Are You a Customer Service “Have” or “Have Not”?

This shouldn’t be shocking news to most healthcare professionals, but customer service IS a critical function of quality patient care. However, when we as laboratorians think about customer service activities and how that translates into patient care, we tend to think it’s just about what occurs in the literal presence of patients. So, here’s what may be news to some, the patient experience isn’t just about what we do when we’re in their physical presence, but also what we do as we interact with everyone who is in any way associated with their care. Therefore, we must make every effort to be engaged in skilled customer service activities with everyone, at all times. Now, the question may arise, what ARE the necessary skills and activities for providing great customer service (i.e., quality patient care) and how well do YOU execute them? This session will provide an opportunity for self-assessment utilizing a customer service skills preferred profile and an interactive discussion regarding the do’s and don’ts for outstanding customer service.

Lecture Presenter
Cherie V. Petersen, BA
Cherie V. Petersen, BA
Distance Education Program Coordinator, Institute for Learning, ARUP Laboratories

Chérie Petersen designs educational programs and resources specifically for laboratory professionals, combining her extensive knowledge of the laboratory industry with the best training resources available.

As the Distance Education Program Coordinator for ARUP’s Institute for Learning she is responsible for developing, managing, and delivering educational opportunities to industry professionals. Through these efforts, she directs ARUP’s rapidly growing educational website that has over 45,000 unique visitors and issues more than 10,000 continuing education credits per year to pathologists and laboratorians.

Chérie’s broad range of experience has been gained through developing multiple business solutions for hospital laboratory outreach programs, conducting training seminars, sharing her expertise in national speaking engagements, participating in laboratory and television sales and marketing, working as a television-news reporter, and as a staff member of the United States Senate.

Over the past 20 years, Chérie has been an invited guest and keynote speaker at numerous state and local professional association meetings, including national CLMA, AACC, and ASCLS conferences. For her efforts, she has been honored with AACC’s Outstanding Speaker Award several times.

Through ARUP’s Institute for Learning, Chérie shares her expertise, energy, and passion with ARUP clients and industry professionals. Using her experience in employee development, training, management coaching, writing, and public speaking, as well as her knowledge of customer service, leadership, communication skills, and sales, she teaches clients how to achieve exceptional outcomes in order to become patient/customer-focused and enhance their competitive efforts. Chérie has the unique ability to inspire and cultivate the excellence that exists within individuals and their organizations.

Objectives

After this presentation, participants will be able to:

Utilize a self-assessment tool in order to benchmark themselves against a customer service preferred profile while also identifying the skills and activities where personal improvement would yield better customer service and quality patient care outcomes.
Learn how to recognize what happens during customer service interactions that can cause poor outcomes and a negative experience for customers (i.e., co-workers, other healthcare providers, patients, and patients families).
Determine the skills and activities that promote outstanding customer service.