1. Dealing with Unhappy Patients
Knowing how to handle the dissatisfied consumer is crucial

2. 12 Steps to Dealing with the Unhappy Patient
Patients are walking billboards. They can be advocates for your work or testimonials to your shortcomings.

3. 1. Stay calm Instinctive to flee or fight Train yourself to stay calm
Concentrate on maintaining eye contact
Think of ways to stay calm such as take slow and deep breaths.

4. 2. Stop, listen, be responsive
Move away from the front desk
Stop all other activity and concentrate on the patient
Use body language to show seriousness
Keep quiet and listen to the whole story
Begin with common ground statement
Examples of silent communication are nodding, eye contact, and note-taking. Any others?
A common ground statement could be “I’d like to help you solve this problem”.

5. 3. Accept the unhappiness
Try not to take it personally
Some people assume they will get better results with anger than with polite dialog
Not everyone remembers “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”.

6. 4. Accept responsibility
Never say “There’s nothing I can do.”
Even if it’s simply gathering facts
All-for-one and one-for-all attitude
Don’t blame, gather facts, and find the best person to help them.

7. 5. Refer to the proper person
Determine who can best solve the problem
Explain it to the patient
Use the patient’s name
Identify the problem
Identify the person who will help
Explain it to person solving the problem
No need for patient to retell issue
For example: “Mr. Smith, it seems an adjustment to your frame is needed. Lorie, our optician, will be happy to take care of this for you. Let me explain your problem to her, and we will fix this right away.”

8. 6. Ask questions Helps gather your facts
There’s always more to the story
Helps piece the problem together more completely or accurately
What are some helpful fact-finding questions that you have used?

9. 7. Restate the problem Briefly summarize the story
Use “you feel” or “your impression was”
Ask for confirmation
This shows you have a basic understanding of the complaint.

10. 8. Respond visibly Have the right facial expression
Try not to be defensive
Avoid being too smiley
Serious, professional, and focused are the best traits to show.

11. 9. Agree Don’t agree with inaccuracies
Means you understand or empathize
“Feel, Felt, Found” method
“I understand how you feel, Mr. Smith. I would have felt that way, too. What we have found is that if we (insert solution), it seems to help.”

12. 10. Develop solutions Start suggesting ways to solve the problem
If you get no response, ask “What can we do to make this situation better?”
This is often the turning point in calming a patient.

13. 11. Exceed expectations Solve the problem
Add a touch of appreciation with it
What have you used to show patient appreciation? Gift cards, chocolate, glasses cleaner, etc.

14. 12. Personalize Start your first sentence with the patient’s name
Trump card when dealing with an unhappy patient
Dale Carnegie said “ a person’s name is, to them, the sweetest sound in any language”.

15. Take Away

16. After enough practice, the steps involved with dealing with unhappy patients becomes second nature. Unfortunately, there isn’t a rule on how to use the steps. Many times you will use the steps in a different order. Make time to script the best answers for your office.
This is a good time to present different scenarios to the group and have them role play their responses to each other.