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Communication & Dignity

My aunt has a rare condition that has left her with many physical disabilities, including making it very difficult for her to communicate. Throughout the years, caregivers have struggled to understand what she is saying. Only the most patient people are willing to sit and listen to her repeat portions of a phrase until she is able to get the rest of her thought out. Even after hearing the whole phrase, it can still be difficult to interpret what she has said. As caregivers spend more time with her, those who are willing to put in effort to listen to her become good at understanding what she is trying to communicate. However, in many cases, caregivers feel they don't have enough time to sit and listen.

About a year ago, a group of students reached out to the care facility where my aunt lived to see if they could do a student project to help a patient who struggled to communicate. They worked closely with my aunt and family to learn about her struggles and what would help her. In return, they created an app for a tablet that they attached to her wheelchair. Now when my aunt needs something, she can press a button that says the words that she is trying to communicate, such as "I would like to have my teeth brushed," "I need to use the bathroom," "I would like to eat pasta," and so on.

While providing a tablet with an app on it for all those who struggle to communication may not be an option, it is possible to find ways to improve communication so people can still make decisions for themselves. For instance, having pictures or words people can point to, asking yes or no questions, encouraging hand gestures such as thumbs up or thumbs down, and watching for body language queues are all ways to provide people with opportunities to express their needs and desires.

Here are some tips from the United Kingdom's Stroke Association that can also be used when communicating with others:

• Keep your sentences short and simple. Ask one question at a time.
• Say when you don't understand. Don't worry if you make a mistake in understanding. Keep trying.
• Talk about one topic at a time.
• Use whatever you can to help with communication: point to things, make gestures, write, draw, hum, or sing.
• Talk naturally about things you are both interested in.
• Listen.
• Try not to interrupt.
• Allow silences.
• Ask questions.
• Check to make sure you have understood. Don't pretend you understand if you don't.

By allowing people to communicate their thoughts, needs, and wants, it gives individuals a greater sense of their dignity in care.

Lunch with Angell, CAHPS Q&A Session

View On-Demand

Download Additional Materials:

http://content.pinnacleqi.com/cahps-webinar-june-2019

Description

Hear and ask questions about how to increase your response rates, how to improve your scores, and more.

What you'll learn:

• How to increase your response rates
• How to improve your scores
• And more

View On-Demand

Download Additional Materials:

http://content.pinnacleqi.com/cahps-webinar-june-2019

Q&A leader

Angell Hanson
Account Manager, Pinnacle Quality Insight

Audience

CAHPS, Home Health, Hospice

On-Demand Webinar, Simplification: The Secret to Boosting Customer Satisfaction Rates

FREE ON-DEMAND WEBINAR

Simplification: The Secret to Boosting Customer Satisfaction Rates

AUDIENCE: Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF), Assisted Living (AL), Independent Living (IL), Customer Satisfaction

Using a proprietary algorithm, Pinnacle has identified which questions from the Pinnacle customer satisfaction survey most strongly correlate with the, "How likely are you to recommend others to this location," question. Based on the feedback from your surveys, Pinnacle determines which of the five key drivers, or areas of focus, your location should direct its efforts toward. This webinar will teach you how to harness the power of knowing your focus area to make the most impact in your facility.

What you’ll learn:

• What is a focus area
• How to find your focus area
• What to do with your focus area
• Why you should involve your staff in your focus area efforts

Presenter

Chris Magleby
CEO, Pinnacle Quality Insight

10 Employee Turnover Myths You Can Bust

Employee turnover is a growing concern. However, there are ways you can bust these 10 employee turnover myths and increase your employee engagement. 

Myth 1: It's Inevitable in Healthcare

If you work in healthcare, senior care in particular, employee turnover is guaranteed. It's hard work and jobs in other sectors are more enticing. Or does it have to be? The answer is no. Creating a culture in your company that focuses on the purpose (or the why) for the work instead of the functions (or the list of tasks) can change hard work into intensely rewarding work.

Myth 2: It's The Lack of Pay

Medicare dictates the wages of workers. When fast food places offer more money for easier work, what keeps employees from making the switch? As it turns out, praise is a bigger motivator than pay. This doesn't mean that people will work for nothing, of course. Bills arrive in every mailbox. However, employees are more motivated to work for a company where they are appreciated rather than for a company where they are paid better but work in an environment where their efforts go unnoticed.

Creating an environment where recognition is emphasized doesn't have to be expensive, time consuming, or insincere. When gathering feedback from customers about their experiences, ask them if they would like to recognize any of your employees. Create employee achievement certificates and take time to recognize those who go above and beyond. Encourage co-workers to share positive interactions they have with one another. Begin with a top-down approach of providing praise for work well done.

Myth 3: Our Small Business Just Can't Compete

Large companies and hospitals have a great ability to draw talented prospective employees to their doors. However, this doesn't mean that a small business has to pick up the less-desirable workers. Oftentimes, small businesses provide greater hands-on opportunities. Tout the career growth opportunities that your small business has to offer talented employees.

Myth 4: Managers Don't Affect Turnover

Does this one even need to be said? I mean, who wants a micromanaging, quick-tempered, or uninspiring manager? Obviously, no one wants to work with a manager who makes life miserable. But did you know that the way your managers perceive their team members can also make a difference in whether employees stay or start looking for new work? Managers who help their team members recognize their talents and encourage them to continue growing can help employees stay engaged. Encourage your managers to identify how their team members' strengths fit into the organization's goals and values. Then provide managers with the tools they need to help their team members continue to increase these skills. Instead of thinking about training as a one-time event, encourage continuous learning among all employees. 

Additionally, a company culture that encourages its staff to apply for positions within the company can help employees feel there are opportunities for growth where they are. Highlight lateral career paths within your company in addition to vertical career paths. Encourage managers to help their team find the work they love without leaving. 

Myth 5: Turnover Only Affects Finances

Losing valued employees takes a much larger toll on your company than just the expense of replacing the individual. When an employee chooses to leave, you lose the customer relationships they have garnered, their productivity, and the knowledge they've acquired while working for you. Turnover also affects your company culture.

Myth 6: It Doesn't Correlate with Culture

According to Wikipedia, culture is defined as the social behavior and norms found in human societies. What are the normal social behaviors in your company? Is there a high amount of negative competition? Do employees hoard information from other employees? Are employees forced to choose between family and work life? Are the staff members building positive connections with others? Does your company tell the truth to itself? Are your employees happy at work? Are your employees sick and/or tired?

The culture of your company makes a huge difference in how your employees perceive their job. In fact, author Brent Gleeson argues in Inc.com that it's the most important aspect of employee retention.

Myth 7: New Employees Are Most Likely to Leave

Starting a new job can be challenging, but the path your employees take doesn't have to be treacherous. Providing a strong onboarding program can make the transition smooth. Be sure not to confuse orientation with onboarding. Onboarding consists of acclimating and engaging employees throughout the first 90 days, and even the first year.

When I started working at Pinnacle, I received a card from my new coworkers, welcoming me. It was a small thing, but I meant a lot. Other things that can help an employee acclimate include the following:

• A peer or mentor who can provide support
• One-on-one time with the manager on the first day to build rapport
• A ready-to-go work space
• Thorough training, along with clear instructions regarding compliance
• Consistent communication 

Myth 8: They Won't Tell You Why They're Leaving

Many companies miss out on a valuable piece of information when employees voluntarily leave—they don't ask WHY. It's a common misconception that employees won't tell the truth. However, asking exiting employees can be a source of priceless information. You can learn what about their job caused dissatisfaction, suggestions they have for improving company culture, and more. Just remember that hearing constructive feedback can sometimes be difficult. Be sure to accept the feedback without becoming defensive or combative. Incorporating changes based on exiting feedback can help your company resolve company culture and operational challenges, and increase employee engagement.

Myth 9: It's Good If You Don't Have Turnover

If your company has had the same employees for years without any turnover, that may not be such a good thing. Turnover can be good because it brings in new ideas and new talent. It can also help you reduce the number of disengaged employees in your ranks.

Myth 10: Turnover is Always Bad

Not all turnover is created equal. Employees who are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work create a negative impact on your company culture and your company's level of productivity. While you may be able to help some of the not engaged employees to become engaged, it's unlikely that the actively disengaged employees will become actively engaged. In these situations, it may be best to encourage your actively disengaged employees to find new opportunities elsewhere. Thus, leaving openings you can fill with more engaged employees.

Treat Everyone with Importance

Part 7 of 7: Treat everyone with importance

7 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction

Patient interaction with staff members has the largest impact on customer satisfaction. Wait...did you catch that? The thing that influences customer satisfaction the most is your employees. When treated with importance, clients are more likely to forgive shortcomings. This rule is integral to all seven tips.

How do you do it, though, when you have many patients and are pressed for time? Here are four key behaviors to incorporate into your routine:

Love is spelled T-I-M-E. 

I have five siblings. One day, we were talking together about our mom and who she liked best. We were all convinced that we were her favorite. After squabbling about it for several minutes, we went and asked my mom who of us was her favorite. She said she didn't have favorites so we pressed to know the truth. "C'mon, Mom. Who's your favorite?" She smiled and responded, "Dad's my favorite." We all rolled our eyes and laughed.

The thing I learned that day was that my mom, although she was busy, took time to listen to our stories and find out what was important to us. She made sure that even if we didn't get a lot of one-on-one time with her that the time we did get with her was quality time.

The secret art of listening

Actually...it's no secret. Listening is one of the best ways you can show someone that you think they are important. Just remember that listening has to do with more than your ears. Actively listening to someone means that you are paying attention to not just what they say, but how they say it through voice intonations and body language. Active listening requires taking in all the verbal and nonverbal cues to understand fully what someone is trying to communicate.

Be genuine

Why? People will trust you more, according to Psychology Today. "We believe [that] those who are true to themselves are also likely to be truer and more honest with us." So embrace your authentic side and show your patients the real you. If authenticity isn't your thing...yet, here's a great poster to help you start practicing it.

Treat others the way THEY want to be treated

"They spoiled me rotten," the patient said in an interview. "They made me feel alive again." Now that's what we want to hear! Everyone is unique in their needs. When you take time to get to know people, that's when you can truly give them those things they need—simply because you understand their needs.

Want to read the other six ways to improve patient satisfaction? Start with part 1: Invest in Your Employees.

4 Ways to Lose Wait

Part 6 of 7: 4 Ways to Lose Wait

7 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction

A common complaint from those receiving care is excessive waiting. Waiting creates a high level of frustration and sends the message that the individual who is waiting is not important.

Countless hours of research have gone into the study of waiting, and it isn't surprising that waiting can produce unhappy customers. Based on the 8 factors that make the wait seem longer from World of Psychology on PsychCentral, here are some tips for making it less painful to wait.

Unavoidable waits

Sometimes waiting is unavoidable. So how do you manage patient expectations without slowing down the process? Here are four tips for dealing with unavoidable waits:

Communicate

The aid was supposed to come at 10 a.m. but now it's almost 10:40 a.m. and the patient is feeling like they've been forgotten. Simply letting the person know that you're running late can greatly reduce waiting anxiety. The most common complaint respondents give is that the agency doesn’t communicate with them what time their aide, therapist or nurse will stop by. Find out if the person has a time conflict that is creating stress for them. Reschedule if needed.

Be present and attentive

The third most common complaint regarding waiting is that when the employee is rushing to get to their next appointment, the patient feels less important or cheated. To avoid this, explain to the patient that you need to take a minute to call the office and let them know you are 30 minutes behind. That way you won’t be rushing in their appointment and the next person will know what to expect. Another thing you can do is let the person know that once you arrive, you will provide them with the best quality of care. This sets the expectation that although you are late, they are important to you.

No excuses

It's no surprise that things don't always work out the way you plan. However, using excuses to justify long wait times can further exacerbate the problem.

Say "Thank you" not "I'm sorry"

When you finally rush in the door, instead of apologizing for running late, thank the patient for their patience. By doing this, it will help you and the patient to transition from the frustration of waiting to the happiness of being assisted. You may want to keep inexpensive but thoughtful items on hand, such as lollipops, to offer to patients as a thank you gift for their patience.

For more ways to improve patient satisfaction, visit part 7: Treat Everyone with Importance.

Employees—Assets or Expenses?

Expense. A cost or charge.
Asset. A useful or valuable item/person that one owns.

If you have not already, you need to stop and examine how you perceive the employees at your company. The way you see your employees affects your employee engagement.

Expenses

What do you do with expenses in your company? You look for ways to reduce them. When you consider your employees an expense, which they are of course, you strive to have the least amount of employees needed to do the greatest amount of work possible. It may sound a little heartless to consider an employee an expense but when it comes down to it, technically, they are.

As a common rule, a healthy company should spend less than a third of its gross income to pay its employees. This is why, if a company doesn't bring in as much income as it was hoping, it typically has layoffs. With layoffs come lower morale, talent loss, and lost productivity. While layoffs aren't the only way to deal with a overextended budget, frequently that is what's used.

Assets

The skills and intellectual abilities your employees possess is something you cannot own. Additionally, since these items are intangible, you cannot assign an exact value to them. For these reasons, employees are not true assets.

However intangible, your employees still possess value. Through their ingenuity, they can solve problems, increase efficiency and skyrocket sales. Additionally, the longer an employee is with your company, the more company knowledge they possess. As they complete tasks and overcome problems, they strengthen and hone their skills. So, if you consider an asset something or someone that appreciates over time, then an employee is definitely an asset.

Treating employees as assets

Treating employees as assets can pay dividends to you in the future and need not incur expense. Here are some ways you can show your employees that you value them as assets to your company.

• Take time to get to know your employees and their teams
• Reward the sharing of company knowledge
• Increase your communication
• Provide added reassurance during times of change and transition
• Encourage feedback from all levels of your company on how you can improve your service
• Listen to the feedback you receive
• Make commitments and keep them
• Invite everyone to increase their quality of work
• Support the initiatives your employees are working on
• Improve your training programs
• Teach your managers how to provide feedforward
• Encourage creativity

What do you think?

Are employees expenses or assets? How has treating them one way or the other affected your company? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Exceed Expectations

Part 5 of 7: Exceed expectations

7 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction

To thrive in today's economy, we have to go beyond just delivering what is expected. Being good is not good enough anymore. In a day and age where we can order pizza on our phones and have it delivered to our door, it can be difficult to exceed expectations. Meeting even standard expectations can be difficult when staff is short and budgets are tight. Here are a few simple ways you can move your expectation meter from hmmm to WOW. 

Low-hanging fruit

Look through your survey results and gather up all of the comments associated with scores three and below. Sort the comments into groups based off of level of difficulty to correct issues discussed. Start by focusing on resolving the negative feedback that is easiest to fix. Quick wins can give you stamina to work on harder-to-resolve problems. By saying you should focus on the low-hanging fruit, it isn't to say that you shouldn't put priority on difficult issues. Clearing up complex problems can definitely take your patient's expectations from good to great in a big way and is essential in operating a successful organization.

Under and over

Remember the old adage, "under promise, over deliver." It's far better to surprise and delight your patients with things they aren't expecting than to promise something and not deliver on it. Again, a word of caution: under promising isn't an excuse for not pushing yourself to do your best. Striving for greatness should always be your goal.

Create "WOW" moments

Simply thinking about simple ways you can do more for your patients than they are expecting is sometimes all it takes. For instance, remembering a patient's birthday or bringing along a sympathy card to a patient who has recently lost a pet.

A family member of a patient said this about her father's nurse, "One nurse knows Dad likes patriotic songs and has downloaded, 'God Bless America' on her cell phone. When he's upset, she hands it to him and it calms him right down."

These are the types of simple opportunities you can take to go beyond your patient's expectations and provide them with a special experience.

For more ways to improve patient satisfaction, visit part 6: Lose Wait.

Invest in Your Employees

Part 1 of 7: Invest in your employees

7 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is directly related to customer satisfaction. When your employees are happy at work, your customers can tell. Here are a few tips for improving employee morale:

Recognizing a job well done

When was the last time you let your employees know they were doing a great job? According to Forbes, "Recognition is most effective when it's given in the context of a larger [business-related] goal." You can provide recognition for things your employees are doing to help further company goals.

We can help you identify which employees are making a difference through our interview process. When customers mention employees who have performed outstanding work, we make sure you know about it. When a customer mentions an employee, we include that in the Customer Satisfaction Interview so you can see it.

You can easily print employee recognition certificates on My.Pinnacle. Visit the My.Pinnacle dashboard and click on Resources. To generate a customized certificate, just fill out the simple form with your organization's name, the employee's name, and your name. Then press print.

Ask for employee feedback

In addition to gathering customer feedback, surveying your employees can also help you invest in them. Gathering feedback and following up on it shows your employee that you care about them and value their experience. Open-ended questions can help you understand where your employees are succeeding and struggling. You can provide better care for your patients by knowing your employees. You can also find out which employees your staff feels are rock stars. Which, by the way, is another great way to find employees to recognize.

For more ways to improve patient satisfaction, visit part 2: Make Lemonade from Lemons.

3 Benefits of Creating An Alumni

If you're like most companies, when a member of your staff gives their two-week notice, you prepare the exit paperwork and say goodbye. However, a few companies have discovered the value in treating their exiting staff as alumni.

An alumnus (a former member of a group, company or organization) can be a great resource to your company. Here are three types of alumni that can benefit your company.

The boomerang

Not all staff members who leave are gone for good. Former employees may leave to receive more education, others may move on to a job where they can gain new and additional experience, and still others may leave because they think they may like a different company or position better. Whatever the reason, if they like your company while they are working for you, they may want to come back. In returning, they bring experience from working at your company before and a stronger knowledge base by gaining more education or working in other positions.

The way you handle the exit experience for your employees can make a big impact on the chances of hiring former employees back on again some day. Be sure to let your exiting employee know they are welcome back if they would ever like to return.

The referrer

A lot of times, employees leave not because they are unhappy, but because they want to continue to grow through education or new experiences. These employees who leave with a positive opinion of the company can be great at referring potential new hires. After all, they know why your company is great and they can encourage friends and family who would be a good fit for the position to apply.

Not only can former employees refer potential new hires, they can also encourage potential patients to use your services. Because they know firsthand how the company operates, former employees can tell potential customers all the benefits your company has to offer. To keep former employees up to date on your current achievements, ask exiting staff if they would like to receive a special alumni newsletter that shares milestones the company hits. 

The sounding board

If you're looking for people familiar with your company to give their honest feedback about your brand and customer experience, your former employees may be a good group to talk to. Since they are no longer receiving paychecks, they're more likely to provide objective feedback than employees.

Explain (to the fourth)

Part 4 of 7: Explain (to the fourth)

7 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction

Usually it's not enough to explain things one time—especially in senior care. To ensure adequate communication, we need to explain what we are going to do, what we are doing, what we did and what to expect once the care provider has left.

It may sound like overkill, but if done correctly, it can make a huge difference in a patient's experience. Without sufficient explanation, patients can feel insecure, scared, or uncomfortable. Here's a patient's experience with not being told enough:

“There was one thing that concerned me. They had to do an inspection to see if I had bedsores or anything. That really bothered me because there were about five of them in there. They were looking all over my body and didn't explain anything.”

In this person's situation, the employees did not explain what was going to happen and it created a negative customer experience.

Here's a similar situation that was handled differently and produced a much more positive outcome:

"I have a wound on my backside that just won't heal. The nurse came over today to check on it. I was feeling apprehensive before she came over because it's kind of embarrassing to have a wound there. However, the way she handled it was so nice! When she arrived, she walked me through how she was going to clean the wound. Then as she cleaned it, she told me what she was doing. I knew what to expect as she cleaned it because she had told me beforehand. It took away a lot of my fear. When she was done, she said that it looked like my wound was improving based off the notes from my doctor. Before she left, she explained what I should do until she comes back. I'm so glad she's my nurse!"

Instead of looking at explaining to the fourth as repeating yourself four times, see it as an opportunity to journey with the patient through an experience.

Please share in the comments below an experience of not explaining or explaining to the fourth.

For more ways to improve patient satisfaction, visit part 5: Exceed Expectations.

Becoming An Innovative, Creative, Adaptive Leader

Vulnerability. That's what it takes to become truly innovative, creative and adaptive, says the leading national expert on vulnerability, Brené Brown.

Now if you're like most professionals, you probably feel that vulnerability doesn't belong in the workplace. After all, vulnerability, as defined by Dictionary.com is: (1) capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt, as by a weapon; (2) open to moral attack, criticism, temptation, etc.; (3) (of a place) open to assault; difficult to defend.

A misunderstood definition

Based off of the definition, you might wonder why you would ever want to be vulnerable. Brown, however, clarifies in her discussion on Chase Jarvis LIVE that vulnerability is a misunderstood concept. Instead, Brown defines it based off the data she's gathered as uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure. She goes on to say, "How can you be a good leader who's not willing to walk into uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure."

Still, the idea of being vulnerable and authentic in the workplace has been questioned by many. Herminia Ibarra, author of, "The Authentic Paradox," in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) referenced an example of Cynthia Danaher, a newly appointed general manager at Hewlett-Packard Co. who hurt her credibility as a leader by being honest about how she felt.

Danaher recalled to the Wall Street Journal that she confided to her 5,300 employees shortly after filling her new role, "I want to do this job, but it's scary and I need your help." She went on to say that the company finally had a boss who "knows how to make coffee."

Ibarra, in her HBR review article said, "Being utterly transparent—disclosing every single thought and feeling—is both unrealistic and risky."

Brown further explained to Jarvis that vulnerability doesn't have to lead to loss of credibility and injury. "What I hear people say is, 'Yes, you can be vulnerable at work but not too vulnerable.' That's like saying you can be healthy but not too healthy—you can't really be too healthy. When people say too vulnerable, what they mean is there's boundary issues."

She then used an example of a business partner who in front of venture capitalists and employees cries, 'Um, I'm in over my head. I'm not sure what's happening, and I'm pretty sure it's all going to go to [omit] in the next two weeks.'

Sharing in this way isn't appropriate, Brown said. You'd be misunderstanding your role. However, sharing that information with a therapist or possibly their partner wouldn't be inappropriate. "Vulnerability," Brown said, "requires an understanding of boundaries: where we share, with whom we share, and why we're sharing."

Boundaries and emotional intelligence

To be vulnerable, you must cultivate personal boundaries in your life. A boundary is a limit we set to help us define what is acceptable behavior from others in order to keep ourselves safe emotionally, physically and psychologically. The boundaries we set regulate how people treat us and how we treat others.

Setting personal boundaries is part of being emotionally intelligent. This learned skill of emotional intelligence helps you identify how you are feeling, how others are feeling, and how what you say and do affects others.

When Danaher told her employees that she was good at making coffee but needed help being able to fulfill her new role as general manager, she did not understand how her message would affect her employees emotionally. She had anticipated that by sharing this information, her employees would relate to a time when they started something new and felt uncertain. She assumed that by sharing this information, they would feel a bond with her because they would be able to relate. Instead, her employees felt a sense of insecurity because they were looking for someone who may not know everything but had a plan and vision for what they were working toward.

Fortunately, as previously mentioned, emotional intelligence is a learned skill, which means if you feel you're lacking, you can practice and improve.

While Danaher admits her faux pas is a painful memory, she has continued to learn from her mistake and has become a more resilient leader because of it. "A balance of openness, strength, and the ability to read others and their capacity for emotional content are all important aspects of vulnerability in leadership," Robert Beare Jr. stated in his doctoral dissertation at Capella University. He then paraphrased authors Goffee and Jones by saying, "In order to inspire followers to innovative and effective teamwork, leaders must develop the ability to be vulnerable and selectively show imperfection."

Becoming a vulnerable, innovative, creative, adaptive leader

Since we're all individual, becoming our true selves will look different for each of us. However, here are six things you can do to become more authentic:

1. Recognize yourself as a person who is always growing and evolving. 
2. Spend time introspectively searching who you are. 
3. Ask others (those who are fans of you as well as those who are not) what they think of your current leadership style. 
4. Work on your emotional intelligence and boundary setting. 
5. Practice talking to others. 
6. And follow Brown's advice to strive for excellence instead of perfection. Try something new, knowing it won't be perfect but that it doesn't need to be.

"Authenticity," Ibarra said, "is being aware of who you are at the core (personality, abilities, motivations, thinking/beliefs), and leading from that place."

Becoming the kind of leader that is authentic and vulnerable doesn't happen overnight. It comes as you conscientiously work toward it.

Bragging Right

Part 3 of 7: Bragging right

7 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction

Celebrate successes internally, but don't focus on bragging externally. Focus on improving the customer experience and your customers will do the bragging for you.

Promote your successes internally

Your employees make your brand what it is. If they buy into your brand and its messaging, it's far more likely that your patients will experience what you tout your brand to be.

Make sure your employees know what their purpose is. If they feel they are doing worthwhile work and are making a difference, they will be better workers. Create a culture focused on success. Reward success.

Promote success, acknowledge shortcomings, build trust

When you communicate externally, it's important to acknowledge your shortcomings as well as promote your successes. Being authentic and transparent builds trust.

Measure to improve—not impress

Your purpose in measuring and tracking what your patients think about you should not be to impress others. Seeing how your company is performing provides you with a valuable resource to enable you to improve. All companies have weaknesses and strengths; each company is unique. Celebrate what you do well and look at your weaknesses as opportunities for improvement.

Consumers trust other consumers more than advertising

Don't take it from us, all you have to do is look on Amazon to see this is true. Consumers want to hear from other consumers what their experiences have been in interacting with a brand. If consumer reviews are low, your brand will have a much harder time attracting customers.

Encourage patients, family members, and employees to post reviews on Google and in other review venues that your potential patients search. The reviews show up on the right-hand side of the web page when someone searches your company name on Google.

Hospitals are also a key contributor to referrals. More and more, hospitals depend on star ratings to determine which companies to refer patients to. Working to improve your star rating and then promoting it to your hospital referral sources is important.

Promote honestly

Remember that more than your potential patients are listening to the messages you are sharing externally. Make sure that the messages you're telling potential patients are in line with the messages you're telling your employees. For instance, if you tell patients that they are your number one priority and you tell your employees that they need to focus on financial aspects of the company, your employees are going to see a mixed message. Dissonance in your messaging can injure your employee relationship, and it eventually makes its way to your potential patients.

For more ways to improve patient satisfaction, visit part 4: Explain (to the fourth).

Lemonade May Be Easier to Make Than You Think

Part 2 of 7: Make lemonade from lemons

7 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction

Negative situations can sure leave a bad taste in your mouth. However, the way you deal with these situations can change your patients' and their families' perception of what happened. What may have started as a horrible experience can be converted into a good one if you handle things right.

What to do when things get sour

Embrace negative feedback.

• What this looks like: Instead of focusing on placing blame or covering up process problems, take courage and open up communication. Invite those in your company who can affect change to be part of the conversation. Identify what success looks like and where the process may be breaking down. Make an action plan to address issues and plan for follow up. 
• What this does: By embracing negative feedback, you can begin to build renewed trust with your patients.

Acknowledge problems, then work to fix them.

Patients do not expect perfection, but they do want you to acknowledge fault and to take steps to correct it from happening again.

• What this looks like: Making mistakes is part of the human condition. However, before you can stop repeating a mistake, you first must come to the realization that something didn't go right. Regardless of who is to blame, it is essential to sincerely face the fact that the patient or family member experienced something that caused them to feel unhappy with the situation.
• What this does: When you are able to acknowledge that something went wrong, regardless of who is to blame, you can begin to change the situation. By acknowledging that something went wrong, you help to validate their feelings. It also helps you to be able to move the experience aside and begin cleaning up any unresolved concerns and problems.

Adopt a problem-solving attitude.

Remember, no one receives perfect scores all the time. One reason for the customer satisfaction survey is to measure improvement, not to impress.

• What this looks like: The process to perfection is a bumpy one. Those who have an attitude that they are still learning are the ones who typically find greater levels of success because they continue to problem solve.
• What this does: By creating a problem-solving attitude, you can find solutions to issues you may not think are solvable. 

Look for underlying problems if the same issue keeps showing up.

• What this looks like: Finding and resolving the root problem in a complex issue is not always easy to do. Receiving negative feedback about an issue you're aware of but so far have been unsuccessful at resolving can be frustrating, especially if your compensation is directly connected with the survey feedback.
• What you can do: First of all, take a moment to give yourself some positive feedback and encouragement. Complex problems don't go away overnight. Typically, they also require the cooperation and brainpower of more than one person. If you're stumped on how to get going to resolve a problem, take a moment to look at these great problem solving tips for complex business problems from the CBS Money Watch website. In addition to this, please remember that we are always here to help you. If you have questions about your reports, please let us know.

Finding solutions to sour situations is possible. This is especially the case when you're willing to recognize problems, transparently discuss them with you patients and their family members, have a problem-solving attitude, and when you work with others to resolve complex issues. As you work toward these solutions, you'll find that lemons can truly be turned into lemonade.

For more ways to improve patient satisfaction, visit part 3: Bragging Right.