases callers’ comfort level, she says, when you use a pace similar to theirs, without mimicking them in any way. "It’s a subliminal technique that gives you something in common."
Shenker uses a phrase borrowed from Strawberry Communications in Dallas when she advises her audience on how to deal with irate callers. "Let them climb all the way to the top of Mount Anger.’ Let the caller vent. Don’t interrupt unless the building is on fire. While they’re getting it off their chest, say uh huh, I see,’ to make sure they know you’re hearing what they’re saying. Affirm, but don’t interrupt." Usually, a long pause or a deep breath lets you know the caller has finished the tirade.
To prepare for angry callers or any caller she suggests taking a deep breath and smiling before picking up the receiver. The proper body language helps, Shenker says. Plant your feet on the ground and look straight ahead before dealing with that angry customer.
One point she stresses in her seminars is that the employees she’s addressing aren’t "broken." "The people you’re managing need to be trained, motivated, made to feel special about what they do and they’ll do it better," she tells managers. "Lots of people tell me, I didn’t know I was so important, that what I do matters so much.’"
Managers often don’t realize, Shenker says, that people who answer the phone a hundred times a day are really stressed. "Front-line people need to be attended to. They need fun, upbeat training programs, to be told, Rah, rah! You did good.’"
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