Eric Hanselman is a corporate systems engineering manager at Bay Networks, based in Billerica, Massachusetts.
Quality Care is grappling with a problem faced by many service-based businesses: How can a company adapt technology to help manage the flow of information while still presenting a personal face to the customer? It’s never an easy task.
Right now, Moulter, Rooney, and Penstone seem to be focused on the wrong issues. The very idea of the new system has dazzled them; they’ve seen how their competitors are handling the technology; and they’re proceeding as though this is an all-or-nothing decision. It isn’t.
Moulter, Rooney, and Penstone think this is an all-or-nothing decision. It isn’t.
Unfortunately, too many managers in similar situations make the same mistake: They look at a working system and try to accommodate it rather than objectively assessing their own requirements. Moulter, Rooney, and Penstone need to examine their own goals and their customers’ desires and then begin to plan a system for Quality Care. The company seems to have a unique strength in its rapport with customers. Its managers need to think about how that strength can be leveraged to help both the company and the customer.
First, they should consider the benefits and disadvantages of such a system for Quality Care’s internal operations. It’s clear that an automated system could take some of the drudgery out of the receptionists’ jobs. But does Moulter really know if the current process is problematic? Has that process contributed to Quality Care’s increasing employee turnover? Moulter should apply the same tools he uses to measure customer satisfaction to internal issues. He should also give careful consideration to a point Rooney made: If the customers enter data, who is going to check the information that is entered? That sort of potential for error must be addressed early on.
Then they need to reevaluate the image factor. They seem to be concerned that the company will appear outdated if it doesn’t install the new system. The automated reception service would certainly have enough IT glitz to make any technophiles among the customers or employees drool. But how valid is the concern about appearances? So far, the customer surveys have not revealed a desire for a high-tech image. And Penstone’s attempt to invalidate the survey data has an unfortunate “I know best” ring to it.
It seems reasonable to assume that Moulter, Rooney, and Penstone will decide to proceed with some type of automated system. At that point, they must turn to the specifics of implementation. How can Quality Care take advantage of the value that the technology can add without losing the customer satisfaction levels that the current system generates? Rooney expressed concern about having two ways to handle customers, but realistically, a gradual change is the best option. By gradually phasing in the new system, both the employees and the customers will have time to get used to it, and the company will be in a better position to work out any problems along the way.
Quality Care might want to begin the transition by issuing customers a member identification card when they visit the office. (It sounds as though the company does not yet have such a system in place.) At first, the customers will not even need to know how to use the cards; Quality Care can begin by training the receptionists on a pilot system, and the patients can observe the receptionists “reading” the cards and using them to update patients’ records.
Quality Care’s IT group will be able to test the system, using the reception staff as trained operators in real time. It takes a good deal of effort to change the way a company deals with information; the more time the company has to observe and refine the process before rolling it out across the board, the better. In this case, a final system for customers’ use would, most likely, be composed of a series of choices for answers to common questions. Having the reception staff act as intermediaries—asking customers the questions that will later be asked by the system—will let the company more accurately review the appropriateness of the questions. This is also an opportunity for Moulter to continue to pursue his passion for surveying opinions. Both customers and staff need to be polled about the system as it is developed.
Such an approach will also keep the initial costs down. At first, Quality Care’s capital outlay will go only toward inexpensive card readers. The company can buy computer systems that are tough enough for customers to use when the system is more fully defined. The risks will be lowered as well. The reception staff will be able to revert to the old system in the event of any problems. The staff can also handle any anomalies that might arise.
To make the system work, it is important to offer clear value to the customer. At the outset, all customers should be presumed not to have a card. But as customers begin to return with c