In her inaugural “Customer Service” column, Elizabeth Monroe, COE, PHR, CPSS, wrote, “While patients expect the finest medical care from the physician, patients are also seeking a customer service experience from the entire staff.” This statement rings just as true today. While space constraints preclude us from presenting the wealth of tips the column has presented throughout the years, Ophthalmic Professional is delighted to present this sampling of notable practice pearls from the “Customer Service” column.

Practice active listening

Becoming a better listener is an integral part of providing outstanding customer service. To do so, consider following the LAER technique:

 Listen. Give undivided attention so that you can absorb words and their meaning.

 Acknowledge. Repeat and summarize what you’ve heard.

 Explore. Ask clarifying questions and remain non-judgmental during the exchange.

 Respond. After hearing a patient’s need, try to offer options to resolve the problem.

For more information and a case study on LAER, see “Just listen to me,” from January 2018 (bit.ly/OPCusServ0118 ).

Tips for remote care

Remote communications have become more common, so staff members must rethink how to express a caring and courteous attitude to patients. Consider these situations:

 Communicating over a wire. To improve customer service when you must talk on the phone, focus on your tone, volume, and inflection. Your tone should be positive and friendly. Stay focused on the patient and practice active listening, absorbing what the patient is saying without interrupting.

 The virtual visit. If your practice has implemented telemedicine or virtual patient check-ins, beware: One of the biggest challenges for patients using this mode of communication is working with the technology. Consider walking through the virtual visit as the patient to better understand the patient’s challenges. Designate a technology champion in the clinic, someone to help patients connect to the doctor.

For more on communication in a changed practice environment, see “Overcome communication challenges,” from July 2020 (bit.ly/OPCusServ0720 ).

Rekindle kindness

Mask wearing in medical practices is continuing beyond COVID. The impersonality of this part of the “new normal” can be disheartening.

Here are some ideas to overcome it and connect with both new patients and staff.

 Give the VIP treatment. If your office uses encounter forms that travel with patients throughout their visit, use different colored paper to differentiate between who is new or established. This way, you and your team will be able to clearly recognize new patients and welcome them.

 Express gratitude. Send thank-you cards to new patients immediately after their visit, signed by each staff member who interacted with them.

 Show you remember them. Place notes in the patient chart detailing hobbies, career, or family members.

 Welcome new staff. Send out a company-wide email introducing the new employee and include personal as well as professional information to facilitate conversations.

 Use goodwill gestures. Compliment a colleague’s performance, bring her a cup of coffee, offer to help with a task.

 Reward good deeds. Physicians and administrators should recognize staff who are consistently kind. Consider a “rewards program,” in which a team member is awarded points for each instance of going “above and beyond the call of duty.”

For more information on maintaining customer service while shrouded in a mask, see “Rekindle kindness,” from July 2021 (bit.ly/OPCusServ0721 ).

De-escalate patient issues

No matter how dedicated we are to patient care, there may come a time when we must address who is upset and causes a commotion in the office. These tips may help calm an angry patient:

 Show empathy and remain non-judgmental. While we may not understand a patient’s behavior, patients’ feelings are very real to them, even if they were to cause them to act inappropriately.

 Respect personal space so you do not seem threatening.

 Ignore questions that appear designed to bait you into an argument. Instead, focus on what is needed for the situation at hand, for example, getting the patient safely out of the office.

 Establish limits. Provide the patient with simple and enforceable instructions to achieve a peaceful resolution.

For more tips on how to achieve a peaceful resolution, see “Customer service and crisis prevention,” from March 2019 (bit.ly/CusServ0319 ).

Adapt a great customer service experience

Other healthcare providers can provide examples of how to improve customer service. For example, a customer service experience at a dentist’s office provided several ideas, including:

 A well-designed call. When a patient calls, instead of asking for a date of birth and insurance, spend a little time finding out more about the patient, such as their name and needs.

 Sharing provider’s credentials with patients. Consider creating credentialing statements for each provider in your office, such as: “Dr. Smith has been a retinal surgeon with our practice for over 15 years. She is one of the best providers in our area to deliver injections if you need them. I would trust my grandma in her care.”

 Explain insurance, vision plans and out-of-pocket costs. Practices that offer vision and medical services must educate patients on the differences of these benefits. Continually try to improve the way you explain insurance to patients.

 Spend time on office design. The most crucial point is that the office feels welcoming and is free from clutter. A disorganized space, such as one with papers, sticky notes, and binders all over the desk, will leave a patient feeling underwhelmed.

 Work on efficiency. Try to avoid long patient wait times. As a reminder, dilated, routine eye exams should take about 60 to 90 minutes, while some evaluations with diagnostic testing may take longer.

To read other ideas from this column, see “Lessons learned from the dentist’s office,” from January 2021 (bit.ly/OPCusServ0121 ).

Measure customer service online

Online survey systems present an easy-to-administer and convenient method to document and measure your patients’ overall experiences and to track issues in the clinic. To get started:

• Create questions that allow patients to comment on all areas of the practice.
• Have the doctor and staff encourage the patient to complete the survey.
• Choose a service that provides access to practice and individual provider reports and allows comparisons with similar practices and patients across the country.
• Review results to assess practice strengths and weaknesses.
• Create goals and monitor subsequent survey results to ensure that progress has been made.

For more insights, see “Tracking patient satisfaction,” from March 2016 (bit.ly/CusServ0316 ).

Tips for serving the elderly

Ophthalmic practices tend to see patients with cataracts, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration — who tend to be elderly. We can better serve them by keeping the following in mind:

 Use humor. Helping people laugh can provide welcome relief to those for whom health issues are increasingly a fact of life.

 Show empathy. For aging joints and eyes, once simple tasks such as retrieving their insurance card in their wallet take a lot longer and may even require some assistance. Whenever possible, offer patients the benefit of the doubt.

 Show respect. One of the more frustrating ways youth show disrespect is by making patients feel dumb when they do not know certain facts or become confused easily. To correct, establish a rapport with the older population by showing compassion, clarity, and competence.

 Ensure your practice focuses on the needs and preferences of each age bracket. If your practice has patients mostly 55 and older, you may want to reach out more often by phone, for instance.

 Adjust music. Consider playlists likely to appeal to certain age groups, as music can really affect mood.

For more on how to better serve seniors, see “Five tips to best serve elderly patients,” from September 2021 (bit.ly/OPCusServ0921 ). OP

The complete archive of “Customer Service” columns can be found at OphthalmicProfessional.com .

Elizabeth Monroe is a senior consultant with BSM Consulting in Phoenix, AZ. Ms. Monroe specializes in helping practices with operations, planning, customer service, and HR.