Achieving Service Excellence: Strategies for Healthcare

On any particular day, a patient can deem your organization and its services a disappointment. One unfortunate incident can cost you the goodwill of that patient and anyone that patient knows.

Keep your customers from defecting to competing providers. Improve your customer service with the tools and techniques detailed in Achieving Service Excellence: Strategies for Healthcare. Combining real-world examples with the most significant research on service management, this valuable guide presents the best available information on providing first-rate service.

Find out how to:
Assess your organization to determine your core competencies
Empower patients and families to "coproduce" their own healthcare experience
Recruit and hire people who "love to serve"
Predict and plan the kinds of healthcare experiences customers will find satisfying
Train, motivate, and inspire employees to provide outstanding service
Manage the inevitable wait times for healthcare service
Prevent service failures and problems
Create and encourage a customer-focused culture
Develop action plans to implement customer service initiatives Use information technology to add quality and value to the healthcare experience

Myron D. Fottler, Ph.D., is director of Programs in Health Services Administration in the College of Health and Public Affairs at the University of Central Florida in Orlando where he teaches courses in healthcare human resources management, strategic management, and dissertation research. He was previously professor and director of the Ph.D. Program in Administration-Health Services with a joint appointment in both the School of Health Related Professions and the School of Business at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He completed his MBA at Boston University and his Ph.D. in business at Columbia University. He has won awards from the American College of Healthcare Executives, American Association of Medical Administrators, and the Healthcare Management Division of the Academy of Management for his research.

Robert C. Ford, Ph.D., is currently the associate dean for Graduate and External Programs and professor of management at the University of Central Florida's (UCF) College of Business Administration. He joined UCF in 1993 as chair of the Department of Hospitality Management after serving on the faculty of the University of North Florida and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has authored or coauthored over 100 articles, books, and presentations on organizational issues, human resources management, and services management especially as it relates to healthcare and hospitality applications. He won the 2001 Sodexho Marriott Health Care Division Faculty Publication of the Year for a coauthored article with Myron Fottler.

Cherrill P. Heaton, Ph.D., is a professor of organizational communications at the University of North Florida. In addition to teaching organizational and business communications in the MBA and M.Acc. programs, he has taught over 100 short courses for business and industry in these areas. He is the editor of Management by Objectives in Higher Education; coauthor of Essentials of Modern Investments; and coauthor of several articles and three books-Principles of Management: A Decision Making Approach, Organization Theory: An Integrative Approach, and Managing the Guest Experience in Hospitality. He is managing editor of The Academy of Management Executive.