Mahran Ashour
Healthcare Management Consultant, UAE
Title: How to deal and manage unhappy patients? turning a challenge into an opportunity!
Biography
Biography: Mahran Ashour
Abstract
Introduction: Dealing with unhappy and unsatisfied patients is a real challenge and many of us have to deal with them as part of our roles, and we know, it's never been easy. But if we know what to say and, more importantly, how to say it, we may be able to save the situation. Here we won’t only save the situation, but in fact we can change this to a powerful marketing tool and better relationship with those patients.
Methods: By following some simple steps, you can make the change, those steps are easy to get, but it’s not easy to implement! So, we need to have the way, talent, training to achieve the remarkable outcome! One of the most important steps is to adjust your mindset, once you're aware that your client is unhappy then your first priority is to put yourself into a customer service mindset and It's important to handle difficult customers professionally. Learning how to stay calm and how to stay cool under pressure can help you get through challenging situations with grace and professionalism! Occasionally a client or patients may become verbally abusive towards you or your team. Know in advance what you'll tolerate, and what you won't. If things escalate, you may need to be assertive and stand up for yourself, or even walk away from the situation to give the client time to cool down
Results: If you can prevent 5% of your customers from leaving you can increase your bottom line profit by 25 – 95% - “Harvard Business Review” If you can change the anger into happiness, frustration and disappointment into hope, discomfort into trust, and sure you can gain back the trust of the patient, you have definitely created a new and powerful word of mouth source, and make sure that this patient will get you 10 patients! Do your best to prevent your customer leaving your practise for whatever reasons.
Conclusions: Not all patients will be vocal with their dissatisfaction or ideas for improvement. Indeed, most patients will leave silently. However, being able to determine which patients are unhappy and find out why is powerful information, so you need to be grateful to those who speak and share their anger, for you to be able to solve their issues and develop your practice.