Clintcast

While every team and team member at the facility are key, critical personnel in the whole experience a customer/patient, the nursing team specifically tends to be the group most in the position of the ‘home team’ which is the closest, most centric player around the customer. Unfortunately, there are often turf wars between this home team and the other related ‘away’ teams (dietary, housekeeping, maintenance, etc) responsible for the ‘whole customer experience’. These are needless, especially when the entire facility understands that ALL the various groups are a combined team which share the success or failure of providing customer service excellence as a whole. Here are some thoughts to consider regarding your ‘home team’!

We are all familiar with those folks that Clint often refers to as trolls. Those are the ones that always carry a dark cloud of pessimism and negativity about them and often work to drive chaos and breakdown within an organization by raining on other’s days as well, or better still, turning others into trolls. How can we effectively deal with these sorts of folks? It starts with a P=S policy (problems = solutions). By effectively engaging them in a solution-oriented process, they learn they must be choose to be a part of the solution or choose to not be part of the team/organization. Here are some thoughts to consider!

Respect starts with self-respect. You need to be self-confident in your own position, skills, opinions, etc to accord yourself value in the organization. No one is ‘justa’ this or ‘only’ a that, we are all team members with a critical role in the success of the organization. As such, not only do you need to value your service, but you need to value the services of the others around you as well, as they are equally important to the team’s success. Listen in as Clint helps us realize the vital roles we all play in healthcare.

Today's healthcare customers have an ever-increasing detailed grading scale regarding their healthcare processes (or those of their family members) and regardless of how clinically excellent the service received may be, it all comes down to the customer experience that ultimately drives the outcomes. As such, it is critical that we be able to deliver on the clinical service (this should be a given if we truly deliver what we say we deliver) AS WELL AS the customer service components of our relationships with our customers. Here are some thing to think about and discuss!

As we truly get into the thick of the holiday season, Clint takes a moment to comment how he is really seeing a preponderance of the giving spirit this year as he travels the country, especially given the difficult economic conditions in place. As a profession totally geared to helping people anyway as its very basis, it goes without saying that healthcare professionals nationwide can be leaders in the spirit of giving, year round - but it truly COOL to see so many taking it upon themselves to go the extra miles to make things extra special. Take a moment in the coming days to share your experiences with the other Care Crowd members on the website!

The best way to have quality employees working for your organization... don’t lose the great ones you already have! Next best strategy... have a great team-based recruitment process in place to attract new staff that fits in well with the organization. How do you know what sort of person this will be? Try looking at the great ones you already have! What traits do they have? What local community aspects might appeal to prospective employees? What innovative aspects are unique to your organization that would be attractive? This process is highly keyed to using the great team you already have in place- listen in for some keys to consider!

Our buttons can be pushed in both positive and negative ways. When the positive ones happen, we usually absorb the good vibes the come naturally with the button pushing. What happens when negative buttons are triggered though - are you aware of how you react? The good news is that even though we all have our ‘hot buttons’ that we don’t enjoy being pushed, we do however have an option regarding how we behave when it happens, and better yet, can even address situations to reduce or even eliminate potential future pushing in these areas. Push that ‘listen’ button for some ideas on how to deal with this!

It is easy to recognize that bad news tends to spread very rapidly, most often because it has been spun with the intent to do exactly that and to get someone some attention in the process. The good side to this is that good news can also be driven in a manner as to spread quickly and to create positive effects in its wake. Learning how to foster this skill can really help an organization to not only improve morale, but also to expedite good news like positive recognition and team achievements throughout the facility quickly. Pick up some ideas today!

Doing the right thing at the right time for the right person in the right place is a constant balancing act and it is the basis of our daily striving for customer excellence. It is normal throughout the week to have some days that seem more "slammed" than others as we try to maintain this balance. When in this position, one aspect we need to be aware of that sometimes can become a crutch is what Clint calls “the hand” - that gesture often given by wait-staff letting the customer know (only through body-language) that they will address their needs in a moment. Learn how to make sure we organize our time well so we can always be with the customer 100% when the time is right.

It is the founding cornerstone of every organization... the mission statement. It outlines what the organization is all about and needs to be constantly and cheerfully pursued by every member of that organization. One of the measures of success in regards to advancing this mission is the process of beating the budget with improved revenue. Not only does this show that you can execute the mission throughout the year with excellence, but it also enables the ability to take it even further, or at the very least, weather difficult times more easily rather than potentially having to sacrifice on mission pursuit while mired in survival mode. How are you advancing your mission?