Customer Satisfaction is Lean Principle #5. In this and the next post we will explore customer satisfaction, and what it means to you and your practice.
First, what is a customer to your practice?
- Are customers the patients that walk in the door?
- Are customers those who receive services from the practice?
- How about you? Are you a customer of the practice?
- How about your staff? Are they customers of the practice?
I would use Webster’s definition as a logical starting point: 1) a person who buys, especially on a regular basis; 2) a person with whom one must deal. The U.S. GAO defines customer as groups or individuals who have a business relationship with the organization–those who receive and use or are directly affected by the products and services of the organization. Customers include direct recipients of products and services, internal customers who produce services and products for final recipients, and other organizations and entities that interact with an organization to produce products and services
Are patients the only customers of the practice? No, the dentists and staff are also customers of the practice. So are specialists, such as oral surgeons and so forth. I’m sure that your practice has many customers other than patients. A practice will have a number of customer types such as types of patients, types of staff (less position than temperament/motivation), types of specialists, and so forth.
What kind of customers do you want?
- Rich and famous?
- Elderly?
- Pediatric?
- Families?
- Industrial?
- Cosmetic?
- Restorative?
- Pleasant and competent coworkers?
- Entrepreneurial/self-motivated or “employee”?
As you have already noticed, we can’t begin to talk about customer satisfaction until we know who are customers are. Until we understand who the customers are by type, we cannot design processes to satisfy them. Another way to look at this is until we understand what kind of customers we want, we can’t design processes to attract and satisfy them.