Question

Explain the role of the customer in a total quality setting in a health care entity?  Identify all customer types.  What type of training should occur to address all customer types to ensure satisfaction and loyalty?

Answer 1

In healthcare, the service is directly rendered to the customer. The feedback is immediate, too. Hence the quality of service can be improved by taking or observing for feedback from the customer. Any change in the quality can also, make or break your healthcare business unit. You get more customer, if your service is as per customer expectations. Every customer in a healthcare setting is unique. Although you can't meet everybody's expectations, you can, at the least try to meet expectation of most of the patients and see to it that minimal capital investment will do the job.

The different customer types from a sales perspective are:

1. Potential customer: This type is not a customer yet. He already showed some interest in your business, either by filling out a contact form, asking a question on one of your support channels, signing up for a newsletter or came to your website as a result of other lead generation methods
2. New Customer: He is the fresh customer that just bought something from you. He is still learning the ropes of using your product. Even though you already made a sale, you can’t leave Neil without any help. If he won’t receive it, he may not find much success with your product. After someone buys your product, you need to guide them and show them how to use it.
3. Impulsive Customer: This is the type of customer that can make a buying decision in an instant, provided that the conditions are right. They doesn’t need much convincing to make a purchase. What they need to buy something is a clear and easy way to do that. The lesser the steps involved, the higher the chances that they will make a purchase.
4. Discount Customer: Discount Dan is the type of customer that sees value in your product but won’t buy it at full price. You can help him by explaining the deal and what he needs to do to use it. Once the deal runs out, it’s hard to keep him as a customer. You need to provide added value that will make him think twice before switching to another company.
5. Loyal Customer: This type of customers keeps coming back for more. Apart from having a significant impact on your revenue, he will be also your brand’s ambassador. He will recommend your business or product to his friends and family, sending a healthy stream of new customers your way. You should try to leverage his experience and learn what makes him so satisfied with your business.

Training types to address all customer types include:

1. Customer relationship management: Here you try to build relation with your customer not just at a professional level but also at a personal level, to build a bond and get repeat business.
2. Emotion management: You will come across different people and your final goal should be to make a full convert. In this process you need to keep your emotion under control
3. Continuous improvement: This training will help them continually improve over the service and product experience .
4. Product training: Every executive should receive complete product training to be able to make the customer understand why they should go for purchasing the product.