The Great Divider

The loss of a customer can signify any number of sad results, from loss of revenue to the possibility of negative publicity about your company. You might lose a contract or agreement due to pricing; that may be unavoidable. But to lose a customer based on a service error, an employee’s poor attitude or because it appears that you do not care — that is inexcusable.

In these difficult economic times, can you afford to lose any business? Can you afford to have a customer leave your store or hang up the telephone and tell a colleague or family member that you had no interest in helping them? Absolutely not. You cannot afford to have any patient or customer feel as if they are an interruption to your work rather than being the reason for your work.

If you are going to avoid giving customers to your competition, you must provide exceptional service. You must not simply offer acceptable service but service that will separate you from others. Referral sources will not judge you by the walkers or wheelchairs you sell, or by the specific manufacturer of your oxygen concentrators. Experience tells us that customers will make the decision to order from you again based upon the excellent service they received.

Never miss the opportunity to remind your colleagues, and even yourself, that service is the great divider. Customers will gravitate toward companies that are staffed with people who care.

How can you make sure exceptional service is the glue that holds your organization together? Consider these suggestions:

• Service issues should be discussed at all staff or department meetings. This is an important issue for everyone to consider when interacting with patients in the home and to those you speak with on the telephone.
• Repeat the stories when customers write thank-you notes for your services or comment to management about the great work of your staff. HME companies are often quick to talk about the mistakes that are made or the customer who might be angry; give the same attention to what your company is doing right, and make sure you do it over and over again.
• Staff members who exceed customer expectations should be recognized by management as well as their colleagues. If you want great service to become a natural behavior, recognizing and rewarding it could be the answer.
• Get your priorities in place. When a service issue surfaces, make it a priority. Bad news travels fast. People are more apt to talk about what they perceived as your poor service than they will about any extra services you provided.
• Never be lulled into believing that something will not go wrong. When you believe something is permanently fixed and you have a plan in place to make certain the error will not happen again, then, bingo, it happens. Keep monitoring and reviewing all the systems and processes in your company. Nothing is fail-proof, and for that reason nothing can be placed on autopilot.
• Keep talking to your customers. They will always be your best consultants. They have experienced your company, sensed the attitude of your staff and interacted with any number of your employees in a wide range of departments. They are often objective, have no special ties to any one person and may be more honest with their comments that anyone working within the company. Plan meetings with your top customers to determine what they like most about your organization.
• Finally, become a role model for your employees or colleagues. Exceptional service is often contagious. Begin from the top down. Remind management of their responsibility to set the standards of exceptional service. New employees follow the lead of those they see. While delivering exceptional service should be a part of employee training, many people learn best from observation. Others are watching the way their colleagues handle an angry referral source on the phone or an upset customer in the store.

Exceptional service must become your “standard service.” You may never receive a second chance to impress the customer you worked so hard to attract to your business. Service must be a way of life for your HME organization. It’s time for exceptional service. It may be now or never.

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Louis Feuer is president of Dynamic Seminars & Consulting Inc. and the founder and director of the DSC Teleconference Series, a teleconference training program. You can reach him through www.DynamicSeminars.com or at 954/435-8182.