A couple weeks ago, we posted a tip about using a “mystery shopper” to objectively evaluate your practice. Here’s some more information about why you should consider this and what they can evaluate for you.

There’s a common theory in business that says for every one client complaint you hear about, there are actually 14 other unhappy clients who just haven’t voiced the same complaint.

Patient or referral complaints about your practice probably follow this guideline as well, provided that you actually receive the complaint.

For instance, a patient or referral source may be unhappy with your phone system and they will often voice this complaint to the first person who answers your phone. But where does this complaint end up? Does it get to you? Your administrator? Or does it go into the “circular file” under “too busy to care?”

An objective, third party “mystery patient” assessment of your practice may help you to ward off these issues before they become complaints by your patients and/or referral partners. This approach can give you objective feedback from someone unfamiliar with your practice. They can evaluate:

• Your phone service: Voice mail vs. real people answering the phone? How long does it take your staff to answer and do they answer in a friendly professional way? Are they friendly? Are they responsive? Are patients re-directed multiple times for a simple question?
• Scheduling: Are they friendly and accomodating? Do they listen to patients’ needs?
• Front office: Is it clean and inviting? Is the staff friendly and professional? Condition of the waiting room? How can it be improved?
• Nursing: Attire, demeanor, professionalism, amount of time spent with patients, thoroughness, caring attitude…
• Physicians: Do they spend enough time with patients? Did they answer all questions in a satisfactory manner? Were they friendly, thorough, professional, et cetera?
• Check out: Do they offer any type of follow-up or referral service like referral cards, patient surveys, et cetera?
• Parking/Facilities: Are they clean, accessible, well-lit and freshly painted? Would landscaping or signage improve the perception of your practice?

Sure, it’s nerve-wracking to consider getting this type of feedback about your practice, but it’s invaluable. What if you find out that patients think your new evening hours are wonderful and convenient, but they perceive your parking lot as unsafe and it tends to make them one-time only patients? What if you only need to add some outdoor lighting to put patients at ease about returning to your practice? Simple suggestions you may not have time to think of are worth the cost of a “mystery patient.”

If you have questions about how to get this type of feedback for your practice, ask us how!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 8:30 am and is filed under All Posts, Marketing Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.