In an agile environment, our work is often about incremental improvement – seeing where change is needed, forming a hypothesis, trying something new, measuring results, and tweaking as needed. In that world, it’s easy to have a recency bias – the inclination to use the most recent experiences as the baseline for what will happen in the future. However, it’s equally important to look at trends to make sure that, as a company, we’re getting the results we want in both the short- and the long-term.

When tabulating the results of our quarterly client satisfaction survey, the thing that caught my eye was an improvement in the category of how well our clients believe we align with their goals. That question received the most significant improvement from last quarter to this one – from a 5.01 to a 5.28. (As a reminder, our survey is based on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 6 (highest), and our target is always a 5.0 or higher.)

Now curious, I looked a little deeper. The previous four quarters had all been pretty consistent (5.09, 5.01, 5.04, and 5.01). Interestingly, the four quarters prior to that ranged from 4.49 to 4.96. What this tells me is that we made a change about a year ago that our clients liked, and the changes we’ve made more recently are being equally well received.

A Strategic Partnership
We believe it’s important to align our work with our clients’ goals. One of our core values is “Bring It” – delivering exceptional service and value to our clients every day. The only way to do that is by understanding their objectives and helping them achieve those in a measurable way. So how have we been doing that?

• This past year, we expanded the role of our project managers. Yes, we are still accountable to our clients to deliver projects on time, on budget, and in scope. But beyond that, we strive to be knowledgeable, trustworthy partners in the digital world of healthcare. To underscore that, those team members now have the title of Client Advisor. True, a title by itself doesn’t change things … but it’s a daily reminder to us and our clients of what we believe to be important.
• We continue to develop the platform and delivery of our Stat Report. Over time, it has become less about the data and more about what that data means and how that information can help our clients meet their goals. With our recent upgrade, clients now have access to the platform – something many had asked for. That means clients can make sure their online efforts are aligning with their goals in a measurable way at their convenience.
• Our eHealth Evangelist, Ben Dillon, is more closely aligned with our software development team. One benefit of that is information from the market (especially our clients) flows directly to the team building our VitalSite software – through client advisory groups, client forums, and conversations at conferences. Equally important, information from the developers is more readily shared with clients.

It’s encouraging to see our efforts come full circle – our clients make recommendations, we listen, learn and make improvements, and our clients respond positively. Investing in our clients’ satisfaction makes everyone happier.

If you’re a regular follower of our blog … and client sat results … you may be wondering how about our overall score. I’m proud to report our clients gave us our second-highest overall score ever – 5.31 out of 6.0.

Join Us
If you’re not a client, don’t you deserve a Web partner who cares about your opinion and satisfaction? One who makes changes as a result of that? One who watches trends to make sure they’re on the right track? If so, join us. And stay tuned — we’ll keep reporting survey results and what we’re doing to “Wow” our clients every quarter!