Health Train Express: 10 Reasons Doctors Don't Care About Customer Service

Thursday, June 11, 2026

10 Reasons Doctors Don't Care About Customer Service

Patient-customer service, to put it mildly, is an opportunity for improvement. Yet, most of the things that bug patients before, during, and after the visit can be fixed by the doctor and care team. Everyone knows that patients are angry when they have to wait, and sick-care billing and collection makes patients angry.

So, what is the etiology and treatment? If everyone knows there is a problem, why doesn't your doctor treat it?

1. They don't care because quality of care is their first priority, not quality of service or experience.

2. They don't always have control over dysfunctional systems that are the root cause.

3. They don't have customer-patient service knowledge, skills, and attitudes because they were not provided and measured during their training

4. They have role models and mentors that have bad customer-patient experience skills

5. They are not that empathic and rate low on other emotional intelligence parameters that are associated with excellent customer service professionals. It certainly is not a reason they were accepted to medical school.

6. There are few motivations or incentives to do it.

7. Particularly for those working as employees, the care team is stacked into care deliverers, nurses, and clerks, all answering to different bureaucracies.

8. Doctors don't want to spend the money to fix things and don't see the return on investment.

9. They have not made patient-customer service a habit.

10. They are increasingly disengaged.

The treatment to the problem is in changing physician behavior and making patient-customer service a habit. That takes some internal motivation to want to change, being sensitive to triggers, providing resources, education, tools, and metrics (on time arrival APP?), and rewarding the desired behavior as soon as possible after doing something positive, with a high likelihood that staff will be rewarded if they do the right thing with something they value. The reward might not always be money. It could be unlimited vacation time or concierge services.

Making customer-patient service a habit should be as commonplace as checking vital signs as part of a physical exam. It starts the first day of medical school.

Let's face it . Most medical customer/patient service/experience sucks. Fixing it has become a growth industry because a) organizations are getting rewarded and penalized on patient/customer service and 2) they have to to be competitive to grow market share. Since patients know little or nothing about the quality of care they are getting, they use customer service as a surrogate measure. One has nothing to do with the other, but that's the way the medical world seems to be turning.

Like any service idustry, the patient-customer experience is about what happens before , during and after the service is rendered. Ask yourself:

1. Are providing the information and education patients want and need before the visit?

2. How easy is it for them to make an APPointment?

3. What is the pre-visit telephone experience like?

4. How convenient is getting to your office, maps, signage and parking?

5. How long does it take to get an appointment to see you?

6. How would you rate your office space or other physical plant?

7. Are you or your employees grumpy?

8. What is your on time arrival record and do you even measure it?

9. How would you rate your service after the service and ability of patients to follow up with questions or concerns?

10. Would you be happy if you were billed and expected to pay the way you bill and collect from your patients?

The patient experience can largely be controlled by doctors and the people who work with them. Most of the time, when the experience is painful, it is because doctors are unwilling to treat it.

Should customer service be taught in medical school?

Customer service principles—such as empathy, active listening, and clear communication—should be integrated into medical school. While medicine prioritizes clinical outcomes, effective patient-facing interaction remains a core competency. Studies show that clinical customer service training significantly boosts patient satisfaction and lowers complaints. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]