What People Say: Fielding and Responding to Customer Complaints

One of the toughest jobs in EMS is rarely mentioned along with intubating bloody airways or extricating people from upside-down cars on cold, rainy nights. You won't find guidelines for doing it properly in any EMS text, and you won't see the topic offered at educational conferences. But it's vital just the same. People in EMS agencies are doing it everywhere, right now. And anytime they bungle the job, they can expect awful consequences.

It's the skill and art of handling their customers' complaints.

None of us are perfect, especially considering the challenges we face every day. And if we're not perfect, then neither are the organizations we work for. So, complaints are inevitable--especially considering the sky-high expectations of our customers.

The Value of Feedback

Some EMS agencies pay professional consultants big money for advice on how to improve their systems. That's good, because it demonstrates their sense of accountability to the public. If you don't believe in that kind of accountability, you should expect to wake up some day immersed in a nightmare that's all too real.

But the most knowledgeable experts about your agency's service are not outsiders. They're the people who have sampled its end results first-hand and on the worst days of their lives. Their observations can tell you more about your mission, your recruitment and selection processes, your equipment, your training programs and your organization's heart than any other expert you'll ever find.

They're the people you serve.

Think about it. They're all around you. It's in their nature to watch and assess everything you do. They share their observations willingly and without charge, whether you ask for them or not. And if you're not willing to listen, they'll eventually find someone who is.

If you're like most of us, you don't get too excited about free advice. After all, as the saying goes, it's only worth what you pay for it. But considering that it's coming from your ultimate bosses, maybe you should listen. In fact, maybe you should do more than listen. Maybe you should solicit their feedback, routinely and systematically. Then listen.

It's essential for every organization that serves people to possess something called customer sense. Essentially, customer sense is anything that would make sense to a customer. Without a thorough understanding of its customers' needs, no service organization can last very long.

You don't have to belong to a big organization to track your customers' feedback, and you don't have to be a statistician. You only have to care about it. That matters more than anything, because you can't help communicating it to a customer in the way you answer your phone, return their messages and listen to what they have to say.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Did you roll your eyes when you read that line? Don't worry. This doesn't need to be science, and you won't need to spend a lot of precious resources. But no matter how your system is financed, a simple written customer survey is one of the best investments you can make.

Your survey can consist of fewer than 10 questions, and you can mail it out with your billing materials. It should be simple and it should be designed with plenty of input from your crews. Specifically, it should gather two kinds of feedback:

1) What you want to know, and

2) What your customers want to tell you.

Those can be two very different things; but they're equally important if you want to understand and improve the quality of your service.

Build the first batch of questions around the mission of your organization, but keep them specific. If your mission is to provide great customer service, that's too vague. Instead, ask your people to decide how customer service should be defined. Examples might include: the use of names, the use of pillows and blankets, prompt arrival, politeness, comfort during transport and cleanliness of the ambulance.