In customer service, your interactions are not just routine tasks but crucial in shaping a patient’s outcome and experience at your practice. As an ophthalmic professional, you can positively impact patient experiences, even in challenging scenarios.Sometimes, patient issues arise from factors outside your control, such as when a patient receives a charge their insurance carrier did not cover. But your actions can still make a significant difference. So, what can you do to ensure your patients have the best experience possible? How can you ensure your customer service aligns with your practice’s brand promise and delivers confidence-boosting service?
The essence of effective recovery lies in reconciling the patient relationship instead of merely resolving the issue. Patients want to move away from transactional challenges, where you fix the problem, and they seek support to improve their experience. The experience-based recovery approach emphasizes rebuilding trust and rapport with the patient. One powerful tool to achieve this is the HEARD method, which stands for hear, empathize, apologize, resolve, and diagnose. Let’s explore how you might use this technique in the clinic to improve your customer service and follow up with a case study about Emma, who works in a practice call center.
Hear
The first step is to hear the patient’s concerns. This action means listening without interruption and ensuring the patient feels understood. When you listen, focus on the person by looking directly at them. If you are on the phone, listen to their tone or demeanor and allow them to finish their sentences. If they are in the office, observe their body language to see whether their posture matches their tone and words. This process may take time, but showing the patient that you respect their feelings and are willing to understand their perspective is crucial.
Working in a bustling ophthalmology practice may require more focus. However, to truly hear a patient, avoiding distractions is crucial. Active listening means not predicting the patient’s words or planning your response before they finish. These actions can lead to missed opportunities to hear the patient thoroughly.
When listening, you can also show that you hear your patient by nodding, smiling or frowning occasionally in response to what they are saying, and avoiding fiddling with objects such as pens or cell phones.
Case study: Emma works in the call center of ABC Eye Care. She arrives at work to learn that one of the doctors is sick, so they must reschedule patients. As Emma calls to reschedule, a patient complains about her appointment being rescheduled a second time. Though Emma cannot control the doctor’s being out ill, she actively listens to the patient, allowing the patient to express her frustration before responding. Emma avoids taking the issue personally since her actions did not cause the need for rescheduling. However, Emma works with the patient to reschedule her as quickly as possible, giving this patient priority.
Empathize
Next, it’s crucial to empathize with the patient. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. It involves more than sympathizing with someone; it’s about genuinely putting oneself in another’s shoes and experiencing their emotions. This action means showing the patient that you understand their feelings and the issue’s impact on them. Showing empathy can take many forms, but the crucial part of this step is demonstrating that you have listened to them and understand their issue.
Case study: Emma can put herself in this upset patient’s place, as she would also not appreciate rescheduling twice for an appointment. However, she understands that the doctor is genuinely ill, and she must reschedule the appointment. To show this patient empathy, Emma indicates, “I understand how frustrating it must be to wait for an appointment and have it rescheduled. I would feel the same way in your situation.”
Apologize
Offering a sincere apology is the third step. Acknowledge the issue and take responsibility for the inconvenience it caused. While it can sometimes feel counterintuitive to apologize for an action you did not commit, our empathy often enables us to genuinely apologize for a patient’s experience. You can apologize for the experience when it is not necessarily your mistake. During this phase of the HEARD method, patients are also looking for you to take responsibility. If the issue is not your fault, take ownership of the resolution process.
Case study: In our example, Emma apologizes to the patient. “I’m sorry we need to reschedule, and I am also sorry for the inconvenience it has caused you. Rescheduling multiple times is not the experience we want our patients to have. Still, we also do not want you in a situation where you could catch a cold during an eye exam. Since we perform our eye exams in close quarters, we think it best to reschedule today’s appointment. The doctor stayed home today to ensure your safety.”
Resolve
The fourth step is to resolve the issue. Provide a solution that effectively and promptly addresses the patient’s problem. When working with patients, providing them with options and actively involving them in the solution is essential. Patients want to understand that you are working with them to fix the problem. When finding a practical resolution, try to manage the patient’s issue without passing it to another colleague. For example, if a patient is passed to two to three employees and then requests a manager, the patient will feel their issue was not effectively resolved, even if you have a positive resolution. Involving the patient in the resolution process empowers them and makes them feel in control of their experience.
Case study: Emma quickly scans the other doctors’ schedules and checks the patient’s insurance. Emma notices that another doctor who could address the patient’s needs and take their insurance has an unexpected opening that afternoon.
Emma tells the patient, “To help you reschedule as quickly as possible, I have an opening on another doctor’s schedule this afternoon. Your doctor apologizes for rescheduling and has added another clinic day to help accommodate their patients. Regardless of which date you select, I will provide a gift card to a local coffee shop and a discount card for our optical as a gesture of goodwill.”
Diagnose
Finally, diagnose the root cause of the issue to prevent it from happening again. This step may include working with your managers and doctors to analyze the problem and implement measures to improve future service. While our case study involves the doctor who is ill for the day (which, as ophthalmic professionals, you have no control over), this patient’s frustration is more focused on the fact that she has now been rescheduled twice. Understanding why patients need to be rescheduled by the office may help reduce challenges for the other call center staff and patients.
The practice’s administration and doctors can analyze why something is happening and then develop policies around provider time off to meet the needs of the practice and patients.
Case study: The patient chooses to reschedule the appointment with the other doctor that afternoon. Emma confirms the patient’s information and gets her onto the schedule. The patient thanks Emma for her hard work and acknowledges that this issue was not Emma’s fault. Emma responds, “I appreciate your saying that, but I plan to share your experience with our team to see if we can do better in the future, even when we have a doctor out sick. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.”
After hanging up with the patient, Emma closes the feedback loop by calling the front desk at the location where the patient would be seen that afternoon. She shares the patient’s issue with the front desk receptionist and helps smooth the way for an easy check-in for this patient. Emma also sends the gift card to the patient’s email and signals to the front desk to provide the optical discount card. Finally, she connects with her manager to help address the challenge of the office rescheduling patients more than once.
Transforming patient experiences
By following the HEARD method, your practice can apply these principles beyond the call center and employ these techniques throughout the clinic. This method can resolve patient issues and strengthen your relationships with patients, fostering loyalty and trust. Remember, the goal is to make the patient feel valued and respected, turning a negative experience into a positive one. OP
