Customers in Business Should Be Treated Loyally and With Respect

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Good customer service is vital to the successfulness of any business/organisation, regardless of the nature of the business everyone wants to receive good customer care. If customers have been treated with curtesy, politeness and respect then they are more likely to return and become loyal to your brand.

Improving our patients experience as they travel their treatment pathway through our hospital is our first objective. Ensuring that patients feel valued and that their feedback, good or bad, is acted upon to improve the service we offer.

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When we know what our patients expect we are able to manage those expectations accordingly. By using numerous ways to gain feedback from patients, such as feedback forms, complaints and compliments, we are able to identify and action obvious trends. For example, a lot of our patients who were admitted to a ward found themselves quite isolated when their phones ran out of internet data, to improve their stay and minimise this negative response from our patients we installed Wi-Fi.

This allowed patients to stay in touch with loved ones who may not have been able to visit and promoted the idea of keeping patients calm and comfortable during their stay.

It is not enough to ask for feedback, it is more important to evidence that you have listened and actioned issues that have been continuously raised. When patients see that they are listened to and improvements have been made they are more likely to be loyal and loyalty promotes positive recommendations. We have feedback stations and posters, like the ones below, to evidence to patients that we do value and act on their feedback.

There are numerous standards that customers expect depending on the nature of the business, if you had a gas leak or your car broke down in the middle of the night you would expect to be seen within a short amount of time. We live in a culture where we expect a quick service e.g. next day delivery. However, speed is not the only expectation of customers who have received an order the very next day, they expect to receive the item they ordered. Receiving a toaster when you ordered a microwave is unacceptable regardless of how quickly the toaster was delivered.

My organisation has received a rating of ‘Good’ following inspections by the CQC (Care Quality Commission) who are an independent regulator of health and social care. On our website (https://www.jpaget.nhs.uk/about-us/care-quality-commission/) our Quality and Safety standards are clear –

Care and treatment must be appropriate and reflect service users’ needs and preferences
Service users must be treated with dignity and respect
Care and treatment must only be provided with consent
All care and treatment provided must be provided in a safe way
Service users must not be subject to abuse and improper treatment
Service users’ nutritional and hydration needs must be met
All premises and equipment used must be safe, clean, secure and used properly
Complaints must be appropriately investigated and appropriate action taken in response
Systems and processes must be established to ensure compliance with the fundamental standards
Sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, skilled and experienced staff must be deployed
Persons employed must be of good character, have the necessary qualifications, skills and experience, and be capable of performing the work for which they are employed (fit and proper persons requirement)
Registered persons must be open and transparent with service users about their care and treatment (Duty of Candour).

These standards are appropriate and specific to our patients and fill the expectation of our patients, stakeholders and the government. If standards are not met and patients care and experience, whilst attending our hospital, are substandard then our brand/respect locally and nationally would become weakened.

A representative sample is a smaller group that is a true reflection of a larger group (population). For example, if one in five children were girls then the representative sample would have 20% of girls in it. The bigger the sample group, the higher the probability that the population can be accurately reflected. Using a representative sample with the same variables/controls (such as ethnicity or gender) guarantees that your sample and subsequently your research/results are unbiased.

Probability or random sampling – using processes that ensure that there has been some sort of random selection. Having a random sample group is more likely to yield more accurate results than non-probability or purposive sampling. Therefore, in general, random sampling is usually used. This sampling can be costly and time-consuming due to the size of the sample and is usually completed by the government or well-funded organisations.

Non-probability or purposive sampling – using processes that do not involve random selection. Variables are used as a control to ensure the group selected meet the desired balance, however, by not using a random sample the results are less likely to yield accurate results than probability or random sampling. This sampling is usually less costly and can be completed over a shorter period of time which is beneficial compared with probability or random sampling when you only have a small population to work with.

One of the ways my organisation gauges customer feedback is by asking patients to fill in a Friends & Family form (F&F). The main aim is to find out if, following their experience/visit, they would recommend our department to their friends and family. We also ask them why they answered the way they have and if they can suggest any improvements. Lastly, there is a section at the bottom for additional data which can be used to see if there is a trend in the type of people who complete the forms e.g. male or female.