We recently completed a customer satisfaction survey with every active referrer in our database.
We used the Net Promoter Score (NPS) which asks a standardised question:
“On scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend SA Homecare Therapies to a friend or colleague?”
The results of this are then used to calculate a score from a low of -100 to a high of +100
(where any score above zero is considered good)
What is SA Homecare Therapies’ NPS Score?
As of 30 November 2023, our Net Promoter Score is 87
(the creators of NPS, Bain & Company, suggest a customer satisfaction score above 80 is world class)
The main reasons we received this score
To better understand our clients’ needs, we also asked:
“What is the main reason for the score you gave us?”
The top 5 reasons were consistently variations on the theme of our:
- Prompt acknowledgment of referrals
- Short referral waiting-list times
- Proactive communication (e.g. providing booking status updates, routinely sending clinical notes, advising of significant clinical changes)
- Quality and clarity of clinical documentation
- Client feedback
These results encourage us to continue to invest in:
- Our team, so that they’re adequately resourced and have the time to over-communicate, and
- Our practice management software, which enables us to complete clear and concise documentation (that’s then easy to report back to the clients’ coordinator)
Opportunities for improvement
We also asked:
“What is the most important improvement that we could make that would make you rate us closer to a 10?”
There were only 3 reasons that had repeat responses. These were variations of:
- Increasing direct access to therapists for case-conferencing clients’ needs
- Improving response time for referrals
- Routinely sending clinical notes to coordinators
We discussed each of these items as a team, and have made the following changes:
1. Increasing direct access to therapists for case-conferencing clients’ needs
While we’re unable to give out our therapists’ individual phone numbers, we have:
- Updated our booking confirmation template to include which therapist will be attending AND include the offer of them making contact prior to the initial appointment
- Included a field on our referral form for the referrer to include their phone number
- Updated our practice management software to include the referrer’s phone number against each client profile so that therapists can more easily make contact and provide handovers for complex cases
2. Improving response time for referrals
Even though our wait-list is usually between 1 and 2 weeks for all services, we received feedback that some clients would contact their coordinators to follow-up the status of their referral. So, we’ve now implemented targets where:
- Clients are contacted within 3-days to book in their appointment (even if the actual appointment will be a few weeks into the future), or
- If we haven’t identified a solution within those 3-days, we contact the client to let them know we’ve received the referral and that we’re working on it.
3. Routinely sending clinical notes to coordinators.
Even though this was one of the most common pieces of positive feedback, there were also 3 examples of it being listed as an opportunity for improvement!
This means that, even though it was something we were doing well, somewhere there was a gap in our process.
This led to us completing a review of our process (and we found the hole and we’ve now plugged it)
(even though these were the only responses that were repeated 2 or 3 times, we still treated each isolated response with the same significance as a complaint)
Summary: Customer satisfaction at SA Homecare Therapies
At SA Homecare Therapies we’re always informally seeking feedback, reflecting, and looking for ways to improve
(this includes not just from clients, but also from our staff)
So if you have any feedback or recommendations for improvement, please let us know here