Service With A Smile
July 18, 2011
Veterinary practices realize they can no longer thrive by medicine alone and are increasingly searching for ways to maximize the client service experience.
Practices continue to look for ways to improve communication skills, increase awareness, and better understand client relations. On a daily basis practice teams deal with the successes of positive client experiences as well as the stresses of challenging client experiences. Practice teams consistently strive to effectively communicate using the right words and body language. Sometimes the most powerful gesture for any and all occasions can be found in the kindness of a smile.
Cheshire Cat Versus Eeyore
Client service experts preach the importance of providing service with a smile. However, recent studies have questioned the impact a smile has on the client’s experience. One such study, “Service with a Smile and Encounter Satisfaction: Emotional Contagion and Appraisal Mechanisms” recommends that we take a second look at the relationship between client service and smiling. According to the study, client satisfaction is not so much about the frequency of a smile, rather the intensity and authenticity of a smile.
Although studies recommend taking a closer look at the characteristics of a smile, there is still agreement that smiles are critical to client satisfaction, “In the service context, a maximal smiling employee is more likely to be perceived as providing desired service behaviors than a minimal smile, which is better than no smile” (Barger, Grandey). In other words, clients don’t want or expect an omnipresent Cheshire Cat grin, but they also don’t want an Eeyore, gloom and doom presence.
Impact On The Practice
Today, clients have several options concerning where they choose to receive veterinary services. Increasingly practices are experiencing the impact of fragmentation of services (Bayer). Clients may go to one practice for the “important stuff”, another practice for vaccinations, yet another facility for grooming, and shop the Internet for medication. Overall, where ever they go, clients prefer a positive and personal experience over a robotic transaction. This is a conversation I had recently with a practice owner:
Today, clients have several options concerning where they choose to receive veterinary services. Increasingly practices are experiencing the impact of fragmentation of services (Bayer). Clients may go to one practice for the “important stuff”, another practice for vaccinations, yet another facility for grooming, and shop the Internet for medication. Overall, where ever they go, clients prefer a positive and personal experience over a robotic transaction. This is a conversation I had recently with a practice owner:
Practice Owner: “I will take a happy, smiling staff over an unhappy, cranky staff any day. There was a time when I had a talented technician, but she was such a downer. I didn’t want to come to work, the other employees were afraid of her and who knows how many clients she ran off.”
Question: “How did you resolve the issue?”
Practice Owner: “I faced the ugly truth that this skilled employee was not the star I always thought her to be. I worked with my manager on a communication plan to see if we could get this employee going in a better direction, but she was not interested in adjusting her behavior in any way. She believed that everyone else was the problem. She countered that nowhere in the job description did it say she had to be nice. Now, we hire for the right attitude and I once again enjoy coming to work and seeing my employees with their smiling faces.”
Steps To Promote A Positive Vibe
Critical steps to help promote practice positivity and increase smiles:
1. Hire
Assessing the hiring process is the first place to start to ensure you have the right team members onboard. Look for positive candidates who match the positive culture. Hiring for attitude is key.
2. Prepare
So, you’ve hired for attitude and the new hire shines with positivity, but it’s one month out and she appears to constantly demonstrate a “deer in the headlights” stare. Prepare by training provides the necessary tools to enhance team member confidence, competence, and performance.
3. Feedback
Capturing client feedback is necessary in order to keep a finger on the pulse of perceived practice performance. Feedback is easy to obtain and it provides insight into areas to improve, grow, and celebrate.
4. Review
Receiving feedback is one thing, reviewing and “making a difference” is another. We all want to receive stellar results, but having the courage to receive and process all sorts of feedback can be a humbling experience. Reviewing feedback helps identify necessary action.
5. Action
Many benefits are realized by hiring right, preparing by training, capturing feedback and reviewing. The next critical step is taking action. If the feedback consistently indicates a negative client experience because of one Eeyore team member, it’s important to address it. Taking action is necessary in order to maximize the value and bond of the client experience.
Keep On Smiling
A day in the life of a practice includes a very mixed bag of emotions as teams deal with the joys of life and grief associated with loss. At times, team members may experience a loss for the right words to use or may be knee deep with clients in the lobby; those are the best times for a kind smile from the heart. Louis Armstrong says it best:
When you're smilin', keep on smilin'
The whole world smiles with you
And when you're laughin', keep on laughin'
The sun comes shinin' through
References
Barger, P. B., Grandey, A. A., “Service with a Smile and Encounter Satisfaction: Emotional Contagion and Appraisal Mechanisms” (2006).
Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study, Bayer Healthcare LLC, Animal Health Division (2010).
Shay, L., Fisher, M., and Goodwin, J., “When You're Smiling" (1928).
