From the Officer’s Desk: Customer Service

The most important factor in an organization’s success is satisfied customers. Without customers, which for EMS includes patients, any business organization will fail. That’s why, whether an organization is for-profit or nonprofit, customer service must be at the core of its culture.

Some may think customer service occurs only when goods or services are transacted. However, it truly begins with every interaction you have with someone, regardless if you’re offering a specific service. Take an EMS crew, for example: Providing excellent clinical care is part of its customer service, but so is offering directions to a patient’s family member who doesn’t know how to get to the ED; explaining what treatment will be taking place not just to the patient but to family and caregivers; and even making sure the patient’s pet is secured and door locked prior to taking them to the hospital. It’s the little things that can makes a big difference between meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

There are two types of customers: external and internal. External customers are the traditional customers to whom your organization provides goods and services; they are outside the organization. Internal customers work for your organization and depend on management’s support to ensure they have the necessary tools to serve the external customers.

As an EMS officer, you must create, implement, and evaluate a plan within your organization that embodies an attitude of exceeding expectations for your internal and external customers.

The Customer Service Plan

A customer service plan helps differentiate your organization from its competitors. In addition, when customers know an organization and understand what they can expect in terms of its services, then as long as their experiences are positive, they will support that organization.

Customer service plans are commonly created either by an employee project team with relevant experience or by the leadership team. The planning process must include the goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics around quality customer service. Although what represents customer service may vary by patient population, plans must consider the services being requested and resources available to meet those expectations. Upon completion any plan must be shared with the organization’s members, supported by its leadership team, and routinely reevaluated.

The first step in creating a customer service plan is to determine who will oversee the process. The leadership team must also determine who will be responsible for managing the customer service initiative once it becomes part of the organization’s strategic plan.

The next matter to consider is who your customers are and what they expect. This understanding is instrumental in both creating a customer service plan and continually reevaluating it. After identifying the organization’s internal and external customers, it may be beneficial to categorize customers further into primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. For example, a patient would be considered an external primary customer; the patient’s spouse an external secondary customer; and a neighbor may be an external tertiary customer. Internally, any individual with whom you interact on a regular basis (e.g., finance manager, fleet manager, supply manager) would be an internal primary customer, and members within their teams would be internal secondary and tertiary customers. Identifying organizational customers helps the leadership team align the necessary resources to meet and exceed customer expectations.

Each customer will have slightly different requirements. Consequently, the plan developed should be specific enough to ensure quality customer service is delivered and flexible enough to address nontraditional requests when possible.

Creating a Customer-Centric Culture

In his book of the same name, author Lee Cockerell, a former Disney executive, speaks about the importance of “creating magic” for that organization’s guests. Imagine customer service as embodying this philosophy. Fire protection and EMS are businesses, and patients are their customers. The goal for all organizational leaders is to ensure they promote and support a customer-centric culture.

Some EMS professionals believe customers have no choice among EMS organizations—they call for assistance, and the one provider for their jurisdiction is dispatched to assist them. Not only is this the wrong attitude to have, it is also an erroneous assumption: An EMS organization that’s the only provider in town today can always be replaced by another one in the future.

Adopting a customer-centric attitude is critical for building trust in the customers/patients you are there to assist. While many community members will never use your department’s services, many will know someone who has, and word of mouth is a powerful medium. These citizens may well get involved when it comes time to vote on keeping the current EMS provider or replacing it, raising taxes to support public service initiatives (including EMS), approving the purchase of a new ambulance or equipment, or providing raises for your personnel.

Conversely, if your organization is providing an unacceptable level of service, rest assured citizens will express their displeasure to your local leadership. It may not be possible to meet every request made by patients, but certain requests are more common, and leadership must empower its employees to do what it takes to exceed customer expectations. Include common customer request scenarios in protocols or by creating a standard operating guideline to address these situations.

Asking the patient, family members, and friends if there is anything you can do for them or any questions you can answer will go a long way toward building trust. It is the responsibility of your organization and its members to create a positive impression in the patient’s mind about your services.

Outlining a Process

Regardless of the industry, customers can become frustrated when their concerns are not resolved. Every organization must have a customer-friendly process to meet customers’ needs. This process does not end at the point of service delivery, but rather must flow into all areas of the organization. A customer-friendly process will ensure you deal with issues when they arise and show customers you are prepared to address their concerns.

A customer service plan will consist of several components, such as a central location where questions or concerns are managed and tracked; a customer survey distribution protocol; review of customer surveys; and follow-up with customers to ensure their concerns are resolved. During the customer service strategic planning process, therefore, it is critical to identify what works best for your organization to ensure the desired outcomes.

Many organizations have internal training and development programs designed to address customer service. If your organization does not have such a program, consider creating one. To better serve customers, employees must be fully empowered to do their jobs—that is, they must be able to respond to customers’ needs, follow up on customer requests or organizational promises, and deliver a quality product or service. They must also be empowered to admit the organization has made a mistake when it has and correct the problem.

The customer information center must be clearly identified. The medium for information exchange may take the form of a website or social media site, a transport billing statement, town hall meetings, or customer service cards. The goal is to establish a system. The plan can be rolled out in a variety of ways: It can be added to an employee handbook; reviewed during new-hire orientation and team meetings; and included in the organization’s SOGs. A process flow chart can be created to help employees remember the customer service protocol.

Evaluating how a customer service plan is working is no different than reviewing any other strategic plan. Evaluate it routinely and adjust it as needed. This can be done by conducting customer surveys and asking customers to rate your organization’s services as compared to those offered by your competitors or other organizations they have used in the past. The goal is to get as much information as possible and identify opportunities to make improvements.

Exceeding Expectations: A Personal Experience

In 2017 I made an appointment to see a neurosurgeon, Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, MD, from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. I did my research and heard a lot of great things about “Dr. Q,” and the service at the Mayo Clinic was some of the best in the world.

What impressed me most about Quiñones-Hinojosa wasn’t that he graduated from Harvard Medical School, was a professor and director of the Brain Tumor Stem Cell Biology Lab at John Hopkins, or was now a professor and chair of neurologic surgery and running a research lab at the Mayo Clinic. Those were all pluses, but what impressed me the most, as Dr. Q’s patient and a Mayo customer, were some things he did that had nothing to do with any medical procedure.

When Dr. Q could see I was nervous during our initial consultation, he pulled out a business card and gave it to me. It wasn’t just his business card—he had written his personal cell phone number on the back. He told me if I had any questions to call him directly, 24-7—not his office, an answering service, or a staff member but him directly.

That’s an example of what exceeding customer expectations is all about and why the Mayo Clinic is among the world’s best in patient/customer satisfaction.

Orlando J. Dominguez, Jr., MBA, RPM, is assistant chief of EMS for Brevard County Fire Rescue in Rockledge, Fla. He has more than 30 years of EMS experience and has served as a firefighter-paramedic, flight paramedic, field training officer, EMS educator, and division chief. He hosts the EMS Officer Exchange podcast; has authored two books, including EMS Supervisor: Principles and Practice; and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Follow him at @ems_officer.