Most of you know I use private duty home care on a daily basis. I'm sitting in my office at 7:15 a.m. writing this week's newsletter. Two things deserve credit for me being at my desk this early, home care and caffeine! (In that order.)
I try to discuss my personal home care experiences only when they are relevant and important to my readers. I understand that Private Duty Today isn't my personal soap box; however, occasionally something happens in my personal dealings with aides and agencies that would be valuable lessons for business owners.
Thursday afternoon of last week my telephone rang; it was the billing/payroll person in my home care agency office. Before I continue, enjoying a glass of WHINE there are two things you should know.
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Shirley, the woman whom this is about, has been with her agency longer than I have, is dedicated, pays attention to the details, and is very efficient. She is a valuable asset to her organization.
- I'm not writing anything here that I haven't already mentioned to Shirley.
Back to the story... Thursday afternoon my home telephone rings (I rarely answer it during the day) and the caller ID showed the name of my agency. It was Shirley.
"Jason, your timesheets didn't arrive."
A Little Background...
Every Monday morning I fax timesheets to Shirley. Her company is a large agency that serves a huge geographic segment of Pennsylvania. I appreciate their efficiency operating their central billing and payroll out of one office. Albeit, that office is over 100 miles away. Monday morning I sign the final timesheets, fax a copy to the office, and mail the originals.
The reason I fax our timesheets is that rural mail delivery is only successful about 90% of the time delivering our timesheets before the deadline. I don't know about you, but if my paycheck was delayed about 10% of the time, it would cause me problems. After the first experience that nearly resulted in a delayed paycheck for my caregivers we developed a new process.
Back to the story... again
"Jason, your timesheets didn't arrive." I'm not sure if Shirley said it twice, or if it just bounced around inside my head for a moment.
"I didn't receive a fax on Monday, but you're reliable, so I figured they'd arrive in the mail this week. No timesheets have arrived."
"Okay" I said, insightfully.
"If you want me to process payroll I need them by four o'clock today." I looked at the clock; it was 3:57 p.m.
"I'll get on it." Then I thanked her, and hung up.
My assistant had placed the timesheet copies just the day before into my filing cabinet that I affectionately call "The Black Hole". She fetched them, and faxed them.
A few minutes later Shirley called back to assure me that she had received my paperwork and that checks for my two caregivers would go out on time.
The entire episode took only 10 to 15 minutes. Unfortunately, I'd been working on a project that taxes my creativity, and by the time my brain returned to its previous position, half an hour had passed.
Satisfied, but not Enthusiastic, Customer
In April I will have been in my home for three years. Shirley has been doing my billing and payroll since I moved here. During that period of time Shirley has irritated me exactly 4 times. You may be saying to yourself, "that's a great track record". Here's the problem, she has never given me an exceptional customer experience. Out of about 150 weeks of service, her record would be 0 wins, 4 losses, and 146 ties.
She has satisfied me a huge majority of the time by delivering the exact service I expected, nothing more, nothing less. However, on four occasions including last Thursday she drained the bank account a little bit.
Okay, I admit, I'm a tough customer. However, the first three of these were far more serious. Each of them required me to change something about my weekly habits to prevent the issue from coming up again.
Emergency scheduling, Medicaid waiver billing, payroll and a few other services are provided by my agency. For these services I depend on private duty home care firms and I expect them to perform well. Unfortunately, these issues too often are not handled very well. I literally have to provide a backup system when a home care company isn't doing the job they are paid to do.
Your Job Description
Your private duty home care agency's job, if you ask the CEO, is to provide care to seniors and people with disabilities who need help with activities of daily living. I think that's crap!
Your caregivers provide the care. Your aides help us with our ADLs.
Here's your job description.
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Recruit a caregiver for me.
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Select good people to be my caregivers, and screen them extensively.
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Match the caregiver with my physical needs, my personality, my geography, and the caregiver's ability.
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Make sure they aren't allergic to cats or kids before you send them to my home.
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Recruit another caregiver for me to act as a backup. Everyone gets sick occasionally.
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Prevent my caregiver from ever getting sick.
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Answer the phone when I call. If it's during business hours, great; if it's not, answer it anyhow. I rarely have problems during business hours.
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Be responsible for your own paycheck. Make sure my funding sources pay you for work performed. Bill my co-pays regularly and on a timely basis.
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Payroll for my caregivers.
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Create standard operating procedures, and then be willing to vary them.
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Treat me with respect.
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Make sure you remain profitable, even when margins are thin.
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Use technology. Keep your office staff busy, extremely busy. I'm paying them to work hard.
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When a problem does arise, keep me informed.
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When a problem does arise, solve it.
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Send me a card on my birthday, my realtor and my insurance agent do. I only talk to them every few years.
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Finally, do the work you say you will do.
