How do you deal with unhappy patients who had a bad experience at your pharmacy?
If you don’t have a plan in place, you’re likely not doing everything you can to provide the best customer service possible and avoid losing future business.
Unhappy patients can do major damage to your business. Not only will they not return to your pharmacy, they may also write negative reviews or spread the word about their bad experience, which can hurt your reputation among current and potential patients.
Here are six ways to help your pharmacy recover when a patient has a bad experience.
1. Address the issue quickly
A patient’s complaint is always time sensitive, regardless of whether he confronts you immediately or waits until later to contact your pharmacy via phone or by other means of communication.
It’s important to address a patient’s complaint as quickly as possible, so you can begin to diffuse the situation and prevent upsetting him further.
When you work to promptly resolve an issue, patients will feel like you care about their business, and will be less likely to damage your reputation by leaving negative reviews or comments on social media and review sites.
In addition, failing to address a patient’s complaint as soon as possible will likely result in losing his business.
2. Identify the root of the complaint
In order to come up with an effective solution, you have to know exactly what the problem is and where it stems from.
For example, did an employee provide poor customer service to the patient? Or, was the patient overcharged for an item?
By understanding the root of the problem, you can address it in a manner specific to the situation as opposed to a generic response that the patient may find insincere and unhelpful.
3. Take responsibility
Even though your pharmacy may not always be at fault, it’s important to take responsibility for the situation.
If you blame the patient, you’ll probably lose any chance of resolving the situation and getting him to return.
Identify where your pharmacy may have been part of the problem, and ensure the patient understands that you do take responsibility.
4. Sincerely apologize
It’s imperative that you offer the patient an apology when you address his complaint, and that your apology is sincere and professional.
If you fail to come across as genuine and show the patient you care, it will likely increase his animosity toward your pharmacy and result in lost business and a potential negative review.
5. Offer a resolution
Along with a heartfelt apology, you need to offer patients a valuable, tangible resolution in order to recover from a bad patient experience.
For example, consider offering a discount, refund or complimentary over-the-counter (OTC) product or patient care service.
It’s beneficial to come up with a system or policy for offering resolutions to patients based on different types of bad experiences, so that you can handle the situation as soon as it arises and offer an immediate resolution.
6. Empower employees to find resolutions
When employees are unsure of how to resolve an issue, patients will often feel the need to go up the chain of command, which can take more time and upset them further.
Train your employees on how to provide excellent customer service to help reduce the amount of patient complaints, and make the complaints you do receive easier to resolve.
If your employees know how to address complaints and offer resolutions, it may prevent the issue from escalating, and increase your chances of turning the patient’s negative experience into a positive one.
To avoid dealing with unhappy patients, check out this guide to improving your pharmacy’s customer service.
