By Joe Paduda
Monday, March 8, 2021 | 23 | 0 | min read
In the last few years I have been involved in several engagements with comp-payers of employees where their “suppliers” simply did not perform.
Joe Paduda
Responsiveness was poor. Solving problems was more the customer’s fault than taking responsibility. “Proactive” was a word used in stewardship reports that was completely absent from the actual account service.
Platitudes. Excuses.
Sure, every service unit has problems. I dropped the ball myself more than once. And there is no question that a customer’s performance can be part of the problem and / or expectations can be unrealistic.
I don’t see that. Rather, consistently poor performance seems fine for some service provider executives. In my opinion there are two general problems.
First, some service companies focus on what is important to them, not the customer. Increase sales, increase prices, sell other services, withdraw commitments / turnaround times, and add fees for services that were previously part of the package – all of these seem to be more important than just keeping the customer happy .
I remember an on-site visit to a customer’s then salesperson where a senior executive proudly displayed a wall full of employee awards. The managing director was pleased with the many notes in which the performance of the employees was praised. I looked closely. Each referred to an employee who added services, billed more, and made revenue. No one referred to an enthusiastic customer, a satisfied patient, an employer with a problem solved.
“Success” means more seller money.
Second, executives – and their subordinates – don’t listen to customers. And if they do, just listen to the opportunity to sell more things. Executives don’t ask how the customer is doing, what they are focusing on, what problems the customer is facing, where the customer is going and what the provider can do better and how they can improve.
Many vendor execs fail to try to understand what makes the person they are working with successful, how they are measured, and what is important to them.
More recently, this may be due to the impact of COVID on damage volume and the smaller reduction in medical services resulting in fewer visits, fewer medical services, fewer bills, less need for occupancy reviews, case management, and everything else.
However, this happened long before COVID hit.
what does that mean to you?
Understand and solve your customers’ biggest problems and do so without adding to the workload.
Or fail.
Joseph Paduda is a co-owner of CompPharma, a consulting firm focused on improving pharmacy programs in employee compensation. This column is republished from his Managed Care Matters blog with his permission.
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