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How physiotherapists can provide better customer service.
“Where are your bedside and patient manners?!” is the scolding every physio student gets from their teachers right in the middle of an exam... and many more times in clinical rounds. But, while we’re taught assessment and management in detail, were we ever really taught how to present ourselves to our patients? It’s something that we’re expected to know because it probably seems obvious.
Physiotherapy education is evolving rather creatively with subjects such as Educational Technology, and Entrepreneurship, to prepare us for venturing into the non-medical aspects of our profession.
“Customer Service” while being an essential subject in many professional fields which deal with customers, is surprisingly still lacking in the medical field, which caters to a huge customer base. Even a pandemic, could not shut down the healthcare industry’s customer population!
I once had a conversation with my brother, a hotelier, who was explaining how they were being trained to deal with hotel issues and difficult customers.
A foreign substance found in food? Replace it for free.
Order delayed? Complimentary food offered
The infamous “I want to speak to you manager”? The manager almost always has his staff’s back and manages the customers by telling them what they want to hear.
A regular customer at a hotel or restaurant? Remember their name and food preferences.
Years and years of dealing with all sorts of people has made the industry very adept at handling any situation. People have the option to choose. They didn’t like a restaurant? There are hundreds more for them to choose from. Patients didn’t like a doctor? They too have a wide range of options to choose from. What about you would make patients want to consult you?
While you have a list of patients to attend to each day with a meticulous plan on how to do so, from the patients’ perspective, you are merely someone who came, instructed them to perform exercises, and moved on to the next patient. They have no idea whether you’re a doctor, nurse, assistant, social worker, OT, etc.
Incorporating the basics of customer service can do wonders in your presentation to your
patients. You also have the glorious option of not following the motto “The customer is always right”, because, how often have the patients’ google diagnoses been right? :D
Ways that you, as a physio can provide better customer service for your customers, aka patients
1. Announce your arrival. Knock on their door before entering
2. Greet them. With their name. It goes a long way. Introduce your name and your profession
3. Listen. Listen to their problems, without much interruption. Respectfully divert irrelevant information. Did you know that on average, patients are interrupted by a medical practitioner within just 11 seconds?
4. Ask for Permission. Before touching and/or undressing a body part, even if it’s vital for the assessment. Use physical contact only as needed.
5. Study their body language. Check for signs of discomfort, whether by you, their family/relatives, or the environment, and act accordingly.
6. Observe. Have a general idea about their food, sleep routines, and other staff visits before prescribing exercises. Never be clueless, especially in hospital settings about who visited them and when.
7. Never say “I’m just an intern/trainee”. It’s unprofessional and sometimes offensive. If the situation is difficult, excuse yourself and call an experienced person to handle the patient.
8. Understand disputes. Before getting defensive or hitting the code violet, understand where it’s coming from. Is it the bill, medical treatment, staff, or family influence?
9. Involve them. Take their goals into consideration rather than forming goals about what you think is best for them. For e.g., A knee surgery patient who only ever sits on chairs and never on the floor does not need to be trained for deep squats or cross-legged sitting on the floor, unless they want to.
10. Leave them the way they were when you visited them. Possibly more comfortable. Help to re-dress. Put the blanket back on. Ask them how they feel about the treatment session.
These seem pretty obvious, don’t they? Well, you’d be surprised as to how often these simple aspects are overlooked.
They may seem tedious to do at first, because of exhaustive schedules, our own state of mind, and many more. It’s hard to be cordial with each and every patient of the day and that’s okay. It’s okay to take breaks.
At the same time, the basic etiquette and principles of customer service should start getting ingrained in our physiotherapy practice. In turn, it will be rewarding for you in terms of better patient compliance, satisfaction, respect, referrals, and reviews.
After all, no matter how a clinician is promoted, it’s word of mouth that instills trust amongst the masses most effectively.
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