A simple and valuable approach for measuring customer satisfaction.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the financial impact of poor customer satisfaction and the value of information gained from using a 1-question customer-satisfaction survey in a medical setting.

STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING

A single-question customer-satisfaction survey was collected from customers presenting to an academic otolaryngology head and neck surgery outpatient clinic.

RESULTS

The overall response rate was 25%, overall net promoter score was 67.3%, lowest net promoter score occurred on Wednesday and Friday, overall net potential referrals were 872, and potential lost revenue from dissatisfied customers equaled US 2.3 million dollars.

CONCLUSION

A single-question customer-satisfaction survey may help identify areas of customer dissatisfaction that lead to a significant source of lost revenue.

SIGNIFICANCE

The competitive forces in today's health care environment require medical practices to address issues related to customer satisfaction.