Professionalism?

“If you are a professional, the speed with which you react to a potential problem separates the men from the boys.”

Yanni

What do you imagine when you hear the words “being professional”?

For me – that means owning up when you drop the ball and take your part of the blame.  Both of these examples were from the health and wellbeing industry.  In health, we expect a level of service which includes confidentiality, safety and care.

In recent times, I have needed to have health services and due to unprofessional conduct, decided to feedback that to both businesses.  Unfortunately, one organisation has neglected to respond, and this has led to my decision on whether to continue utilising their services.  It should be noted that in both cases, I have been a long-term client.

I have regular scans and ultrasounds as part of my preventative treatment.  Unfortunately, this business has let me down on a number of occasions and at each event – I took the time to advise the organisation of this and awaited response.  My email got ignored and on the next visit, due to another issue, I escalated the notice to a higher position.  My voice got heard and they began investigating the claims and a response was received some time later.  On my next visit, another issue occurred, and I then rang through to my previous contact and to date, this has not been actioned.  I will be taking my business elsewhere from now on.  I have given this organisation multiple opportunities to improve their service with me and at each time, they have dropped their bar to a very poor experience for me, in fact, it has traumatised me on many occasions.  Yes, I do suffer from scananxiety but these events added another level of discomfort and fear.  I am not certain as to where I will take my business in the future.

Another local business welcomed my feedback and actioned it immediately as they were well aware of the damage that this could do to their brand.  I had multiple conversations with the staff and on my return personally thanked me for advising them of the incident and for coming back in.  A discussion was held with the person responsible and ongoing staff training for all.

Incidents can happen, especially when you have many staff to manage and train.  However, not accepting the feedback or even responding to your clientele does not make the incident go away and may impact on the number of people who conduct their business with you.