Past Winner Stories
Perception Strategies
www.perstrat.com
Entering a market with no real competitors may sound like nirvana, but Perception Strategies Inc. knew it would face the toughest challenge of all: creating a market for its business from the ground up.
Perception Strategies specializes in direct observation “mystery shopper” programs for the health care market. Widely accepted in the competitive retail and banking markets, mystery shopping was a new concept for health care. The company knew it would need to educate, demonstrate and convince health care organizations that its service would provide tangible solutions to increasingly important issues in the delivery of patient care.
“With the increasing competition in health care, customer service is no longer a ‘feel good’ idea that is embraced only as part of an annual campaign,” notes President Kevin Billingsley. “Providing great customer service continually is necessary in a competitive market. It is, in reality, a cultural paradigm shift that today’s demographic population seeks and desires.”
Hospitals have used patient satisfaction surveys for more than 20 years as a scorecard of performance and a benchmark compared to other hospitals. But Billingsley felt the surveys did not give managers enough detail to implement the organizational changes necessary for improved customer service. The missing element was direct observation of employee behavior; something most managers rarely see.
Billingsley created a program to address this need, contracting community actors with exceptional observational and improvisational skills. The actors simulate real life patient encounters and relate their experiences both quantitatively and qualitatively using a thorough report and narrative. Results are more detailed than standardized surveys, and reports are available online in a 24-hour accessible database.
Convinced of the concept’s viability in the health care market, Billingsley created a sales strategy that required internal support from the CEO down. “To launch a successful health care mystery shopping program, we needed an internal champion and complete support from the CEO so that the cultural shift to improved patient care was delivered from the top down. It is essential for organizational leadership to communicate their expectations for customer service to employees.”
Billingsley met with health care organization executives, educating them about the mystery shopping concept. His next step was to convince them that “real time” data would provide the insights necessary for improving low patient satisfaction scores.
“We knew our program had the power to surpass standard patient satisfaction surveys,” Billingsley explains. “Typically, the data from those surveys is not compiled or released to the customer for 30 to 90 days. We make our information available to the client in 48 hours. This ‘immediate perception’ provides managers with the details they need. They’re now equipped to motivate their employees to see customer service through the eyes of the customer…not through their own interpretations of what they thought the customer wanted.”
The reports give managers a genuine patient view of the health care delivery experience, providing them with first-hand observation of employee behavior. This information allows organizations to focus on specific areas for improvement, yielding higher patient satisfaction and increased competitive strength.
Health care organizations locally and across the nation now benefit from Perception Strategies’ mystery shopper programs. “The results have been outstanding,” according to Billingsley. “The health care culture has begun to adjust its way of doing business by now engaging true caring in customer service. Customers are treated better, which results in loyalty, which results in hospitals enjoying increased success. “Everyone wins.”
Perception Strategies specializes in direct observation “mystery shopper” programs for the health care market. Widely accepted in the competitive retail and banking markets, mystery shopping was a new concept for health care. The company knew it would need to educate, demonstrate and convince health care organizations that its service would provide tangible solutions to increasingly important issues in the delivery of patient care.
“With the increasing competition in health care, customer service is no longer a ‘feel good’ idea that is embraced only as part of an annual campaign,” notes President Kevin Billingsley. “Providing great customer service continually is necessary in a competitive market. It is, in reality, a cultural paradigm shift that today’s demographic population seeks and desires.”
Hospitals have used patient satisfaction surveys for more than 20 years as a scorecard of performance and a benchmark compared to other hospitals. But Billingsley felt the surveys did not give managers enough detail to implement the organizational changes necessary for improved customer service. The missing element was direct observation of employee behavior; something most managers rarely see.
Billingsley created a program to address this need, contracting community actors with exceptional observational and improvisational skills. The actors simulate real life patient encounters and relate their experiences both quantitatively and qualitatively using a thorough report and narrative. Results are more detailed than standardized surveys, and reports are available online in a 24-hour accessible database.
Convinced of the concept’s viability in the health care market, Billingsley created a sales strategy that required internal support from the CEO down. “To launch a successful health care mystery shopping program, we needed an internal champion and complete support from the CEO so that the cultural shift to improved patient care was delivered from the top down. It is essential for organizational leadership to communicate their expectations for customer service to employees.”
Billingsley met with health care organization executives, educating them about the mystery shopping concept. His next step was to convince them that “real time” data would provide the insights necessary for improving low patient satisfaction scores.
“We knew our program had the power to surpass standard patient satisfaction surveys,” Billingsley explains. “Typically, the data from those surveys is not compiled or released to the customer for 30 to 90 days. We make our information available to the client in 48 hours. This ‘immediate perception’ provides managers with the details they need. They’re now equipped to motivate their employees to see customer service through the eyes of the customer…not through their own interpretations of what they thought the customer wanted.”
The reports give managers a genuine patient view of the health care delivery experience, providing them with first-hand observation of employee behavior. This information allows organizations to focus on specific areas for improvement, yielding higher patient satisfaction and increased competitive strength.
Health care organizations locally and across the nation now benefit from Perception Strategies’ mystery shopper programs. “The results have been outstanding,” according to Billingsley. “The health care culture has begun to adjust its way of doing business by now engaging true caring in customer service. Customers are treated better, which results in loyalty, which results in hospitals enjoying increased success. “Everyone wins.”