Customer Training for Medical Students
As far as I know, I am the only medical school dean that is a Publix retiree. I started working there shortly after I turned 14 and I worked there for over 5 years (which qualified me for “retirement”, including Publix stock after I quit). It was one of the most transformative periods of my life. I learned so much about life, work ethics, professionalism, and customer service. My first boss and mentor, Dave Freeborn, the now retired Publix Store Manager was probably my first mentor who wasn’t a family member and taught me a lot about excellent customer service that has served me well over the years.
I am a big believer that healthcare is a service industry and that a physician-patient relationship is very much a customer service relationship - I know that is a controversial thought. Some might argue that a patient-physician relationship is not a customer service relationship and that it is dangerous to think that it is. That belief is based on the false assumption that, “the customer is always right” or “do whatever it takes to make the customer happy” - these are both fallacies and can have disastrous endings in both healthcare and non-healthcare environments. Some of the folks who argue against the customer service aspects of healthcare have outdated visions of a paternalistic relationship in the patient-physician relationship when you ask them to describe what they think the relationship should look like.
One of OCOM’s friends (and mine) is Jeff Noel. Jeff is a retired Disney executive who trained countless folks on the Disney approach to customer service. He has a great TedX video on why going the extra mile is a flawed concept (spoiler - he recommends just going for slightly exceeding expectations on every customer). Jeff now spends his time consulting for organizations, such as hospitals to train employees on what he learned through Disney regarding customer service and how this could be applied to other sectors, including healthcare. It is an intriguing concept that customer service in the healthcare sector could be as excellent as it is at a Disney park.
Indeed, we are making some positive innovations in regard to the patient-physician relationship. For instance, we have learned that if a physician sits down with the patient during the encounter, it is perceived more positively by the patient. Nonverbal communication by the physician can also have a significant impact on patient care, including things such as the physicians smiling appropriately with patients. The evidence is leading us to the conclusion that excellent customer service skills, such as positive and transparent and active two-way communication, positive attitude, knowledge of resources, friendliness/affability, prompt attention, patience, exceeding expectations, empathy, respect, problem solving, adaptability, time management, and team work. I would also argue that most medical school faculty would agree that what are regarded as excellent customer service skills are those that they would want to see in their graduating physicians.
Having customer service training also helped me to be an excellent medical student and resident physician and I would encourage that mind set for our current generation of trainees. I am convinced that by considering faculty and preceptors as my customers helped me get the best training that I could and also ensured a very positive experience for me as well as creating lifelong bonds to those who trained me. Of course, the current generation of trainees, Generation Z comes from a generation who commonly are friends with their parents, and therefore can take a very familiar stance with faculty. Therefore, I would strongly encourage trainees to approach the relationship with medical school and residency faculty with more of a customer service relationship, with the faculty member being their customer. I think that approach would go far in terms of advancing a healthy and respectful learning environment.
I am excited for the current generation of physicians. I very much think that they might go down in history as the greatest generation of physicians ever. I am inspired by their desire to serve and I think all of us as patients will be well served by the potential excellent patient-physician relationships that we will see.
