One of our neighbours, who is two months pregnant suddenly felt she was having a miscarriage. Her husband was at work, so we rushed her to the nearest hospital - there, we found there were no doctors available at that time (lunch time). The only people we saw there were: a receptionist, a nurse and a duty doctor who looked like he was just out of college. They did not even examine the lady. With great difficulty we were able to get them to call a doctor on the phone - but almost 30 minutes later we realized we were only wasting precious time because none of the doctors came. So, we rushed to another hospital - but it took them a whole 10 minutes for the doctor to arrive and examine the patient.

Later, of course, they took charge of the patient and promptly rushed her to the medical room for examination and treatment.

Now, my question is: what were the lapses in Customer Service in both these scenarios? How do you think this could have been handled better? For the purpose of this discussion, let us focus only on the Customer Service aspect of these scenarios.

In both the scenarios lapses were noticed in customer service.

In the first instance, doctor , nurse were on duty but they failed to take timely action. Hence the patient was shifted to the next hospital. In the bargain they lost the customer and also they lost the repute. As word of mouth can make or break biz. This could have been handled better proactively. Docs/ nurse were available they call the specialist immediatly and meanwhile prepare patient for treatment. i.e give the first service till the docs arrive.

In the second instance hospital staff did take immediate note but since the docs was not available at the instance patient had to await but they did take action. Customer Service can be considered satisfactory but could be enhance if help is available at the very moment cause 10 mins is also too long in crisis.

This is totally careless attitude of both the hospitals. The emergency services like Hospits and Fire Brigade should be kept at their toes every time because due to the failure of their prompt services can result in ones life.
Huminity is the first thing.
Johny I appreciate you for your kindness. Keep it up it is very inspiring.

Thank you, Flavia and Naresh for your comments. It is absolutely true - word of mouth can make or break a business ! Probably thats why sometimes we see even small shops/establishments doing extra-ordinarily well and big business crawling along - trying to get customers !

Hi !
Rightly said the power of a word of mouth is far superior than a full fledged advertising compagin of a Multinational company.
I would like to add one example of my home where we had just stop using a particular brand of soaps (without facing any difficulty) after being heard from someone that this company is not maintaing the exact standards of manufacturing.
The interesting fact there was that nobody from the family who was aware of the standards of soap manufacturing, but it was the image of that gentleman that forced all the members to stop the use of that brand.
That's the POWER OF WORD OF MOUTH.
Also it does not remain associated only with us but keep on spreading as our family member's social discussions & interactions.

I've probably used this data on this forum before, but it's good data, and seems quite to the point here.

Marshall Goldsmith conducted a study on this matter (at least I'm 99% confident it was Marshall) and he concluded this:

It takes 8 consecutive, positive actions to bring a negative experience to neutral.

Then it takes an additional 8 consecutive, positive actions to bring a neutral experience to positive.

And who gets 16 chances?

KSB

You guys are getting upset with the wrong source. A hospital is not a customer service situation, it is health care. The doctors on call at a hospital often work 24 hour or longer shifts. They are fully entitled to their breaks and they need them to recuperate as skipping them entirely causes a danger to patients being treated by overworked and fatigued-near-death doctors.

This is simply a case of a poor health care system and not enough funding to provide adequate staff and shouldn't even be thought of as customer service.

I beg to differ on a couple of levels. I don't believe anyone in this thread is upset. What I see is folks parsing the problem, and hopefully using this as experiential learning in their own environments.

Recent video of a woman keeling over and dying while waiting for what, 24 hours in a hospital ER, also begs a different response. Hospitals ARE in customer service, even if we have to drag them kicking and screaming into this century.

Any and every time that a product or service is provided, customer service is involved.

I know that the healthcare industry is in crisis mode. I know that funding is inadequate. I know that docs and nurses work their as*** off.

I've personally never worked in an organization that felt it was properly funded to provide adequate staff.

Ignoring the client (patient) base should not be an option, no matter the industry.

KSB

Hello custrarelyright,

I totally agree with Karen - the services provided by Hospitals ALSO come under the boundaries of Customer Service. Being overworked or understaffed cannot be an option (read excuse) to provide deficient service - especially when lives of individuals are involved ! Moreover, it also ensures that there is some sort of accountability. That is the only way customers can expect and get good and timely service.

Johnny

custrarelyright,

First of all, I truly hope your name is not your customer service attitude because the customer is always right and if you disagree with this, you should have nothing to do with customer service. Customer service will make or break any business.

You are incorrect in your statement that hospitals are not in the customer service business, it is a vital part of their business that many are ignoring, especially for-profit hospitals. Doctors and nurses are greatly overworked and lack of customer service is often not their fault, but that of the hospital due to inadequate staffing.

In this situation at the first hospital, experienced doctors should have been available and a 30 minute wait is too long for any emergency of this type. Yes doctors and nurses are entitled to their breaks, but the ER must remain adequately staffed for the emergencies they are there to deal with. This situation should never have happened, even a doctor fresh out of college is trained well enough to examine a patient and determine if a miscarriage is occuring.

At the second hospital, a 10 minute wait may not be excessive depending on what other cases are going on. In the ER patients are seen based on level of acuity. For example, a patient in cardiac arrest would take priority because their life is definitely in jeopardy. The second hospital seems to have reacted quickly after the doctor examined the patient, the only question is whether or not the doctor could have been in sooner.

Hospitals cannot always respond to customer service the way we would like them to. They have to prioritize the patient and unfortunately, some patients have to wait longer. In this case, a miscarriage is a high acuity level, but patients with a more life-threatening situation may have been present. I sympathize with the mother because my wife and I went through a miscarriage of our first child probably related to inaction of the doctor after we were seen. I have had formal education in the health care setting and the lack of concern from the hospitals is why I have chosen not to pursue the field. Most practitioners are concerned about care levels, especially nurses, but lack of staffing restricts what they can do- and that is not an excuse Johnny, unfortunately that is the face of healthcare at the moment. Hopitals need to step up and respond to these shortages.