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Clinical labs (commercial/hospital) have a host of different departments that regularly "touch" either clients or their patients. Examples are client services, billing, phlebotomy, sales, courier and technical/professional staff. For those labs actively seeking to increase testing and revenues, it becomes obvious training these employees remains a critical factor if management expects them to meet or exceed customer/patient expectations.
Unfortunately, some managers view training as an interference with accomplishing their work. Thus, to consolidate time, effort and financial resources, upper management frequently employs the "tribal method" of training. This translates into the new employee sitting (or traveling in the case of sales and couriers) with an established staff member for a certain number of days and learning by word of mouth (monkey-see, monkey-do).
Hold on a minute--what if the staff person has a bad day, bad habits or a poor attitude? Is observation all that remains in developing a new employee? Top laboratories have customer-touch department supervisors (or a designated trainer) to provide classroom-style training, along with manuals and role-playing activities. They have the new employee review policies and procedures for their particular departments as part of the on-the-job training.
 An Ongoing Process
Training should not stop after the initial session. Improving and advancing the skills and professionalism of every employee in the organization--especially customer-touch employees--remains an ongoing process. Formal training sessions should be regular and non-negotiable. This accomplishes several things:
- It demonstrates the lab's commitment to improve each employee;
- it helps establish the lab's culture; and
- it embeds correct standards and procedures.
With training, everyone sings in harmony to the same tune. Questions to ask about your lab's customer-touch departments are:
- Are all employees performing each aspect of their jobs with a high degree of excellence and consistency?
- If offered a question or a problem to employees in the same department (at different times), are the responses predictable and similar due to consistent training?
- Do all staff members know how to define good performance and good attitude?
In the case of proper sales training, every representative should know things such as:
- how to respond to common objections,
- the four basic stages of a sales call,
- the components of a good sales strategy,
- how and when to suggest a commitment,
- how to build effective relationships,
- the follow-up procedures after a call,
- the various transport supplies the lab provides,
- the connectivity solutions the lab offers,
- when ABN forms are used, and
- the insurances (and related sub-products) the lab does not accept.
Knowing these items forms the foundation. Additionally, successful salespeople understand specific tests for up-selling opportunities. Sales people require ongoing training and skills-refreshening due to the expansive knowledge they must possess for selling lab services. Sales training for established reps should be a minimum of twice a year to engrain the proper techniques and adjunctive lab knowledge. Even better, during a quarterly meeting, the manager (or trainer) should spend 20-30-minutes "recharging" certain topics. There exists no substitute for repetitive training and follow-up coaching.
Couriers, phlebotomists, billing and client service employees, especially, require continuing customer service training due to their incessant interaction with clients and patients. They create either an exceptional, average or poor experience for the customer/patient. In turn, this reflects upon the lab and shapes its reputation.
Service Strategies
There are several things that lab staffs can do to build and manage extraordinary levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The supervisors (or trainer) need to teach listening, understanding and responding to clients and patients are important aspects of every employee's job. If a staff member uncovers an issue, he should solve it politely and expeditiously or pass it on for immediate upper management resolution.
Another operating principle good labs implement forges into two components: defining superior service and establishing a service strategy. Each customer touch department should write down an understandable and unifying idea of what the department wants to accomplish to make itself unique in the client's eyes. This concept of service strategy directs the attention of people in the department toward the real priorities of the client.
A service strategy translates into a distinctive formula for delivering service; it is keyed to a well-chosen benefit premise demonstrating value to the client and establishes an effective competitive position. In essence, it says, "This is who we are, what we do and what we believe in." The statement does not have to be long--in fact, brevity (one phrase or clause) can be powerful and meaningful.
Another way to establish superior benchmarks means setting standards and measuring performance. When it comes to improving service quality, the discussion begins and ends with the client's assessment. Superior service quality reigns if the client says so--and it vaporizes if the client says the department did a poor job. The client's most recent experiences and their level of satisfaction equate to the only true and reliable measurement of service quality.
Targets need to be set for items such as report turnaround, warehouse supply turnaround, acceptable hold times in client services and billing, timeframes for courier pick-up, acceptable wait times at PSCs, acceptable number of specimen processing errors, patient re-draws, etc. One of the most common traits of outstanding lab companies shows in their dedication to measuring customer satisfaction--both clients and patients. Sending or handing out satisfaction surveys gives the lab a sense of its service levels and where they should make improvements. It also is essential to document client/patient verbal remarks and distribute them to upper management for consideration.
To achieve higher standards, it condenses down to hiring the right employee for the right job. If you employ people within the customer-touch departments who maintain a strong interest in client relations and want to bend over backwards for the client or patient, you will inculcate an enviable culture and set your lab on the right course.
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