About A. Woodward & Associates

Our company’s primary focus is to create a more humane healthcare system by helping clients develop healthy patient and staff relationships. Our consulting services are customized to your organization, and your specific needs. Areas of expertise include service excellence, the patient experience and employee morale and engagement.

A. Woodward & Associates was established in 1999 by Anita B. Woodward, MBA, FACHE. We have clients in all parts of the country. Anita has over 25 years of healthcare management, service excellence, and human resource experience, and her associates have a variety of complementary skills and experiences.

We have all heard of many wonderful ways to improve the patient's experience to increase satisfaction. This should always be our goal. Improving a customer's experience is the best way to increase satisfaction.

However, if you cannot improve customer satisfaction by improving the experience, sometimes it is possible to improve satisfaction by managing customer expectations. If you have situations where changing the experience for your customer is not practical in the short term, you can try to improve satisfaction by managing your customer's expectations.

Dissatisfaction comes when we do not meet a customer's expectations. Thus, we can lower dissatisfaction by either meeting/exceeding expectations, or managing and changing them to fit with our reality. (This technique works for internal customers as well as patients and families.)

This obviously does not mean you can tell your customers to expect lousy service and assume they will be happy. You can, however, help lower dissatisfaction with aspects of their experience that you cannot immediately change by preparing them - by managing their expectations.

Examples of situations where this approach makes sense include:

• In the case of unforeseen delays
• When redundant requests for information are required
• When construction noise is unavoidable

There are four keys to successfully managing expectations.

First, set the correct expectation up front, or at the very beginning of your encounter, before the patient has perceived a problem. In the examples above, this means before the customer perceives a delay, or has been asked multiple times for the same information, or before the noise will start to be noticed.

Second, provide a sensible, believable explanation for the inconvenience or dissatisfier. Safety standards might account for multiple requests for the same information; you want to confirm the type of surgery, side of body, etc., multiple times with the patient. Be sure your explanation will make sense from the customer's perspective, not just your own. You might want to script your explanation so that no one inadvertently sounds like they are making excuses for poor systems or processes.

It is also important not to expect this to work on the same problems indefinitely. For instance, it is one thing to say that the doctor is late due to an emergency surgery, or your report is late because your computer went down. If you use that same excuse multiple times, however, you are no longer believable. Customers will assume you are lying and incompetent, and will become enraged.

Third, show your care and concern both verbally and with body language. Again, scripting can help with this. For instance, when alerting patients to the fact that they will be asked the same questions repeatedly, an admitting nurse might say, "Now Mrs. Garson, it is really important to us that you not be in any unnecessary pain, so we will be asking you about your level of pain quite often. I want you to know that it isn't because the last person didn't listen or write down your response, but is because your own assessment might change from hour to hour. And please, if your situation does change between the times we ask, just push the call light and let us know." The nurse's words show care, provide a reasonable explanation, and presumably are accompanied by body language and a facial expression that show sincerity.

Finally, when appropriate, offer something tangible to help customers cope with the less than ideal situation. If construction noise is an issue, offer disposable earphones and a tape or MP3 player for temporary use. Offer coffee, magazines, or other distractions for unexpected waits, or otherwise make sure people are as comfortable as possible.

Remember, do not use the Managing Expectations technique as a long-term substitute for improving service. It is never as good as creating a better customer experience. It is far better though, than ignoring temporary situations that you know will affect your customer negatively. Telling the customer what to expect, telling them why, showing we care and then offering a coping method when needed will go a long way toward avoiding having dissatisfied customers.

Then, you can work on making things better!

Choose all, or only a few of these suggestions. Whichever you choose, stay focused on the ideas long enough for them to become habit.

• Have the Patient Experience on the agenda at every meeting, everywhere. Talk about what those scores mean, and how to improve them.
• Ask department leaders with high patient satisfaction scores to mentor their peers.
• Celebrate success! Make heroes of leaders and staff in top-scoring departments, and of those who have improved the most.
• Communicate to the public - your customers - every improvement. Hold yourself accountable to your customers.
• Post scores in public areas where all patients, employees, physicians and volunteers can see them.
• Bring in patients and families to talk at staff meetings about what good (or bad) service has meant to them, and why.

Case Study

The following situation really occurred. Consider using it as a case study for quick discussions in staff meetings.

Three women were out to dinner at a nice restaurant; The Capital Club in Pittsburgh. Shortly after being seated, one spilled an entire drink. The liquid was absorbed by the tablecloth and the few napkins the women put on the table. The server, Marjorie Simmons, was there almost immediately. Even though the patrons just asked for extra napkins, she cheerfully insisted on changing the tablecloth, asked for help from another employee, and the change was quickly made. She apologized for the inconvenience of changing the cloth, and had another drink brought almost immediately, at no charge! Throughout the evening, she could judge when the women needed help, and never seemed at all exasperated by their frequent questions. She acted as if she had all the time in the world for this table. Once she learned it was a special outing, she even brought a camera, took a picture, and printed three copies for the guests! Her behavior, as much as the food and drink, created a wonderful and memorable evening for her guests.

• What happens in your organization when a customer causes a problem like the spilled drink - whether it is a physical mess, a delay in getting information to you, or anything else? Are people annoyed? How do you respond?
• How cooperative are people in your work area when one employee suddenly needs help from another?
• Would your customers say you make them feel like you have enough time for them, or are you distracted during most of your interactions?
• Do the people in your department believe that the way they treat people matters as much as the treatment or task they complete?

If you have a story of good or bad service you would like us to use as a case study, please email us.

A. Woodward & Associates to Move!

We are excited to announce that the company, and the family, of Anita Woodward are planning a move later this summer to southeastern Arizona. Our web address (www.anitawoodward.com) , phone (216-631-1852) and email (anita@anitawoodward.com) will stay the same. Our mailing address will change after August 3rd.

The new address is 816 W. Union Bell Drive, Green Valley, AZ 85614.

For now, all our services will remain the same. We will still consult with small and large healthcare organizations who want to create a more humane environment for patients, families, and those who work there. Our phone Mystery Shopping, management consulting and training will all continue!

And just as now, we are always able to hop on a plane and come to see you!

About This Newsletter

This newsletter is published for clients and colleagues of A. Woodward & Associates, and for others who are interested in customer service, employee relations, and organizational communication, especially in healthcare organizations.

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