The Overall Patient Experience and the New Approach to Customer Service

Your patients are not who they were 10 years ago. The same goes for how they perceive their experience with your practice. Sorry to tell you, but it just isn’t the same. The truth is, for a lot of patients, the entire patient experience starts and ends online. In fact, a majority of patients begin their journey by checking to make sure a physician is in-network with their insurance. Then, they check online reviews and/or your website to make sure it looks like your physicians are well rated and practice medicine in a professional setting. Once the appointment is made (probably via a request form on the website) and the patient finishes their visit, they’ll return online to leave feedback about how great, or not so great, their experience was. Is that fair? Probably not. But as patients move toward digital-first communication preferences, and as 75% of patient interactions are completed with a member of your team and not the physician, the importance of overall patient experience has become more important than ever.To survive and thrive in 2019 and beyond, your practice needs to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to customer service, and that takes an entirely new approach to management, leadership and engagement.