Health & Medical
Taking action
How to use customer feedback to perpetuate strong service
By Brooke Bates
Smart Business Detroit | February 2009
Page 1 of 2
Anthony J. Filippis
president, Wright & Filippis Inc.
When it comes to customer
service, Anthony J. Filippis
takes his father’s advice.
“He always said treat that customer like your mother,” says the
president and CEO of Wright &
Filippis Inc. “If you do that, you
won’t have any problems.”
His father, Tony Filippis, who
founded the company in 1944,
passed away in January 2007.
But his legacy for customer
care lives on in the company’s
931 employees.
First, response cards go out
to everyone who uses the company’s prosthetics, orthotics
and home medical equipment.
Filippis uses negative feedback
to patch gaps in the company’s
procedures and positive feedback to reward employees for
stellar service.
But whatever action is
spurred by the feedback,
Filippis communicates the next
move to everyone — customers
and employees alike.
“It’s a matter of listening to your
customers and your employees
and letting them know what’s
going on,” says Filippis, who
guided the company to 2007
revenue of $136 million.
Smart Business spoke with
Filippis about how to gather and
use feedback to build strong
customer service.
Gauge customer responses. We’ve
tried to take that patient care
philosophy throughout all the
products and services we provide. So every one of our
patients gets a survey card, no
matter what they’re buying or
what service they’re receiving.
First of all, things need to be
easy to understand and easy to
respond to. You want it to be
quick and easy. You don’t want a
20-question survey. We keep
ours to five or six questions,
focusing on were they attended
to properly, was the speed of
their service good.
Whatever line of business
you’re in, focus on what your
key elements are and then get
questions that can help to
make sure that whoever you’re
servicing gets those services in
the most economical and efficient way.
Reply to feedback. Listen to what
they’re saying and make sure
that you’re dealing with those
concerns. Make sure that when
you have a problem that you
solve it, and you solve it quickly.
There’s a group within our
organization called Organizational
Improvement. When a phone
call comes [or] someone has a
problem, they’re the first line.
They’re the ones that field the
calls and then research. They
do analysis, finding out, ‘Is this
a one-time problem, or have
we had ongoing problems?’ If
we find an issue that’s consistent ... we’ll do training.
If it’s a specific problem, it’s
addressed and obviously moved
on. If it’s a general concern,
even if it’s not something that
affects them necessarily, we
always get back to them and let
them know what we are doing.
