You said “Our Patients are Our First Priority.’ You promised customer delight.
You lied.
You fixed my finger in the ER, but after attempting to understand the bill, I need brain surgery.
I found a dummy’s guide to reading your medical bill. It was four pages long (the bill was two pages) and it included diagrams, arrows and decoding instructions.
Your billing system is not designed for me, the patient/customer in “customer delight,” but for the way you organize your cost and profit centers.
So, I’m offering to help YOU make ME your first priority.
My Advice
Point 1: I am a whole person who has a whole experience, not separate experiences of the doctor, the sutures, the hospital etc.
So I find it confusing when you send separate bills for
- the sutures
- the doctor
- the hospital
When I pay a bill, I think of myself has having paid THE bill, so when the second and third bills arrive I’m flummoxed. It’s possible that I am a simpleton, but that is neither here nor there, as you claim, without qualification, that I am your first priority. So please send me one bill for the one me that has one medical experience.
You will save a tree (maybe a forest) and the cost of several postage stamps.
Point 2: I’m not going to pay the bill until I know what the health insurance covered, so you don’t need to send me one bill prior to their payment, and another more confusing one after their payment.
You will save another stamp and another forest.
Point 3: I am more likely to pay a bill that I understand and to do so faster.
Just think “accrued interest.” You also save another stamp and another forest because you don’t have to send me multiple for bills.
Point 4: I won’t have to call your billing department.
You can downsize and save money.
Your Choice
Operational efficiency and customer delight are different and competing strategies. You can’t maximize both simultaneously.
If you declare that you are a customer focused company, then customer service should not be an add on to make up for the real fact that you are maximizing operational efficiencies. Throwing customers a bone to pick and a department with whom to pick it does not equal good customer service. Training low paid employees to empathize after you’ve delivered bad service is not customer service. It is complaint resolution.
Good customer service, the kind that delights real customers, is designed into all the decisions you make about organization design, culture and processes.
P.S.
Dear medical provider, please send an aspirin with your next bill, and another for the bill you send for the aspirin.
Perhaps I misunderstand, and you can enlighten: Fewer bills, fewer stamps, less work (downsizing)–aren’t all of those things elements of operational efficiency? So, I don’t see the customer focus and the efficiency as competing, but rather as complementary. Thoughts?
Sure thing Roy. If the hospital produces a bill that matches my needs as a customer, it won’t synchronize with their internal cost and profit centers. So they have to solve that problem. The solution will cost money and time, which is less efficient and more costly.
Another example: Customer Delight would not have me stand in line to make a purchase or return an item. To delight me the store would need to be organized differently. Unless the process is automated, this means more people available to meet customer demands when they occur. One solution is to cross train all personnel. When there is increased customer demand, the people who work in shipping and receiving would man (or woman) the cash registers. All of this costs money and the work of keeping the operation running (operational efficiency) – would take a back seat temporarily, unless the company is up for hiring extra help on the floor for the Just-In-Case customer influx.