My absolute guilty pleasure? The profit on RTL Z, a program about Marcus Lemonis. Marcus is a successful entrepreneur in the USA whose hands would probably start itching if he studied the intake process of many Dutch healthcare organizations. Why? It often lacks the final P!
Marcus Lemonis comes to the rescue of struggling businesses in The Profit. He doesn’t just offer advice, but actively invests and temporarily takes over the management of a company. There’s a lot at stake for him, as if a company isn’t turned around by his investment and approach, he stands to lose serious money.
Marcus always follows the same mantra: ‘People, Product, and Process.’ If these three elements are in place, he believes, the business will succeed. Success, profit, and a good reputation are the logical outcomes of getting these three ‘P’s right.
I often visit the customer service departments of healthcare providers. These departments go by various names: care advice center, care mediation, service point, customer service, and so on. What always strikes me is that they rarely have to worry about the first two P’s.
It’s rarely an issue of client focus. The people I meet do everything they can to answer clients’ questions and assist them. So, the ‘People’ part is well taken care of. As for the ‘Product’—the care provided—there’s really no need for discussion. Healthcare in the Netherlands is exceptionally good. The Dutch always find something to complain about until they’ve had to deal with a healthcare provider abroad. Then they often say, “It’s not so bad in the Netherlands after all.” People and Product: check.
But then there’s the ‘Process.’ The final ‘P.’ I notice that everyone in the customer service department is somewhat familiar with the processes; they’re often documented as well. Yet, during the execution of the intake process, things often go wrong because employees lack a system that supports them in this. Creative as they are, they improvise with Excel, Word, and other self-invented structures and systems, but this often leads to cumbersome processes. Collaboration, taking over tasks from each other, insight into lead times, proactive actions, knowing and recognizing clients: it often doesn’t run optimally. Simply because a good Client Relationship Management (CRM) system is missing. Even creating waiting lists is often a task in itself. This should be a result that comes automatically from the system.
In short, if Marcus saw this, he would immediately advise implementing a good system to support the Process.
Now, there’s no immediate need to fly Marcus in for advice. That would be a bit expensive. And also a bit inconvenient since he’d want to buy a stake in the company right away. I’m not a business doctor like Marcus, and I’m not interested in your shares either. However, together with our CRM team, I’ve created a solution that is already being used by many healthcare providers: Qare365. This has been a delight for client advisors and care mediators, who are truly helped by it. Thanks to Qare365, they can focus more on the client and their needs.
Results: better alignment of care demand and supply, better occupancy, and a good reputation. Marcus would say: That’s logical.
Jochem Dijs | +31 33 7122160 | jochemd@qssolutions.nl
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