O CC U PAT I O N A L M E D I C I N E Customer (and Patient) Service is Key in Occupational Health ■ FRANK H. LEONE, MBA, MPH “L et salespeople sell” should be more than a cliché; it should be a way of life. Unfortunately, though, many oc- cupational health sales professionals spend a dispropor- tionate amount of time engaged in client maintenance and customer service at the expense of direct sales. This is not to say that customer service and patient serv- ice are unimportant, however; in truth, maintaining good relationships both with customers and patients is crucial to the success of every occupational health program and should involve every member of your organization. Client Maintenance “Client maintenance” involves working with your existing client base to monitor satisfaction and to cross sell additional services. Several principles should apply: Ⅲ Vertical sales is market specific. The amount of time one should spend selling new services to existing clients (as opposed to horizontal sales, which involves selling your core services to non-client prospects) is related to market size. For example, the larger the market (e.g., Chicago), the greater the emphasis on new prospect sales; the smaller the market (Yazoo City), the greater the empha- sis on maintaining and selling new products to your existing customer base. Other variables also play a role. A program with a new product should spend more time with its existing client base. Or, there may be some high-volume clients in your market that simply require ongoing contact. Frank Leone is president and CEO of RYAN Associates and executive director of the National Association of Occupational Health Professionals. Mr. Leone is the author of numerous sales and marketing texts and periodicals, and has considerable experience training medical profes- sionals on sales and marketing techniques. E-mail him at fleone@naohp.com. w w w. j u c m . c o m You should review relevant variables, decide where your program fits on the client maintenance/new sales continuum, and act accordingly. Ⅲ Don’t put out fires that you didn’t start. Sales pro- fessionals often assume the role of firefighter, going back to clients that they secured to address opera- tional problems that have occurred since the sale. However, problems that are operational in origin should be addressed by an operational person. Ⅲ Maintain relationships in a time-effective manner. A sales professional should keep tabs on a client’s sat- isfaction shortly after the sale and periodically thereafter. Such maintenance, however, seldom requires a face- to-face visit. Try an e-mail or after-hours voicemail message, such as “Checking in to see how things are going with our occupational health program. Let me know if you have any special needs or problems you would like to discuss.” An e-mail or voicemail takes about a minute, while a personal visit could take more than an hour (includ- ing transport time). Patient Service Nothing is talked about as much, but proactively addressed as little, as patient service. As with customer maintenance, however, several elements should be involved in a patient service program: Ⅲ Hire appropriately. A program should start by hir- ing the right people. Although experience counts, resist the tendency to “hire the resume” rather than the person. Rely more on your intuition when evaluating job candidates for posi- tions that involve patient service. For example, friendliness is the foundation of patient service and should be the most important criteria of the hiring decision. What the candidate would do for you is Continued on page 36. JUCM T h e J o u r n a l o f U r g e n t C a r e M e d i c i n e | D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 7 35