Hospital customer service: What it is + 7 ways to improve

Hospital customer service refers to the customer support and care given to people by a hospital. Though not often seen as customers, patients using hospital services require the same level, if not greater, of customer service skills they receive elsewhere. The unique nature of these interactions and the sensitivity required make healthcare customer service training imperative. Doing so will improve the quality of service customers receive during difficult times.

Healthcare workers are not typically thought of as customer service providers. However, they share many similarities with traditional support agents; they must provide fair treatment, effective communication, quick responses, and an outstanding customer experience (CX) to people visiting hospitals and individuals seeking medical care.

In this guide, we cover hospital customer service in detail, including seven ways you can improve it in your operations. Read on to learn how to empower your healthcare staff to provide better service.

More in this guide:

• What is the importance of customer service in healthcare?
• Challenges of providing great customer service in medical settings
• 7 best practices to improve hospital customer service
• Examples of good customer service in healthcare
• Frequently asked questions
• Boost your hospital customer service with Zendesk
  

Customer service in healthcare plays a crucial role in patient care, trust, and overall health outcomes.

Healthcare workers must provide customer service in various scenarios, such as delivering lab results, answering billing questions, or providing patient status updates. Excelling in these areas can result in benefits like:

• Enhanced patient care: An outstanding CX can help patients get results faster, resulting in more streamlined and comprehensive care.
• Boosted loyalty: Patients are more likely to return to and recommend facilities where they feel heard and valued.
• Improved reputation: When a medical institution increases brand loyalty and promotes positive experiences, patients are likely to spread the positive word to their friends, family, and online communities.

Unlike other industries, healthcare deals with people at their most vulnerable moments, making compassionate and efficient service essential. A positive patient experience can improve compliance with treatment plans, reduce anxiety, and even lead to better recovery rates.

Medical settings can be hectic; it's a high-stress environment in which every day offers new challenges and roadblocks. Some common challenges of providing great customer service in these situations include:

• Patient mindset: Patients and families may be distressed or frustrated, requiring staff to navigate sensitive conversations with care.
• Long wait times: Overcrowded facilities and staff shortages can make it difficult to provide individualized attention in a timely manner.
• Regulatory restrictions: HIPAA and other regulations limit the amount of information you can share, sometimes making customer service interactions feel impersonal.
• Disjointed systems: A lack of unified help desk software, trouble ticketing software, or self-help resources can cause problems for healthcare service representatives when handling patient interactions.

Despite these challenges, investing in staff training, communication strategies, and patient-centered policies can help healthcare providers improve customer service while maintaining high-quality medical care.

Now, let's dive into some of the best practices you can use to improve your hospital CX.

1. Embrace AI and automation 

AI and automation are transforming how businesses operate and communicate with customers. In fact, per the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2025, 70 percent of consumers believe there is a gap between companies that leverage AI effectively in customer service and those that don’t.

Healthcare operations can use this technology to improve their customer service by leveraging options like:

• AI agents that can provide instant, 24/7 support to patients
• AI copilot that can enhance support agent productivity by automating tasks, offering intelligent suggestions, and providing real-time insights
• AI-powered workforce management (WFM) tools to help teams create optimized support agent schedules that can anticipate rises or drops in patient demand

Overall, AI and automation can help hospitals and healthcare operations enhance responsiveness and foster better experiences.

2. Develop a proactive approach to service

Healthcare operations should embrace proactive customer service to foster a more streamlined patient experience. This involves anticipating and addressing patient needs before they arise rather than reacting to issues after they happen.

For example, hospitals could adopt proactive appointment scheduling, pre-visit information sharing, and post-appointment follow-ups to help inform patients before they ask for help. They could also invest in issue tracking software that helps them proactively solve patient problems.

3. Listen to your patients 

Hospitals should actively monitor patient sentiment through customer surveys, online reviews, and post-care conversations. Doing so helps identify pain points and areas for CX improvement.

But gathering this feedback is not enough—teams need to act on it. Making meaningful changes—whether that be implementing new customer care systems or enhancing facility amenities—helps healthcare operations improve while showing their commitment to their patients.

4. Build patient portals

Customer portals can help patients manage their healthcare experience. These digital platforms allow them to schedule appointments, access medical records, communicate with providers, pay bills, and more, all in one place. 

Additionally, self-service resources such as FAQs, symptom checkers, and instructional videos can help patients find answers to common questions without needing to call or visit the hospital.

5. Train your support team 

Healthcare workers face new and complicated challenges daily—you need to train your team to ensure they can navigate these situations. Customer service training should cover:

• Soft skills like active listening, empathy, and conflict resolution help agents interact with patients effectively.
• Hard skills like product knowledge, healthcare procedures, and internal process knowledge can help your team expertly navigate patient interactions.

When you focus on both types of skills, you can build a more capable and productive team.

6. Create an omnichannel environment 

Patients expect to connect with healthcare providers across multiple channels, including voice, email, websites, social media, and text messaging. An omnichannel approach ensures seamless communication regardless of the platform, making it easier for patients to get the help they need. For example, healthcare teams could offer patient portals, online chat support, SMS appointment reminders, and social media interactivity to meet patients where they are.

7. Monitor your progress

Finally, healthcare teams should continuously monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) like patient satisfaction scores, first reply times, and first contact resolution. Regularly reviewing this information helps identify trends, highlight strengths, and pinpoint any areas for improvement.

Here are three examples of good customer service in healthcare from Luma Health, CNH Care, and HeliosX.

Luma Health

“Zendesk is a BAA-compliant platform that expedited our workflows a lot. We don’t need external tools anymore to provide data or get data from customers. We can now do everything directly in Zendesk.”

-Leo Magalhaes, lead technical support engineer at Luma Health

CNH Care

"With Zendesk I’m not distracted with finding information but focused on having a conversation with the customer. It helps us prioritize providing empathy and care, which is what’s most important in our line of work."

-Linish Theodore, assistant vice president of customer experience at CNH Care

HeliosX

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“By consolidating everything into Zendesk, we’ve reduced our staffing costs by over 50% while increasing our efficiency, performance, and CSAT.”

-Fabrice Dowling, global head of customer care at HeliosX