Change leadership behaviors to change performance results: the foundation of top customer satisfaction.

Raising customer satisfaction in health-care organizations has been a priority for the past 5 years or more. Articles and books continue to be written on the topic and speeches and presentations are given to eager audiences of professionals who have a deep desire to improve customer satisfaction. Yet research indicates that customer satisfaction, on average, in the health-care industry barely has improved. This column will examine why some organizations, using the same best practice techniques and approaches for top customer satisfaction, achieve wonderful results as most others achieve meager results, at best. The answer to achieving top customer satisfaction lies in the leadership of the organization. When leaders change their thinking and behaviors, results will change.