Case Study – Central Department in Northwest Hospital Trust
The department of around 30 staff including clinicians, technicians and administrators sees up to 800 patients per week for between 10 minutes and 2 hours. As such the team have a very short time make a connection with the patient and help them feel that they have been well looked after.
The hospital as a whole is working towards the Cabinet Office Customer Service Excellence Award. This department wanted to focus its progress on improving the information provided to patients and making them feel more welcome and cared for in the short time available.
We ran a series of 2 hour sessions, covering all staff in mixed groups (clinicians, technicians and administrators) with the aim of helping them see the service from the customers’’ point of view and remind them of the importance of first impressions on the whole experience. Time was also spent with the department manager, helping her to deal with reaction from the sessions and to support the longer term cultural change.
Below you will find initial feedback from the sessions, together with progress reports from the department manager – one week and six weeks after the training.
Initial Feedback
1. What did you enjoy about the sessions?
The fact that it was relevant, and not just another teaching session that didn’t mean anything!
The session was run in an informal way and everybody was encouraged to participate which I enjoyed.
I enjoyed the photograph examples of poor first impressions.
I thought the video at the end was great but I still can't believe that…. [removed for impact reasons :) - well we don’t want to spoil your fun!]
I enjoyed the photos and anecdotes of experiences he has previously of customer service.
The informal approach to the presentation and the way the discussion was appropriate to the job we do, also the drawing in of others experiences.
2. Was there anything that you did not find valuable?
Nothing
I thought some of it was common sense, but was good as a refresher course.
No, I felt it was all valuable, it was good to revisit some of the things you already were knowledgeable about and it was an opportunity to share thoughts/experiences.
3. What is the main thing you have taken away from the session?
How practical customer service can be, so often these courses are the ideal world and you can sometimes leave thinking "well that's ok for others but I don't know how it could be applied here" but because it was discussed in relation to our job you could bring a lot more away with you.
We need to put ourselves in the shoes of our customers and look at our unit and service in a fresh way.
The main thing I took away was to try and see the service we provide and the area we provide it in from the customer's point of view. And occasionally take a step back and re-evaluate.
The majority of the session was really a reminder of what we already know and should be doing. It also highlighted how standards can slip when you become blasé or disinterested (not that I am).
Remember the customer pays the wages, i.e. more bums on beds = more money from the PCT. Keep them coming back!
4. Is there any element you would like more training on?
Perhaps training on dealing with difficult situations with customers, which help us to get a positive outcome for them and ourselves.
I think he covered everything well.
Are there course on learning how to smile?
5. Any other comments?
I think Chris did a great job.
I think now that we have started to look at things in a customer service way we need to come up with standards for our own unit and if necessary extra training may be needed for some staff in some areas.
Interesting session, which makes you think twice how you deal with people and what you say.
Thank you!!!!!
One week later
Some of the team has now got together as a bit of a 'task force' to canvass the whole team to come up with something that describes what we feel good customer service looks like in [our department].
I have been careful not to lead them in any way, and have left them to it, as I really want them to own it, but the things they have talked to me about so far, have been really encouraging.
I've rearranged our team meetings, so that we are having a regular monthly one as a whole team, and in between those, I'll be having a meeting with each of the smaller teams, which means that there will be something fortnightly for everyone. We'll see if it helps them feel more listened to / communicated with.
I have also added Customer Service to the agenda for every meeting now, in the hope that it does become part of our culture.
Interestingly, I have never seen so much cleaning and tidying going on as I have in the last 2 weeks, so I think the first impressions stuff is really sticking. They have also come up with the idea of a big who's who board with all our smiling faces on inside the front door, which is a bit scarier!!
Thanks once again for coming and spending the day with us, I really think it has started the ball rolling, and although we have only seen the tip of the iceberg, I am really confident we can make a big difference.
I hope we see you again soon!!
Six weeks later
Even the cynics are still saying things like 'answer that phone, it's on 4 rings!' or 'I've moved that, it doesn't look good when patients walk in' etc, so I think the culture is slowly changing!
“Things are still going well, our working group are putting together our customer care standard, and we raise it at every team meeting.
I have altered clinic templates to allow the receptionists to be able to give the patients more information, and also to allow us protected time for regular team meetings, which is a luxury!
We have a staff suggestion / Q&A board up, which is starting to be used, and hoping to launch some kind of reward or recognition scheme for good customer service in the near future, once we have decided on the details!
