Dr. Justin Manning from Healthy Eyes Advantage recently presented a webinar on Creating a Rockstar Patient Experience. In addition to many helpful pieces of information, he highlighted a few tips eyecare practices can take from the longest running Forbes 5 Star and AAA 5 Diamond resort in the world.
Not only is customer service a cornerstone of providing excellent patient care, but it's crucial to withstanding growing competition both locally and online. We'll go over a few of the tips that Dr. Manning shared with his audience today.
Tips Eyecare Practices Can Learn from a 5-Star Resort
New Hire Training
At the Broadmoor, each new hire receives 175 hours of ongoing training. With over 2000 employees, that's a massive undertaking, but it clearly pays off year after year. How many hours of training do your new hires undergo in your practice? If you're short-staffed or lacking in resources, we recommend saving time elsewhere rather than cutting your training short. Software vendors might offer training resources for their products that you can take advantage of if you reach out. There are optician, technician, and front desk associate courses online through the AOA you can utilize.
Equality
The Broadmoor's motto is "Every guest, every employee, every time." Every guest is referred to by name, promptly assisted, and treated with respect. Employees take ownership of guests' problems. No matter how challenging, emphasize to your staff that every patient should receive the same quality of care regardless of their age, purchasing power, or insurance provider. Even if the patient can't purchase frames from you today, they might return or refer you to a friend due to the excellent service they received.
10-5 Rule
If a customer is within 10 feet, every employee makes eye contact with them. If a customer is within 5 feet, every employee is required to greet them warmly. Greetings and smiles go a long way in healthcare and your optometry practice is no different. Make sure that your front desk staff is striking up conversation with patients in the waiting area or during checkout, on top of greeting them as they enter.
Visible Leadership
Leaders at the Broadmoor are not sitting behind desks away from staff and guests. Leaders are on the floor, providing their team the resources to deliver the highest quality service to each guests. Visible leadership should be the standard in an eyecare practice as well. Whether it’s the doctor-owner or the practice administrator, being on the floor and interacting with patients and staff allows employees going above and beyond to be celebrated and any issues to be addressed timely and effectively.
Want other tips to improving efficiency in your workflow? We've got them in this free ebook.
