TITLE:
Strategies Hospital Manager Use to Improve Customer Services
AUTHORS:
Delores J. Leonard, Charles Needham
KEYWORDS:
Affordable Healthcare Act, Company Culture, Competitive Advantage, Customer Experience, Customer Oriented Approach, Customer Service, External Customer, Front Line Employees, Internal Customer
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.8 No.2,
March
23,
2020
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to explore strategies for hospital managers
to improve customer services. The target population consisted of five hospital
managers who implement customer services strategies within hospitals. The
conceptual framework for the study was the expectation-confirmation theory.
Using methodological triangulation, the data derived from included
semistructured interviews, hospital policy and procedure documents, and
qualitative data from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and
Systems (HCAHPS) Hospital Compare website. The three major themes were to
improve interpersonal communication, address issues in the hospital
environment, and provide employee training. The findings reveal that exploring
employee training relates to the conceptual framework of the expectation-confirmation theory. The
participants described multiple attempts to alter operations within the
hospital based on customer expectations for satisfaction and to confirm
customer satisfaction for the hospital system. The expectation confirmation
theory by Joo, Park, and Shin (2017) [1] was the framework of this study. Hospital managers performed actions for
example, hiring the right people, using customer feedback for improvement, and
using the HCAHPS qualitative data to create strategies that would meet customer
expectations for satisfaction and loyalty.