In order to understand whether client needs are being met, the laboratory will need to employ tools for gaining information. The laboratory needs to actively seek information from customers, rather than just waiting for customers to contact the laboratory with a complaint.
Important information on customer satisfaction may be obtained using:
- Complaint monitoring
- quality indicators
- Internal audit
- Management review
- Satisfaction surveys
- Interviews and focus groups.
The monitoring of customer service and customer satisfaction is part of the continual improvement performed by the laboratory.
When the laboratory is contacted about a problem, this can provide important and helpful information. All such complaints should be thoroughly investigated, and remedial and corrective action taken. However, remember that received complaints may reflect only the “tip of the iceberg”, because many people do not complain. The laboratory cannot use received complaints as the only means of assessing customer satisfaction.
Quality indicators are an objective measure of laboratory practices. Indicators can be developed that look at complaints, timeliness, patient refusals, and lost or delayed laboratory reports as examples. When these indicators are being monitored, information about customer needs and satisfaction will be acquired.
When the laboratory conducts internal audits, some aspects of laboratory practice that affect patient satisfaction can be examined. Examples might include turnaround times—always of great concern to physicians or health care providers.
All findings from these investigations should be very carefully reviewed by management and followed up with appropriate action
Customer satisfaction surveys
In order to actively seek information about how clients view the laboratory’s service, it will be necessary to conduct surveys (paper-based or electronic) or to use interviews and focus groups. In this way the laboratory can address specific questions to areas of concern, and can look at areas not commonly covered by complaints or internal processes.
ISO standards put a heavy emphasis on the importance of customer satisfaction; customer surveys are required in ISO 9001 standards for quality management systems. Any laboratory that implements a quality management system, whether accredited or not, needs to use some method for surveying clients in order to understand whether needs are being met.
To be successful, surveys should be carefully planned and organized. Deciding which clients to ask to participate in a survey is important. Surveying health care practitioners is often easier than surveying patients. Laboratory staff can also be asked to participate in surveys and may offer good suggestions for streamlining operations to improve customer service.
Any survey questionnaire should be pretested for clarity. When developing material, avoid leading and biased questions. Be sure to analyze the results in a timely manner and, when possible, provide some feedback to the group that has been surveyed.
If the survey is to be conducted using interviews, the following tips can be helpful:
• write out all questions in advance, so that everyone is asked the same questions.
• after asking some specific questions about their satisfaction with the laboratory, ask an open-ended question that allows customers to provide honest feedback. For example, ask how the laboratory could improve its service.
Employing focus groups can be a very useful technique for gathering information on customer satisfaction. The process of a group discussion will often elicit comments and ideas from all the participants that might not otherwise surface.
When conducting focus group discussions, consider the following:
- Assemble small groups of 8–10 people
- Include people with diverse backgrounds and laboratory needs
- Start by asking questions that build trust
- Develop a focus group guide for consistency between groups
- Ask open-ended questions—not “yes or no” questions.
Summarize verbal responses in a written report that can be used by the laboratory as a tool to improve customer service.
When measuring customer satisfaction, whether by survey, indicators or audits, much will be learned when the method is successful. This information and the insights on customer service that it provides can be used to help the laboratory identify opportunities for improvement (OFI). The OFI will lead to preventive and corrective actions.