One of the most forgotten forms of customer service begins under your roof among your team members. I’ve always believed that the way employees treat each other is a direct reflection of how they will treat residents and family members. As I travel throughout skilled nursing and assisted living communities, I keep an open eye to the behaviors and actions between employees. If they are bickering and openly not getting along in front of me, I often wonder what kind of treatment the residents receive. What does it take to develop and sustain good internal customer service?
Start with Values
Leaders in senior care need to take a hard look at their core values and honestly evaluate whether or not they are the cornerstones of internal customer service. A few short years ago, I had the opportunity to rebrand a hospice company and rewrote its core values and standards of service.
Compassion
Perhaps the greatest value to uphold within a care community is compassion, which will naturally influence other important values. When employees have compassion for one another, they will naturally exhibit more compassionate behaviors for those they care for. Compassion means being empathetic to one another’s needs and circumstances. It involves striving to understand one another. Being compassionate also involves the skill of active listening.
Competence
Great internal customer service can not be maintained without skilled and talented employees. Competence requires embracing and encouraging continual improvement through education and training. Employees who nudge each other to be better each day deliver better internal customer service.
Commitment
Employees must make a commitment to deliver only the finest, highest quality customer service to each other and their residents. They must be deeply dedicated to service that is driven by high ethical standards. Employees must trust each other before residents or their families do. Trust and commitment are inseparable.
Community
Employees form the culture of any physical space they occupy. They create and sustain a community in which they work and their residents call home. A community cannot thrive without internal customer service driven by genuine relationships, clear communication, common goals, and purpose.
Final Thoughts on Internal Customer Service in Senior Care
Many senior care communities boast about their great customer service. And, while it may be true, I often wonder about the reality of the things that go on among their staff. Good customer service to residents starts with good service to one another, and these are driven by core values including compassion, competence, commitment, and community.
(NOTE: Interested in CEUs for Nursing Home Administrators? Checkout my Nursing Home Administrator CEUs on CEU Academy and try a FREE CEU today!)
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