Customer service has a great impact on a brand’s reputation: according to the report, 78% of patients decide whether to seek future care based on their experience. Respectful communication and relevant assistance can significantly simplify and improve any visit or call to the healthcare center. It increases patients’ loyalty and trust, confirming that the facility will provide all necessary help and understanding when the customers need them the most. This is why customer service is important in healthcare and requires special attention and effort.
At Simply Contact, we partner with healthcare providers as an outsourcing customer service company. Today, we will share our insights on how to enhance service quality in this area. We will review key elements of effective patient care and highlight challenges that you can face in hospitals and clinics. Here, you can find a few recommendations for improvements and a simple checklist to assess your support team's readiness.
Healthcare customer service extends beyond diagnosing and curing illnesses; it encompasses empathetic support and thoughtful assistance throughout the entire process. It includes interactions before, during, and after receiving medical aid. The service team creates a safe and positive environment where patients can feel heard and valued.
Entering or contacting a healthcare facility, patients may feel anxious and unsure of what to expect. Positive interactions with attentive staff may alleviate the fear and create a comfortable space for communication and further care.
Interaction with a healthcare facility triggers stress for the patient, and the customer service agent’s mission is to reduce the anxiety and not to add more. For instance, they can ensure responsiveness via prompt replies to queries through emails, phone calls, or any other contact channels.
Service agents need to consider the preferences and unique needs of each patient to develop an effective and appealing communication style. For example, they often have to explain complex methodology in simple words, breaking down overloaded medical jargon.
By addressing complaints and concerns, customer support agents can build trust with patients and raise satisfaction. Active listening and responsiveness demonstrate the company’s commitment to delivering high-quality care, built on respect and support.
Staffing issues become most apparent during incidents when the usual number of patients is growing. Employees can become overloaded, and the quality of services may decrease, leading to more unsatisfied patients due to their inability to receive prompt assistance.
Various medical requirements and patients’ conditions may cause additional pressure on the staff, who must consider all nuances to provide high-quality care. As a result, it may affect the speed and quality of service delivery.
The lack of effective communication between teams may lead to misunderstandings and mistakes that will impact the overall patient experience. Effective communication and access to information should be guaranteed at every step of a patient’s journey.
Aligning with patient expectations is not an easy task, especially when it comes to treatment options or the company’s limitations. The theory “the customer is always right” doesn’t work if it contradicts the clinic’s policy or is related to a rude patient’s behavior.
The service team must be technologically equipped to provide effective and timely assistance. It includes working with various software tools and constant access to all relevant information in the clinic database. Scattered data and hardware issues significantly reduce service speed and quality.
In the medical field, one of the most common problems is that companies overlook the fact that patients are also customers. Not only do the results of treatment impact their experience, but the process itself also has a strong influence on their impression.
A clinic owner may think that good medical treatment speaks for itself, but in practice, the patients often judge the facility by how respected and reassured they feel. Understanding, calm explaining, and attention to detail have a great impact on the healthcare customer journey.
Clinics and hospitals often focus on hiring the best medical staff but neglect investments in other positions, including customer service teams. However, receptionists and call center workers are the first to build the brand’s image and create a connection with new patients.
In the medical field, it is more natural to track infection rates than to keep an eye on KPIs. However, we recommend regular monitoring to analyze and evaluate the time-to-call-back and first-resolution rates your clinic achieves, as well as the current patient satisfaction levels.
Maybe it’s time to enhance your patient service? Simple Contact knows how to make your customers feel exceptional care and understanding.
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Drawing on our professional experience in healthcare customer service, we have developed a step-by-step guide that can significantly enhance service quality in your facility.
Typical customer service is often focused on transactions, but in healthcare organizations, care must be prioritized. By encouraging customer empathy and cultivating emotional intelligence among staff, you can create a customer-centric environment where patients feel heard and understood.
If you want to provide high-quality customer service, you need to hire staff with care experience. For medical doctors, knowledge in medicine is a must; for customer service agents, soft skills such as active listening and a patient-centric approach are vital. Positive and clear communication can provide great support and reassurance to stressed and vulnerable individuals.
Customer service staff need to be well-versed in both healthcare guidelines and customer service policies to provide relevant assistance that aligns with the company’s culture. By identifying knowledge gaps in time, you can tailor the training programs to focus on specific areas and extend the teams’ knowledge with valuable tips. For instance, staff training may include recommendations on how to interact with complex patients, whether that involves addressing challenging behavior or accommodating special needs.
High-quality equipment can simplify employees’ work and help organize the workflow better. For instance, automated solutions can reduce the amount of manual work related to ticket and email sorting. You can utilize artificial intelligence to offer patients a self-service option when they need answers to frequently asked questions or prefer automated booking.
Feedback is the most available source of patients’ opinions and impressions from interactions with your facility. Improving customer service in healthcare, you can monitor patients’ satisfaction to evaluate the success of applied strategies. For instance, CSAT surveys are effective when you need to check how happy customers are with service and analyze wait times.
To see how customer service impacts a healthcare center's reputation, we invite you to review a few real-life examples of companies that succeeded by investing in customer experience.
Cleveland Clinic was founded in 1921 and now works as one of the best hospitals in the USA. This healthcare organization follows a highly patient-focused approach. Transparency and empathy play key roles in their service model.
The company offers virtual visits to improve patients’ access to medical help through remote consultations. They also launched a MyChart patient portal that contains information about medical records, lab results, and appointment schedules. Cleveland Clinic also created a team of patient experience advisers to collect feedback and address the concerns for further improvements and enhanced service delivery.
Mayo Clinic is another healthcare provider well-known for its excellent service and patient-oriented approach. The clinic was founded in 1864 and has developed a culture of prioritizing well-being and satisfaction. Their personalized care plans are oriented to patients’ needs and adjusted to specific requirements. Multidisciplinary teams contain experts from various fields to develop the most efficient care and treatment plans.
Northwell Health is the largest NY healthcare system that developed the Culture of C.A.R.E. strategic initiative. Here, C.A.R.E. stands for connectedness, awareness, respect, and empathy, which form the foundation of Northwell Health care.
This healthcare provider implemented an advanced dashboard to track and evaluate the performance of each department based on patient metrics. They apply award programs to recognize employees who focus on exceptional CX and celebrate it via media and events. Northwell Health actively invests in staff training programs to develop their skills, including communication and patient engagement.
Scottish Rite for Children in Dallas is a healthcare provider that completely understands and boosts the importance of customer service in healthcare. Their primary focus is on orthopedic, arthritic, neurological, and learning disorders, but they also invest in developing compassion and excellence in patient services. For instance, the company conducts regular review sessions to evaluate results and continually works on improvement and sustainability plans.
☑ Multiple communication and scheduling channels
☑ Clear and jargon-free explanations
☑ Personalized experience for each patient
☑ Staff trained in empathy, active listening, and de-escalation techniques
☑ Proactive problem-solving
☑ User-friendly patient portal with access to relevant information
☑ Advanced technological tools for the support team
☑ Self-service options for patients with FAQ
☑ Feedback monitoring and evaluation
Simply Contact provides tailored omnichannel multilingual support with a high focus on patient needs and feelings. By working with an outsourcing service provider, healthcare organizations can scale their teams more efficiently, eliminating the need for additional hiring during periods of peak demand.
Our policy is to treat our clients’ customers as our own, ensuring the highest quality of service and overall efficiency. Simply Contact combines the power of artificial intelligence tools and humanity, enhancing empathic human teams with advanced solutions. This approach allows us to handle more inquiries per working hour and achieve the shortest waiting times. For instance, our first-call resolution rate is 80%.
Simply Contact ensures professional and compassionate interactions at every touchpoint, meeting the patients with efficiency and care regardless of language or communication channel. We keep an eye on performance tracking and take key performance indicators seriously to drive patient satisfaction to over 80%. It is round-the-clock HIPAA-compliant care that delivers the best patient experience without additional pressure on in-house teams.
Services include:
For example, in our patient transport support role, we have processed over 6,000 calls per month, achieving an 85% response rate and a 93.9% quality score.
As you can see, customer service for healthcare is not just another option but an integral part of the patient journey. Service teams create a positive impression of the company and build a bridge of trust with new patients. In their hands is the creation of a friendly environment, filled with compassion and understanding, where your patients will feel safe, supported, and heard. It can reduce stress and increase satisfaction, and patients who are positively impressed will return for care, trusting you with their lives.
At Simply Contact, we specialize in creating personalized customer support solutions that drive business growth and customer satisfaction. Let us help you elevate your customer experience and stand out from the competition.
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