I often find myself amazed.  After completing a presentation yesterday I spoke with several executives about increasing patient satisfaction.  They were in awe of how we've been able to increase patient satisfaction scores in a relatively few months.  At my current organization, we've taken patient satisfactoin from the 26th percentile nationally to the 95th and continue to sustain our gains.

So their question was, "how can we do it?"  What an easy answer.  Listen.  Listen to your customer.  It's so simple I can't believe I actually make a living doing it.  Thankfully for me, many people don't grasp this concept.  When you listen to your customer, deliver what they ask for, in the time they ask for it, and in the manner they want it, you succeed. 

Our problem in healthcare is that we think we know what the customer/patient wants.  We're totally wrong.  We have no idea.  Since 2005 the organization that I'm working with has been participating four Press Ganey patient satisfaction surveys.  They've had a load of feedback, hot comments, good scores, bad scores..........etc.  The problem is that rarely were these scores taken seriously, rarerly did anyone pay attention to what our patients were saying. 

 We logged a total of 400 complaints last year.  No one can look at me with a straight face and say that we only had 400 complaints.  Maybe 4,000 but not 400.  We should do everything we can to seek out complaints.  Ah!  Yes, I did just say that.  I once had a CEO that said that any monkey could take a complaint.  I disagree.  Any monkey can take a complaint and not see its value.  Many of our organizations spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on marketing research, focus groups, etc.  They don't, however, look for feedback that's right under their noses.  Complaints are simply blown expectations.  Read each one, listen to those who complain, if it makes sense to the customer, fix it for your other customers.  They do not live in a bubble..........you do.  They're more in tune with what others like them want................you're not.

Want to know how to increase your patient satisfaction scores?  Listen to your patients.  Listen to your physicians, your employees, your volunteers, your competitors.  Listen and make adjustments based on the feedback they provide to you.  It really is one of the easiest things to do.  If you struggle and can't seem to figure out how to listen.....call me.  We'll listen together and it won't cost you a thing.