Service Excellence from a Hospital?

I have to hand it to the staff at Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick Massuchsetts where I live as they truly exemplify an entire corporation’s commitment to quality.

Ever since I had bypass surgery 6 years ago, I use the outpatient lab at LMH to have routine blood draws done. And over time, I’ve seen their customer satisfaction program really take hold across all staff in all departments. Hard to imagine in a hospital, right? But the reasons for their success are applicable across any business or industry:

1) They keep it simple. Their “We Strive For Five” program asks patients to rate the performance on a 1-5 scale (5 being the best) on dimensions that matter most to the patient such as how long it took to be admitted and the empathy and friendliness shown by their staff. Do they ask to be related on cleanliness? No. It’s a hospital folks. Everyone knows it’s clean on the surface but full of sick people! So why ask? What they care about is getting in and out as quickly as possible.

2) Everyone on staff is bought in to the system. Every time I go to get blood work, I’ll always be reminded to look for the comment card in the mail and to be sure to give them all “5”s on the score. Seem a little presumptuous? Well it would be if it weren’t for #3.

3) The staff live and breathe their commitment to patients in all ways you expect such as knowing your name if you come in often, not making you wait around for paperwork to be filled out when they can complete it without you, and setting clear expectations on what’s happening all along the process (“You’ll feel a little stick here”, “I’m going to send these samples off then come back”, ). But they go beyond that with things like breakfast snack bags for those of us who come in early to test before work, or taking the time to tell you a little about themselves (last time is was Chris who’s goal is to move the Florida Keys and split his time between bartending and being a divemaster). They even going so far as to stop and say goodbye and wish you well if you’re still there and their shift has ended.

Any company can learn and adopt these concepts.

Don’t think about customer satisfaction from your perspective. Put yourself in their shoes and say to yourself “what would I expect in service in order to give this company “all 5’s”.

Get everyone from the top down bought into the program. And the easiest way to do that is involve everyone from the top down in the create and implementation of that program. Doing so will create that sense of ownership across all levels of the organization.

And finally, find those ways to add a nice touch to your customer’s experience. A bag of fruit, cookies, and a bottle of water is a simple gesture but means a lot to an early riser like me who tends to forget breakfast. And remember to encourage your employees to create that emotional bond with the customer as it will help create a lasting impressing of the experience they had with you.