Quality Customer Service
Improving positive word-of-mouth referrals
By Sabina B. Gesell, Ph.D., Press Ganey Associates Inc.
 What do your
customers really want? What issues do they think are most important when they consider
recommending a facility to others? Whatever these issues are, they're ones you need to pay
attention to and to address when implementing quality improvement initiatives. If you can
do this, expect a tremendous pay off in terms of resident care and positive word-of-mouth
referrals.
Press Ganey Associates, a healthcare research firm, examined the factors that create
positive word-of-mouth referrals in assisted-living communities and discovered a number of
interesting findings.
"Assisted-living residents and their families care more about the care and assistance
provided than about the architecture of an assisted-living facility," explains Irwin
Press, president of Press Ganey Associates Inc.
"This doesn't mean that facilities, décor and cheerfulness aren't
important," says the company's CEO, Rodney Ganey. "However, the results clearly
show that interpersonal skills, such as caring, respect and attentiveness, dominate the
factors most closely associated with residents' and family members' overall satisfaction
with an assisted-living facility, and the likelihood of their recommending it to
others."
In the fourth quarter of 1999, the firm compiled data from 12 assisted-living
communities in the Northeastern, Midwestern and Southeastern states. The study included
the responses of 825 residents who had varying needs for regular assistance with
activities of daily living, as well as the family members of these residents. The
standardized survey contained 43 questions about key aspects of the assisted-living
experience, including subjects such as safety, meals, resident assistants, management,
finances, activities, and facility structure and upkeep.
What would cause a resident to recommend a community? Direct-care, and the quality of
that care, fell under five of the top-10 issues. Three of the top-10 issues deal with the
more technical components of long-term care, namely assistance with activities of daily
living and independent activities of daily living, as well as the coordination of care
among staff members. Two of the top- 10 issues tap into the more interpersonal components
of care: respect from and trust in the care providers.
Four of the top-10 issues found in the research address management concerns. Three of
these four issues are directly related to the interpersonal and managerial styles of the
facility administrators and operators. Customers expect and truly demand accessible,
sensitive and open-minded management.
All 10 issues relate to intangible aspects of operations, such as attitudes and
responsiveness. These are qualities that are typically thought of as "caring."
Most important, these are qualities that are manifested in behaviors that can be developed
through training. Excellence in performance in these 10 areas will lead to the greatest
increases in overall satisfaction and in positive word-of-mouth referrals.
Review your staff-training policies, your management structure/style and, most
specifically, the way your employees regularly interact with residents. It is here that
strategic changes should begin.
Press Ganey's research also identified what was least likely to be a factor in creating
positive word-of-mouth referrals.
The issues least deserving of resources, when striving to improve the likelihood that
customers will recommend an assisted-living community, are somewhat surprising. Nine of
the 10 least-important issues relate to tangibles, specifically the facility structure.
While characteristics of the apartments, common areas and grounds are deemed least
important to customers in their consideration of recommending a facility, they do
influence overall satisfaction and, consequently, should not be ignored. However,
addressing these issues in quality improvement efforts would not be the most efficient use
of limited resources.
Perception of care is a valid assessment of quality of care. Notably, the issues that
are considered most important and least important are the same for both residents and
their family members. Dennis Kaldenberg, Ph.D., Press Ganey's director of research and
development, identifies consumer satisfaction as a determinant of viability. "In
market areas with increased competition, owners and operators of assisted-living
residences are wisely focusing on consumer satisfaction and service delivery as a way of
distinguishing themselves," he says.
First defined and measured in other service industries, customer satisfaction is now
widely measured across the spectrum of medical-care settings, from hospital and
medical-practice visits to home healthcare. The movement toward assessing and monitoring
customer satisfaction in the assisted-living industry is rapidly growing. Facilities are
well-recommended to instill an atmosphere of attentiveness, empathy and reliability if
they want to master the best form of marketing: the customer's likelihood of recommending
their facility to others.
Sabina B. Gesell, Ph.D., is a research associate for Press Ganey Associates Inc.
Based in South Bend, Ind., the company was founded in 1985 and is one of the world's
largest healthcare-satisfaction measurement firm. Press Ganey provides satisfaction
surveys, comprehensive management reports and national comparative databases for the
integrated healthcare-delivery system. The firm processes more than 4 million surveys
annually for nearly 1,200 healthcare organizations. For more information about this study,
contact Dr. Gesell at (219) 232-3387; or sgesell@pressganey.com.
| 10 Issues Most Highly Correlated With
the Likelihood of Customers Recommending a Facility |
| |
Correlation Coefficient |
| 1. Assistance/care provided |
.74 |
| 2. Confidence in staff |
.65 |
| 3. Extent to which management provides a well-run/organized operation |
.66 |
| 4. Management's handling of complaints and grievances |
.60 |
| 5. How well staff works together to care for resident |
.60 |
| 6. Extent to which living at facility maintains resident's independence |
.58 |
| 7. Extent to which staff treats resident with respect |
.57 |
| 8. Responsiveness of management to resident's/family's ideas |
.58 |
| 9. Extent to which management is accessible |
.56 |
| 10. Facility cheerfulness |
.56 |
10 Issues Least
Correlated With the Likelihood of Customers Recommending a Facility |
| |
Correlation Coefficient |
| 1. Bill easy to understand |
.27 |
| 2. Amount of storage space in apartment |
.28 |
| 3. Amount of living space in apartment |
.29 |
| 4. Privacy in apartment |
.32 |
| 5. Noise level around apartment |
.32 |
| 6. Places to walk and sit outside |
.34 |
| 7. Safety of belongings in apartment |
.35 |
| 8. Bathroom (attractiveness, size, functionality) |
.36 |
| 9. Attractiveness of outside grounds |
.36 |
| 10. Housekeeping services |
.37 |
|
