At Northeast Delta Dental, as part of our customer service philosophy, we pay attention to and prioritize the concerns of all those we serve, and help however, wherever and whenever we can. One of the key elements of our successful customer service strategy is a focus on transparent and timely communication. This is something that I have focused on my entire career, and have always fostered the mantra, lead by example, in everything I do.
In 2013 I wrote a book, There Are No Do-Overs, with Barbara McLaughlin and Dave Cowens. The book focuses on sustaining a business long-term and fittingly has an entire chapter on communication, Chapter 8: Communicate to Win. On page 78, I note our belief in effective communication as essential for our continued success. I truly believe that our commitment to communication is one of the reasons we have strong relationships with our customers, both internally and externally, including subscribers, brokers and our provider community.
I was honored to see that two publications recently featured our approach to communication and customer service. We’ve worked hard to earn an exemplary reputation for customer service, and it has been clear time and time again that every employee colleague is dedicated to exceeding our customers’ expectations by prioritizing quality service and fostering effective communication.
NH Business Review columnist Ron Bourque wrote in NHBR about listening to customers to increase profitability, highlighting the beginnings of our Guarantee Of Service ExcellenceSM program. We asked customers what was important to them and developed their responses into a seven-point program that pays group customers a reward when we fall short of what we’ve promised. Customers appreciate that we initiate these payouts ourselves, and we view each as a learning experience enabling us to improve both our processes and customer satisfaction. This has been an invaluable way for us to cultivate loyal customers.
In an article in CSM, The Magazine for Customer Service Managers & Professionals, Service Quality Institute’s John Tschohl wrote about the power of customer service leading to financial achievement, identifying two businesses as relentless about being customer-driven, Amazon and Northeast Delta Dental, and pointed to the impact of our Guarantee Of Service ExcellenceSM program. We are relentless about our approach to customer service, and customer satisfaction is a huge part of our ongoing success.
This was the driving force of a recent increase in email communications that I send to our provider community. On February 21, the security system of Change Healthcare, a small insurance claims and prescription processing arm of United Healthcare, was breached. Nationally, this was catastrophic for hospitals, physicians and dental offices that used Change Healthcare as their claims processing clearinghouse. Change Healthcare was forced to shut down to protect its information from being compromised.
Dentists rely on swift and accurate insurance claims processing. When the claims processing cycle was interrupted, with no electronic communications from their service provider, dental offices using Change Healthcare had no way to verify what claims had been processed, and their staff members were alarmed and uncertain about the short- and long-term implications of the data breach. Since the cyberattack, I have emailed our in-network dentists at least weekly to share updates on what was happening as details unfolded and identified alternative claims submission methods. Our relationships with Delta Dental member companies serving states outside of our three-state region were invaluable. While there are no quick fixes for anyone who was using Change Healthcare services, our in-network dentists have expressed appreciation for my sharing the latest news and pointing them to trustworthy resources. They said, overall, that it was an encouragement to them during a particularly challenging time.
To learn more about Change Healthcare’s cyberattack and how some dentists were impacted, Editor-in-Chief Kevin Henry of the website Dr. Bicuspid, which provides news to the dental community, interviewed dental industry expert Teresa Duncan on this topic and posts related updates.
As I say in There Are No Do-Overs, “…it is almost impossible to communicate too widely, too often, or too honestly.”.
