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Private Duty Today
Welcome to Private Duty Today,
the bi-weekly electronic newsletter for Private Duty Home Care Leaders
from Leading Home Care ...a Tweed Jeffries company. In this issue, we
bring you ideas, information, and insights to help you grow your Private
Duty Home Care business.
Private Duty Today is a permission-based
newsletter. It is only sent to our recent customers and those individuals
who have requested it, or who have given permission for their address to
be included on our list of subscribers.
I'm Jason Tweed, Director of Business Development for
Leading Home Care, and Editor of Private
Duty Today.
Private Duty Today is published every
other Wednesday, and currently goes to over 6000 subscribers.
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A local takeout restaurant makes a grilled Buffalo chicken
sandwich. It's a grilled chicken breast on an oversized homemade
seeded bun baked with blue cheese and hot sauce. I had one for
dinner, and it was delicious.
Unfortunately, it may be the last one I ever get to eat. You see,
while Giorgio's makes awesome salads, pizza, and sandwiches their
customer service is horrible. Considering it's takeout, our
expectations were low, and they still failed to meet them on repeated
occasions.
You see, I ordered sandwiches for delivery an hour ago. My wife
had to get gas, so she stopped by the restaurant and they hadn't even
made them yet. A week earlier, they lost our order altogether.
She stood around while my sandwich baked in the pizza oven, and
listened to the owner cussing and swearing on a personal telephone
call. He acted as if his customers were a major interruption.
I'm going to miss those sandwiches.
Regardless of the quality of your product, customer service, or lack
thereof, can make or break your business.
I've been a user of home care services for 21 years now and I've never
left an agency because of the quality of a caregiver. I've had
some poor quality caregivers, but I recognize that not all personal
care attendants are created equal, and typically I don't hold that
against the company.
I have, however, left several companies because of poor customer
service provided by office staff and schedulers. Additionally, I
have stayed with many agencies because of excellent customer service,
even when they were having difficulty staffing my case.
The key to providing excellent customer service is exceeding your
customers' expectations. To do this you must first identify
exactly what your customer expects, then make a strong effort to exceed
that expectation.
Here are some things you can do that will help you exceed expectation:
- Smile when speaking on
the phone. Smiling changes the quality of your voice, and your
customers can hear it.
- Listen for clues to the
customer's real needs. Sometimes all they want is assurance
that you are working on their issue.
- Don't make excuses.
If you make a mistake, apologize and rectify it.
- Repeat the question or
problem back to the customer. This demonstrates your
understanding, and helps eliminate confusion.
- Don't get emotional, no
matter how the customer reacts. You're a professional.
- Know when to speak, and
when to listen. Often your customers will feel better just knowing
they are heard.
- Ask the customer how they
think you can help, particularly in a tricky situation.
- Don't fall back on
"standard operating procedure", if your customer has a
problem they don't want to think of this situation as normal.
- Focus first on feelings,
then on solutions. Allow your customer to express themselves
fully, before creating a solution. It will create the
appearances of the solution came as a result of their feelings.
- After the problem is
solved, follow-up with the customer. Often you can turn an
unsatisfied customer into an enthusiastic customer by taking this
extra step.
- Whatever you say you will
do, do it. Do it faster than you promised. Do it better than you
promised. Always promise less than you can deliver.
Whether you're selling
home care services or chicken sandwiches, your business is only as good
as your customer service.
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Two
Conferences for Private Duty Owners this Fall
The National Private Duty Insider
Business Builders Conference & Expo
Nov. 17-19 -- Omni Resort Orlando at ChampionsGate,
Orlando, Florida
Discover how to grow referral sources and tap into the
resources you need to ride the explosive growth of the private duty
sector to success.
2008
Home Care Sales Professional
Sept. 17-19 -- The
Westin Riverwalk, San Antonio, Texas
Don't miss this
exciting opportunity to participate in one-on-one coaching to hone your
selling skills.
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