Building customer loyalty must be a top-down initiative in every industry. Employees are more likely to deliver exceptional customer service when they work for bosses who lead by example. To earn respect and increase the quality of service throughout your organization, top level managers need to adhere to excellent customer service standards. 

A few years ago, the vice president of a large healthcare system called and said, "We're interested in hiring you to provide customer service training for the staff at all of our clinics."

A week later, I met with members of the executive team to discuss the company's training objectives. They described their goal of building patient loyalty in their outpatient clinics. They were ready to invest in a major training initiative to improve the customer service and communication skills of their clinical staff. I was excited about the prospect of acquiring a lucrative training contract with this prestigious firm. Then I asked the fatal question, "Will the doctors be required to attend?"

The group let out a collective gasp and the CEO said, "Oh, no. This is just for the nurses and support staff. The doctors would never agree to attend customer service training. They're too busy."

I replied, "But the training will only be effective if it's a top-down initiative. Some doctors are weak in their customer service skills. Many don't set the tone for building patient loyalty because they don't treat their staff as internal customers."

The team was surprised when I told them I would need to decline the training contract unless the doctors were required to participate. I explained that I was concerned that employee morale would decline if doctors were not held accountable for delivering the same quality of customer service required by the rest of the staff. After more discussion, the team asked me if I would be willing to present a keynote to a group of doctors as a sample of the longer training seminar.

I agreed and, a few weeks later, the company offered me the training contract. I would be responsible for training all the clinical staff including the doctors. Due to their hectic schedules, the training seminars for the doctors were held during evening hours. To my amazement, the majority of these individuals attended with an enthusiastic attitude and embraced the learning. Many admitted that they had not considered the impact of internal customer service on their own staff. They also did not realize how much their behavior toward their co-workers was a model for how the rest of the staff behaved toward the patients.

The doctors liked to poke fun at me and started calling my training seminars, "Deb Schmidt's Charm School." I didn't mind. I enjoyed their humor and was rewarded with scores of phone calls and emails from staff members thanking me for involving the doctors in the training. They indicated that there was a marked difference in the way co-workers were communicating with one another, resulting in an atmosphere of respect and consideration.

Today’s clinics are losing patients and employees in record numbers. Patient loyalty is on the decline, but many clinics are treating the symptoms instead of the causes of their patient retention problems. Set your goals to create loyal patients. But keep in mind that patient loyalty starts with the internal customers—employees and co-workers; and it’s a top-down initiative. It must start with the doctors.

Consider the following:

• If employees are unhappy, you’re probably losing patients as a result. On average, American companies lose half of their employees every four years and half of their customers every five years. This suggests that employee attrition may have a significant impact on patient loyalty.
   
• Workplace attitudes are significantly affected by the way employees are treated by their bosses. One of the most important aspects of improving patient retention is a total commitment by the doctors to building patient loyalty. This commitment must be demonstrated daily at all levels of the organization for the employees to clearly observe it.
  
  
• Patient loyalty is the responsibility of everyone within the organization. In order to create a loyalty-focused culture, customer service training needs to start at the top. 
  
  
• Doctors also need to recognize that their employees are their primary customers.  Employees deserve and expect the same caring service that is given to the patients. 
  
  
• Patient loyalty is earned by consistently exceeding patient and employee expectations through outstanding service. This level of service can be achieved only when doctors are held accountable for their internal customer service skills--in other words, for how they deal with their employees and co-workers.

I was at the store the other day when I was approached by a physician. He said, "I don't know if you remember me but I attended your customer service training a few years back. I just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten what I learned and I'm still being nice!"

Then he flashed a warm smile and wished me a great day.

• Startling statistics about customer complaints
• 6 reasons why customers leave
• The #1 customer loyalty killer
• How to stop committing the 7 sins of customer service
• The top 3 loyalty destroyers and how to avoid them
• The secrets of calming down an angry customer
• How to build loyalty even when you transfer a customer's call or put them on hold
• 12 ways to stop kissing customers goodbye
• How to take care of yourself when you're dealing with a nasty customer
• How to turn customer anger in to customer loyalty

This Teleseminar can benefit the whole team! Your registration entitles you to one telephone line per site and you may gather as many people as you want to listen in on the call using a speakerphone. This provides your whole team with cost-effective, high impact training that includes tips they can start using immediately after participating in the Teleseminar.

If your company has multiple sites you can order additional phone lines for only $75 per line.

Upcoming Teleseminars: (Watch for a complete program descriptions and registration details in next week's newsletter)

April 8, 2010 - Building Customer Loyalty in the Healthcare Industry

April 22, 2010 - Building Customer Loyalty in the Banking Industry