3 Ways to Strive for Service Excellence

At Monroe Clinic, the cultural overhaul began by increasing employees' awareness and accountability for service standards. The health system adopted the motto, "Every Customer, Every Encounter, Every Day!"

"Staff can [now] recognize exceptional service and recognize others for meeting and exceeding our standards," Werkheiser says. "Coaches and directors are holding staff accountable to standards. Service standards are also integrated into our interviewing process, new employee orientation, and coaching process."

Making each and every staff member accountable fosters service excellence from the inside-out, rather than from the top-down, she says. Employees want to take pride in their work, and promoting service excellence serves to amplify that desire.

Service excellence enriches the organizational culture, Baird says. "In order to have a culture where patients want to come for care, where providers want to practice and where employees want to work, there needs to be a spirit of service that prevails in every encounter," she says. "This type of culture not only improves the patient experience and the resulting satisfaction survey scores, but it helps to increase employee and provider engagement and retention."

Engage providers and employees

Monroe Clinic seeks to improve employee engagement by making sure the staff knows that they are appreciated. Leadership delivers this message in multiple ways.