I must apologize for missing our time together yesterday. I had to do laboratory tests first thing in the morning which required fasting and were accomplished at the hospital. There was nothing overly concerning about these tests, just the kind of tests we find ourselves taking as we grow older. Taking these tests though, opened my eyes to fantastic customer service.
Preparations for the test actually started the day before with drinking water and fasting from about 6 o’clock in the evening before the tests. When I arrived at the hospital and went to the laboratory to have blood drawn, there was no order in the computer for my tests. This is where professional customer service on their part took over.
First, they apologized. The lady at the intake desk told me she was going to put my number on hold and I was to go to my doctor’s clinic and have them re-enter the tests. And when I came back, I was not to draw a new number, instead go directly to the intake desk and show them my number slip from before.
I went down to my clinic thinking that this would be a long and drawn out process. I talked with people at the front desk, who look me up on the computer. They told me to please have a seat, and they would contact my doctor’s nurse and have this straightened out.
Knowing how many busy clinics and hospitals work, I was prepared to sit and wait for a few hours. After all, my hard part was over. I am the guy who drank all the water and did all the fasting. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised when within 10 minutes my name was called. The lady at the clinic desk told me everything was fixed, and I could go back to the laboratory for the blood draw.
At the laboratory intake desk, they pulled up my original number, and it only took about 90 seconds for me to be called back to have my blood sample taken. What I thought was going to be upwards of a two-hour wait turned out to be only a 12-minute side-trip.
You could say that the error should not have happened in the first place. And yet in any large organization, there are going to be a percentage of mistakes. The best customer service is not in hiding the errors, it is meeting them head-on and correcting them with the least pain or discomfort to the customer.
I’m pleased with my doctors, the nurses who support them and the entire hospital. In my 65 years, this is the best care I have ever had. I want to thank everybody in that organization because their customer service is exemplary.
Thank you all
Thank you for being with me today, I hope to be with you again tomorrow.
processimprovement.me 