Month: January 2014

It’s new year and time for another brave new world for the NHS.

Never mind patients waking up with a hangover, Government reforms will make 2014 a challenging year for GPs and others running the new-look NHS as CCGs, CSUs, NHS 111 and all sorts of other acronyms get to grips with their new roles at the heart of what is still the world’s best healthcare system*.

With patient engagement and the input of friends and family increasingly important in helping shape the delivery of services around the country one of the biggest challenges for those in charge of the new system is listening to and communicating with their customers (aka patients).

Throw in the amount of NHS-related noise you get through social media and the challenges are significant.

For me, CCGs have to follow three clear and simple rules to keep their communications and engagement activities on track.

1)   Listening is as important as talking – communication is not a one-way thing – listening to and acting on patient feedback is essential

2)   Keep it simple stupid – don’t lapse in to dear old Donald Rumsfeld territory – no jargon please when talking with patients and the public

3)   Put customer service at the heart of what you do – as consumers we now expect the best ethical standards of the public sector combined with the best customer service standards of the private sector. Some parts of the UK public sector get that. Other’s don’t and it shows. Make sure you are on the right side of the fence.

*I’m no medic but name me another system you’d like to swap the NHS for that will improve healthcare outcomes and that the UK plc can afford. Answers on a postcard please to @dtwchris.

PS – 10 points if you can spot the key role that Commissioning Support Units play in the new look NHS on the Department of Health’s overview of the new-look system.

Struggling? I don’t blame you – they don’t even get a mention despite being key players in providing

Being based up here in the sunny north east we have thankfully missed the worst of the flooding and power failures this festive season, but friends and colleagues round the country have suffered – our sympathies are with them in cleaning up what must be a horrendous mess.

Picking up on the public and social media comment the most common complaint (as ever it seems) is all about the failure of companies to communicate with customers about what is happening and when it will be fixed.

Why is this always the case, and do the alleged poor standards of customer service really reflect the reality?

Christmas really presented the perfect storm (sorry). Staffing and other resources were depleted over the break, and the number, frequency and intensity of the storms was almost unprecedented, so I have great sympathy with the communications and customer service teams trying to piece things together with scant information and unhappy customers.

Getting the communications right on these occasions can really reap rewards, and technology has to be at the heart of the solution. Earlier in the year we lost water at home and our provider, Northumbrian Water, was outstanding in the way they communicated with customers on a Saturday morning about the issue for what was a fairly localised problem.

An alert on the front page of the website might be expected (but still pretty good for 8.45am on a Saturday) but to get two texts that morning telling me about the problem, when it would be fixed and how to find out more was a great example of pro-active customer service.

UK Power Networks decision to increase payouts for those affected over Christmas was similarly effective, but on a much bigger scale. Customers no doubt welcomed the extra cash, but what this announcement also did was put the company on the front foot with the national media and gave them an opportunity to hit the airwaves for a 24-hour period and talk about what they were doing to fix the problem, which they did well.

Weather happens and it’s getting worse, most of us get that and will accept it has impacts, but what we won’t accept in 2014 is a failure to communicate. The energy companies (and others) have much to think about moving forward.