The Ownership of Accounting

This is a kick butt story of customer experience. Here goes:

Right before New Year’s, our front yard resembled alligator habitat. Not that there were gators in the yard, just that the grass was soaked and marshy. After we determined it was an irrigation system leak, I called a landscaping company for help.

The phone was answered by someone in accounting. Yes, accounting. I thought this was going to give me the run around; she would take my name and number, someone from another department would call me back, I’d probably miss the call, we’d play phone tag, blah blah blah.

As it turned out, she (the accounting pro) called me back just a few minutes later with options for scheduling a maintenance pro to come out. It’s on the schedule and I didn’t have to get passed around to half a dozen different departments and employees.

In the world of patient experience and healthcare pro engagement, there is this concept of ownership. Many facilities have a policy that if a complaint is made to an employee, that employee immediately owns the issue. That is, that employee either helps OR finds someone who can help. Either way, that employee walks through the issue with the person making the complaint, always being sure the issue is being properly addressed. Again, the hospital employee owns that complaint.

Apparently, it’s not so different with this landscaping company. These types of best practices are going to be what continue to define excellent patient experiences in the very best of facilities.