You know the importance of dazzling customer service throughout every engagement point of your business. But how well can you really tell how your efforts are impacting your clients directly? Sometimes it helps to change your vantage point and infuse your customer service efforts with empathy. Understanding how your residents or patients experience your community or service at every level will help you determine the success of your customer service training and initiatives. Here are three key business aspects in which you might gain perspective by being a guest in your business.
Problem-solving
Start with those aspects or situations that currently require solutions. Evaluate each instance from the seniors’ perspectives first. By understanding how they see mistakes, you’ll be able to cater the best solutions to impress them. How would a senior or senior’s family expect you to fix a problem? What extra steps can you take in providing remedies, to demonstrate exemplary care and service? For example, a resident complains of issues with an uncomfortable bed. You can provide a new mattress to solve the problem. But as a resident with a bad back, maybe offering a free hour of massage for his trouble, a potential issue has now transformed into a rave review and customer service win. Obviously, this isn’t an option for every senior care company. The idea is to look inward at your service platform and review how your teams address problems. Then identify areas in which you can provide added value to enhance the seniors’ experiences.
Are your best practices good enough?
By taking a front row seat as a resident in your business, you can quickly ascertain the base level of service your seniors’ experience. You may have exemplary staff members who routinely go above and beyond in the name of service. But the overall experience is only as good as the weakest link. Determine and evaluate the basics to make sure your service teams are providing a consistent engagement.
Is your experience memorable?
Whether it’s a phenomenal staff member on your team or a favorite item on your menu, you know your company pursues efforts to be memorable to all seniors. Move through your process as a guest yourself and experience those memorable differentiators first hand. Are you creating a positive experience in the eyes of a resident/client? Is everyone on your team as passionate about being memorable? By inspecting your key features as a resident, maybe you can uncover areas for improvement or other hidden gem aspects of your business that can be a marketable, memorable experience.
Encouraging everyone in your business to engage seniors and families with an empathetic touch can be the impact you need to boost your service experience. Consider taking a walk through your services in the shoes of a senior. Use your findings to develop a platform that is designed around the empathetic evaluation that will help identify specific, senior-minded solutions to make the enhancements you need. You offer more than just care; you provide a lifestyle experience.