Improving customer service in healthcare...
Published on Thu May 15 2025
Updated on Fri Aug 08 2025
8 minute read
Customer service is one of the most important jobs within a company. However, it is also one of the toughest jobs. When your customers are patients, your job becomes even more challenging. Your customer could be in pain and stressed so when they call for help it may not be easy for your call center agent to easily please them or help solve their problem. Competition is extremely high for many businesses including the healthcare industry. If you are not providing exceptional customer service you risk losing a customer. It’s a fact that patients are customers when we’re referring to the healthcare industry. Patient satisfaction and your office reputation go hand and hand so ensuring your patients are satisfied with your service will support the success of your practice. Every employee in a healthcare office is essentially a customer service representative so everyone should be focused on providing excellent care to every patient. Some employees interact directly with patients and others work in the background with supporting roles but everyone should go about their work with customer service in mind. Customer service is one of the most important jobs within a company. However, it is also one of the toughest jobs. When your customers are patients, your job becomes even more challenging. Your customer could be in pain and stressed so when they call for help it may not be easy for your call center agent to easily please them or help solve their problem. Competition is extremely high for many businesses including the healthcare industry. If you are not providing exceptional customer service you risk losing a customer. It’s a fact that patients are customers when we’re referring to the healthcare industry. Patient satisfaction and your office reputation go hand and hand so ensuring your patients are satisfied with your service will support the success of your practice. Every employee in a healthcare office is essentially a customer service representative so everyone should be focused on providing excellent care to every patient. Some employees interact directly with patients and others work in the background with supporting roles but everyone should go about their work with customer service in mind.
Reasons CX is critical in healthcare.
1. Positive CX starts with first class employees.
Quality care goes right along with great customer service. You could have the most skilled and experienced physicians and nurses but if your office staff provides poor customer service it will negatively affect your company's reputation. If you want to be recognized for exceptional healthcare it will take high quality care as well as first class customer service.
It’s critical to hire only the best employees that have a positive attitude, are patient and have similar values and culture. When you onboard a new employee they should be made aware that an exceptional patient experience is top priority for your office and then trained how to provide it. This includes a smiling face, eye contact, friendly and helpful when working directly with patients. Your employees are the backbone of your office and set the standards so ensuring you only hire awesome staff will support the success of your business.
Typically your customer service team is the first to speak with a patient when they call to make an appointment. Then, they are the first to interact with the patient when they come into the office as well as the last ones to help them before they leave. This is the reason the customer service experience is primarily based on the quality of service of the office staff rather than the physician or nurse.
2. Think of patients as paying customers.
As a business a customer comes to you to purchase goods or services, you provide great customer service which makes for a happy customer and they come back to you in the future to purchase again. The same is true with patients. A patient comes in for healthcare services, you successfully diagnose and treat their illness or complaint, your office staff provides excellent service and the patient comes back to you for future visits. So yes, a patient is just like a customer and should be treated as such. Provide exceptional care and service and they will be your loyal patients.
3. Communication is key.
Review.
Call center agents have a challenging job handling customer service requests. This is especially true for agents working in healthcare customer service. A stressed patient calling while in pain could be difficult to please. This is when having the right staff to handle your customer service is crucial for a positive customer experience. A customer service team that deals with cultural diversity must be prepared with proper training, efficient protocols, and a lot of empathy. These skills and techniques will help ensure that patients can quickly get their needs met and are provided excellent service.
Read more
Created at Thu Apr 02 2026
3 min read
Leading Voices: how CIO Sandra Kujundzic’s teams tame AI volatility and drive real value.
AI is accelerating faster than enterprise operating models were designed to handle. In every organization, transformation is underway. Roadmaps are expanding, budgets are shifting, and expectations from boards and customers are rising. But acceleration without structure creates volatility - and customer experience is no exception to the rule. While technology introduces possibility, leadership determines whether that possibility becomes measurable value or a mere disruption.
Navigating this ten
