Challenges of Customer Service in Healthcare: Navigating Hostility in Public Hospitals

The sole responsibilities of customer service are to provide support and guidance for customers throughout their interactions with an organization—that's before, during, and after every activity that makes a customer require their attention. In order to do this job, customer service is supposed to be polite and well-behaved, but unfortunately, some are just the opposite of what their job requires of them, and today I'll be sharing about an organizations customer service team that always gets on my nerve each time I pay them a visit.

I would have said I'm the one who has issues with them had it not been that almost every other person who visits this place complained about the same thing, and while it's much easier to ditch one organization for another when you're not being treated well as a customer, the same can't be done in this situation I'm about to talk about, and that's because they're most likely the only one around, and if not, then they're the one who offers the cheapest service, so despite the annoying act of their customer relations, we still make do with it and just keep going.

In case you're wondering which organization I could possibly be talking about, there's no need to think too far because I'm talking about none other than customer service in public hospitals, although the same is true in private hospitals as well. But you tend to experience this annoying relationship with the customer relations officers in public hospitals more than you would in private hospitals, and I guess those ones are a bit reserved because you're paying a huge amount for the same service being offered for less in the public hospitals.

I've been a regular at the hospital because of my poor health conditions that require me to visit often, and while the hospital ought to be a place of serenity and calmness, it has been turned into a hostile environment by the customer relations officers. There's hardly a day you'll go there without them having one issue or another with you and several other people who came to see the doctor.

This makes me begin to wonder if it's getting them annoyed to see more and more people coming to see the doctor, which means their service would be required more. While I understand that it's not really easy having to attend to a lot of people, I don't think the right way to go about it is pissing off sick people who ought to put their minds at rest, and yet you're doing what would raise their anxiety.

I remember visiting the hospital a few days ago, and while it was my turn to be attended to, I heard my name. I responded and went down to where they were, and on getting there, they told me to get out of their sight because I didn't respond when they called me, so they'll be calling others while I'll have to wait for more hours before they'll consider calling me again. I tried to make them understand that I responded to their call, but they just kept yelling at the top of their voices.

I was really annoyed and pissed by that statement because, aside from having malaria, I also have a sore throat, which prevents me from speaking loudly. Well, to cut a long story short, they kept to their words and attended to others before calling me again after a few hours. The same thing almost happened again until I made a firm declaration that if they don't attend to me, then I won't allow anyone to be attended to.

Despite all of this, they saw how difficult it was for me to speak loudly, and yet they keep ranting, like, "If I call you, you must respond at the top of your voice." It's just annoying because even though I can't speak loudly, I did walk up to them in less than 10 seconds after calling, so when they saw I was disrupting their work by not allowing them to attend to others, they had no choice but to attend to me, which they did nonchalantly.

And to cut a long story short, I only went to the hospital with malaria and a sore throat. Due to their act, I was said to have high blood pressure, and I'm like, I've never had such before, and the only reason that came to mind was the fact that the annoying act of the customer service was what brought about this sudden development.

If it were in my power and I was rich enough, I would ditch all these public hospitals for private ones; unfortunately, I can't due to financial constraints, so all I can do is hope something is done to curb such acts from playing out over and over again. If such were to happen at a private hospital with even charges and job delivery rates, then most people would have ditched them, and owners of such would have relieved those who made him lose customers off their duties.

But personally, I think the cause of this is due to the fact that these customer service people are overwhelmed by the number of people they've got to attend to, and that makes them react negatively just to show how displeased they're. Well, like I said, that's not the way forward; the way forward, in my opinion, is for such an organization to get more hands-on deck to do the job and attend to the hundreds of customers that flood in daily.

With that in place, I don't think such would play out again, and if it does, then I guess letting off such a customer relations officer won't be in any way bad. Customers are meant to be respected regardless of whether they're paying much or less; it's the same funds of the customers that's gathered together to pay your wages, so at least treat them nicely and look for other places to pass out your aggression, but not while you're on duty to the customers you're supposed to pamper.

That's about it, in my opinion, on the subject matter. I hope you enjoyed the read, so have a productive day and stay blessed.

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