Customer Service Flashcards
client; _______
customer; _______
patient; ________
- company
- community pharmacy
- hospital pharmacy
PRINCIPLES FOR ENSURING GOOD CUTOMER SERVICE
- Anticipate px and customer’s needs and wants
- Solve patient-customer problems without hassle
- Solve patient and customer promptly
- Treat pxs & customers with dignity, empathy and respect
- Correct mistakes when they are made
- Apologize for mistakes when they are made
- Under promise and overdeliver
- Do work right the first time
- Actively listen to patients and customers
- Make patients and customers feel important & appreciated
- Help pxs & customers understand how your pharmacy works
- Always look for ways to help patients and customers
DESCRIPTION OF STANDARDS THAT PATIENTS AND
CUSTOMERS USE TO EVALUATE SERVICES
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy
Tangibles
Friendliness
Fairness
Control
Options
Information
Polite and courteous treatment
Friendliness
Friendly and upbeat staff
calling patients by their name
having packages ready as patients
customers walk to the counter
The appearance of physical facilities, equipment,
personnel, and communication materials
Tangibles
Using spare minutes in the day to wipe shelves or counters (Kneeland, 2009);
providing medication information that is easy to
understand and read
The patient’s or customer’s need to have an impact
on the way things turn out
Control
Letting patients know that the remainder of a partial fill will not be available for two days
Knowledgeable and courteous employees who
convey trust and confidence
Assurance
Staff who are knowledgeable about the location of products in the store and help customers find products
Receiving help and prompt service
Responsiveness
Staff who are eager to help patients and customers any way they can
Receiving the promised service dependably and
accurately
Reliability
Accurate prescription filling and patient counseling
Caring, individualized attention; appreciating a patient’s or customer’s circumstances and feelings without criticism or judgment
Empathy
Acknowledging that patients may be sick, scared, confused, worried, and responding to their feelings
Fair treatment from service providers
Fairness
Helping patients and customers in order of their arrival at the pharmacy
The patients or customer’s need to feel that other
options are available
Options
Ordering products for patients and customers when necessary
The patient’s or customer’s need to be educated and
informed about products, policies, and procedures
Information
Patient counseling and patient information to take home
disconfirmation of expectations
Prescriptions cannot always be processed quickly
PHARMACY ISSUES THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO PATIENTS
- filling prescriptions accurately and efficiently
- pharmacy staff
- overall convenience
- additional medical services
- prescription pricing
SERVICE FAILURE
- patients and customers not getting what they expected or were promised
- having to wait longer than they expected or were promised
- rude, patronizing, or indifferent treatment from a pharmacy staff member
- a “can’t do” attitude or a “sorry, it’s our policy” response from a pharmacy staff member
SERVICE CRITICALITY
- Inconvenient
- Very Serious
The higher the service criticality, the less seriously the patient or customer will perceive the service failure, and the more important it is for the pharmacy to address the failure
True or False
False
SERVICE RECOVERY
— attempt to correct the service failure and make things right for the patient or customer
— effort to “alter the negative perceptions of dissatisfied customers and to ultimately maintain a business relationship with these customers”
Given the negative consequences of service failures on patients and businesses, the way in which a service provider responds to a failure is critical.
True
RECOVERING FROM LOW- AND MID-CRITICALITY
SERVICE FAILURES IN THE PHARMACY (Bell and Zemke 1987)
- Apology
- Urgent reinstatement
- Empathy
- Symbolic atonement
- Follow-up
RECOVERING FROM LOW- AND MID-CRITICALITY
SERVICE FAILURES IN THE PHARMACY (Johnston 1995)
- Provide information about the problem
- Provide information about what is being done
- Action in response to customer (but preferably without being asked)
- Staff appearing to go out of their way to help
- Involving the customer in decision making
RECOVERING FROM LOW- AND MID-CRITICALITY
SERVICE FAILURES IN THE PHARMACY (Kelley et al. 1993)
- Discount
- Correction
- Manager/employee intervention
- Correction plus
- Replacement
- Apology
- Refund
RECOVERING FROM LOW- AND MID-CRITICALITY
SERVICE FAILURES IN THE PHARMACY (Tipton 2000)
- Apology
- Compensation for substantial financial losses
- Assurance system is either not defective and this was a unique situation, or that system is defective and will be corrected
- Explanation of how the mistake was made
- Expression of sincerity and genuine concern
IMPACTS OF HIGH-CRITICALITY SERVICE FAILURES
- loss of trust in the pharmacist and/or pharmacy
- injured public image
- spread of negative word of mouth
- legal action
- board of pharmacy option
- loss of customers and profit
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RESPONSE TO A VICTIM AND
HIS OR HER FAMILY AFTER A CATASTROPHIC EVENT
- Tell the truth about what happened
- Attempt to compensate for emotional costs with an apology
- Attempt to compensate for psychological costs with assurances the system will be fixed
- Attempt to compensate for costs related to time money, and inconvenience through financial settlements
CONSIDERATIONS WHEN IT COMES TO CONSEQUENCES OF A CATASTROPHIC SERVICE FAILURE
- a price cannot be put on human life
- no one can adequately compensate for the suffering that a catastrophic service failure causes
- no one can really understand the impact of the failure on the practitioners
- the event cannot be undone
is increasingly being used as a mechanism for not only providing customer service but also recovering from
service failures
Social Media
OUTCOMES OF SERVICE FAILURE AND SERVICE
RECOVERY
- Satisfaction
- Word of Mouth
- Trust
- Customer Retention
IMPORTANCE OF FEEDBACKS
- It helps identify any gaps of deficits in service provision .
- The Pharmacy manager can implement strategies to approve customer service
DEVELOPING A STAFF THAT PROVIDES GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE
- Hire employees with a caring attitude
- Reinforce customer service in employee training and orientation
- Monitor employees’ customer service and coach deficiencies
- Empower employees to solve patient and customer problems
- Reward employees who make special efforts to please patients customers
- Get feedback from employees
- Make customer satisfaction a condition of satisfactory employee performance
- Model good customer service as a manager
- Ensure employees’ quality of work life and job satisfaction
- Treat employees fairly
Emotional Labor
- Deep Acting ()
- Surface Acting (Mask)
How to deal with difficult customer complaints
- Listen Actively
- Keep calm and empathize
- Offer a solution
- Apologize Gracefully
- Take a Break
CONFLICT RESOLUTION SKILLS
- Facilitation
- Assertiveness
- Mediation
- Empathy
- Interviewing and active listening
- Accountability
- Creative problem solving
PREVENTING PATIENT CONFLICT AND COMPLAINTS
Avoid using phrases and language that make patient or customer feel like an adversary or that express disinterest on your part.
Avoiding body language, tone of voice, and other nonverbal behaviors that can express similar negativity
