Faced with growing criticism of patient care and demand for better ‘customer’ experience, the NHS has turned to retailer John Lewis to help improve service in a move that has been both welcomed and scoffed at. As reported by the BBC, retail staff at the store made famous for its excellent customer service will be re-educating NHS doctors in Devon in a new bedside manner that focuses on the needs of the patients.
Daniel Todaro, MD at marketing agency Gekko, highlighted a key difference between the two: “The very fact that John Lewis is a retailer and the NHS is a service should be an immediate red flag,” he says. “If you shop in John Lewis, you are there by choice whereas if you’re in A&E it’s likely that you really didn’t have much of a choice in the matter; it’s a question of need.
“This is the crux of the issue; how do you translate the needs of a John Lewis shopper to that of a patient? It is true that John Lewis offer a best in class, successful retail experience with the human element at its core, but a health care provider and a retailer have zero points of synergy.”
“As good as the John Lewis model is, it applies to retail and not to an under-resourced not-for-profit public organisation.”
The proof of this unique collaboration between the public sector and retail’s golden child will essentially be in the eating – whilst it poses strong benefits in theory, only by putting the proposals into practice will the NHS understand if there are lessons to be learned from John Lewis.
Read the full article at: http://www.mycustomer.com/feature/experience/can-john-lewis-help-nhs-deliver-superior-customer-service/165386
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