Community Health Group: Coach Training Rejuvenates Service Culture

Community Health Group, a non-profit health maintenance organization based in San Diego, has provided high-quality affordable health coverage for over 25 years. Chief Executive Officer, Norma Diaz, is a driving force behind the organization’s mission: promoting, achieving and sustaining individual and community health. She explains, “At Community Health Group, we feel there is nothing more important than our community.”

Diaz also understands and values customer service. To ensure that its service level exceeds member expectations, Community Health Group brought in Communico’s MAGIC^® of Customer Relations and Coach Programs (MAGIC stands for Make A Great Impression on the Customer).

In these highly interactive workshops, participants deepened their awareness of a service culture and identified drivers and barriers to excellence.

“What was so refreshing for these staff members was being able to express, through various exercises, how they thought the company could improve,” Diaz explains. “We have embraced employees’ ideas and find the results of the training invaluable to the future success of the company.”

Working in small groups, each participant practiced how to provide effective performance feedback and coaching. Participants learned how to get to the heart of developmental issues and conduct more effective feedback sessions so that associates take ownership of their own solutions. Many commented that the skills learned and practiced in the “coaching laboratories” could be applied to every business relationship.

After delivering the training sessions, Communico certified several Community Health Group associates to spread the customer-focused attitude and behaviors to other departments.

Since that time, MAGIC has become a part of the company’s culture. “Our employees value the principles taught in these programs because they realize they now have heightened customer service and coaching skills — skills that not very many companies invest in teaching their employees,” Diaz says. “We have also noticed a dramatic improvement in the feedback from our members and physicians.”

Diaz says she often receives letters from plan members praising the attentive and courteous manner in which they were dealt with.

“If our employees know their opinions and thoughts are truly valued, then their positive energy is reflected in the way employees interact with our external and internal customers.”

Diaz and the entire Community Health Group team are committed to their organization’s vision of unparalleled service and quality care.

They know that, with a little help from MAGIC customer service and coaching, their organization will stand out and make a meaningful difference.