Continuous Service Improvement
The key to repeat business is customer loyalty. The challenge for service businesses is that the factors which create customer loyalty are a moving target and the bar for loyalty continually ratchets up. To meet these challenges, Muir & Company works with our clients to develop continuous service improvement processes to ensure customer expectations are managed on the front end and exceeded on the back end, thereby building customer loyalty and long-term success.
Example Client Project
Services Provided:
Continuous Service Improvement, Employee Engagement & Team Building
Issue:
All the hospitals a large anesthesiology group served were acquired by a nation-wide, sophisticated hospital chain. To continue working with these hospitals, the chain demanded the group meet significantly higher performance standards. It rapidly became clear the group was not meeting the standards demanded by the chain. This created dissatisfaction both with the group and within the group. The hospital chain gave the group a small window of opportunity to show marked improvement, or the group would lose all its work. If the group succeeded, its reward would be a new contract with the chain and the opportunity to secure work at additional hospitals.
Solution:
Surveys and face-to-face interviews were conducted with anesthesiologists, CRNAs, group administration, hospital administration, surgeons, and nurses to determine points of service breakdown and causes of dissatisfaction, as well as teamwork issues within the anesthesiology group. Working with leadership and key employees of the anesthesiology group, Muir & Company designed and implemented a continuous service improvement plan with strategies, tactics, tracking, and feedback loops to create an environment of continuous service improvement, employee engagement, and team building.
Outcome:
Not only did the performance of the anesthesiology group turnaround rapidly, but morale within the group showed strong improvement. The hospital chain was impressed with the quick performance turnaround and, in particular, the group’s 360-degree approach to service and teamwork. The approach resulted in a team environment among surgeons, anesthesiologists, and hospital staff which raised the satisfaction of the surgeons, a critical customer group of the hospital. This, in turn, drove loyalty of the chain to the anesthesiology group resulting in a new contract with chain and additional opportunities within the chain’s system.