How Schweiger Dermatology Group focused on NPS and improved their patient experience

Our favorite kinds of blogs are the ones where we get to celebrate the awesome work of our own customers. Not only is it fun to brag about their achievements, but hopefully an exciting read for you, as you begin to learn what’s possible for your business.

Meet Julie Gessin. She’s the Chief Operating Officer at Schweiger Dermatology Group. Whether you’re looking for specialized cosmetic care, pediatric dermatology or even skin cancer treatments, Schweiger Dermatology Group is your go-to. With over 250 patient providers and over 1 million visits per year, Julie leads the practice towards operational success. Since the first clinic opened in 2010, Schweiger Dermatology Group has become one of the largest dermatology clinics in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania with 90 offices and counting. 

Patient Expectations on the Rise 

Until recently, the training dermatologists received was solely medical and didn’t include courses on patient experience. They learned all the latest science and technology that would help them perform highly technical treatments on their patients, but not how to provide the best experience on top of that. But as patient expectations continue to rise, Julie and her team quickly realized that having a team of skilled dermatology providers wasn't enough to build a successful empire of practices. 

Patients expect an excellent experience (along with awesome skin) in order for them to leave 5 star reviews, come back for more treatments and refer their inner circles. In that realization, Julie made it her mission to build an empowered team of providers who not only excel in their medical field, but who are also professors of patient experience. 

Trust in 5 Stars

Think about how many times you’ve looked at Google reviews before deciding what restaurant to eat at. When it comes to dermatology, the stakes multiply tenfold. While a bad meal is no fun, patients seeking dermatology treatments are putting their health and appearance in the hands of others. They are personal, intimate patient relationships that need to be built on immense levels of trust. 

The team was aware that a big part of the patient research process is to scour the web for reviews and opinions, which builds upon, or shatters that trust. She also knew that whether a review was 1 star, or 5 stars, would depend on the level of feedback, coaching and empowerment the provider received, which in turn would impact the patient experience. 

Scaling & Maintaining 

As Schweiger Dermatology Group continued to grow, opening new practices around the region, there was a keen focus on patient experience. The bigger a business is, the more moving parts it has and Schweiger Dermatology Group is no exception. It was time to look for an external platform to help support those efforts. Their ideal platform would both engage their patients and providers in a seamless experience. 

If you have one excellent provider, and a handful of patients, it's easy to ensure that the employee is coached, supported and empowered, and that your patients are impressed by the service every time. Add hundreds of employees to that equation, across a multitude of locations, with thousands more patients - it becomes increasingly difficult to oversee, measure and maintain awesome patient experiences. 

Enter AskNicely 

Julie and her team were well aware of the potential impact of obtaining more positive online reviews.

She came across AskNicely when searching for a simple NPS System, and luckily, what she found was so much more. Far from a simple feedback tool, AskNicely would help empower, coach and provide real-time feedback to their patient providers at scale.

Industry Standard to Trailblazer

Prior to using AskNicely, Schweiger used SurveyMonkey,  third party feedback sites and needed a more comprehensive solution to standardize their approach. In other words, they weren’t very far along in customer experience maturity. But Julie knew that times were changing. To level up, they needed to collect patient feedback at scale and in real-time, coaching their providers on the things that patients cared about the most.

“We chose AskNicely versus something more traditional in healthcare. It helps spot trends that may seem like one-off incidents or track positive trends” — Julie Gessin, Chief Operating Officer. 

With the help of AskNicely, Schweiger Dermatology reached the feedback mastery milestone. 

Now: 

• Each provider receives real-time patient sentiment straight to their phones, desktops and iPads that highlights what they’re doing well, and helps them understand exactly what they can do that day to improve the patient experience.
  
  
• When satisfied patients drop feedback, providers are recognized and celebrated company wide, reinforcing the right behavior and showing authentic appreciation for their expert team. 

• Patient experience became a day-to-day focus for team members since they had real-time feedback in their pockets, AskNicely scores can be shared on TV dashboards in the office, and team meetings are sometimes centered around real life examples from patient feedback.

• With a holistic view of region, location, team and individual patient experience, they could easily see trends on what was working, what wasn’t, and who needed some support or recognition during weekly manager meetings.

• Providers are empowered to take real-time action on the feedback they receive using AskNicely workflows. As Julie says “your feedback is only as good as your ability to act on it”. 

• Nearly 50% of patient providers have improved their individual NPS scores by 12 points in a year, revealing the true impacts of frontline empowerment and coaching. *Generated from AskNicely data
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Service brands who master how they use feedback and coach their teams, like Schweiger Dermatology Group, reap significant rewards in the form of employee efficiency, customer satisfaction and revenue. In fact, the 2022 State of Frontline Survey found that they create: 

• 64% greater revenue improvement
• 60% greater employee efficiency improvement
• A whopping 133% greater customer satisfaction improvement
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Improved NPS & 3x Increase in Positive Google Reviews!

The domino effect is officially in full force. By investing in NPS, each patient experience continues to strengthen even as Schweiger Dermatology Group continues to grow. Now in four states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut) Schweiger Dermatology Group is proud to share AskNicely when integrating new practices. 

After implementing AskNicely, Schweiger Dermatology Group saw more than 3x increase in positive reviews on Google. With average ratings of 4.5 stars, Schweiger Dermatology Group’s growth is undeniable. 

When asked if Schweiger has achieved the goal of the “ultimate patient experience”, Julie humbly says that “everyday we deliver the ultimate patient experience in nearly all of our visits. However, our work will always continue because our patients deserve the best”.  To reach the ultimate experience they must continually invest in their team and patient experiences, which is exactly what AskNicely helps them to do. 

Want to win on customer experience and see results like Schweiger Dermatology Group? We’ve got you covered. Our Guide to Winning on Customer Experience will teach how you modernize your customer experience program and connect your frontline to your bottom line. 

Download your free guide today.

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