Especially in the past year, hospitals have seen a monumental increase in focus on customer service. At Grady Memorial Hospital, “an urban safety-net academic facility in Atlanta,” a program has been devised to focus explicitly on customer service called the Customer Service Initiative (CSI). Through this program, emergency room nurses “created a five-step customer service initiative to act out broad scenarios while moderators gave them challenges they’d encounter in an everyday setting.” (http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Features/Articles/Nursing-Customer-Service-Initiative.aspx)

This initiative was launched in 2012, and since then, the hospital has seen a visible rise in patient satisfaction ratings.

Here were five of the most notable lessons learned from the initiative:

1. Know the chain of command for handling human resources affairs (ie: customer complaints and employee disputes).
2. Be emotionally mindful when it comes to the feelings of patients and their families. (Pay attention to non-verbal cues!)
3. Teamwork is key.
4. Communicate frequently and thoughtfully with patients and their families.
5. Communicate politely and with proper etiquette on the phone.

Which customer service lessons have you learned over the years?

We are a diverse team, dedicated to offering our clients unparalleled customer service and custom solutions to meet their own unique needs. When it comes to physician placement, our clients’ needs are at the center of everything we do. When interim leaders are matched to the appropriate team, stronger leaders are built, and with that, comes stronger teams and a stronger healthcare system.