Devon’s NHS to “discover the secrets of the John Lewis customer experience”

The NHS in Devon has teamed up with award-winning department store John Lewis to find out why its customers have such a great experience.

Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) chief nurse Jenny Winslade said the CCG wanted to learn from John Lewis “hearing how the department store approaches customer satisfaction could help the NHS translate this into improved patient care.”

“We want to find out from John Lewis the secrets behind why its customers are so satisfied and we will use these to benefit our patients,” said Jenny Winslade, the CCG’s chief nurse.

“Partners (staff) from the Exeter branch of John Lewis have teamed up with the CCG and will visit in July to show us, among other things, how its high staff morale has a knock-on effect on high customer satisfaction.

“This is just one of a number of new innovative ways that Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) plans to improve how it listens to and involves patients.

“We have committed to creating partnerships with organisations such as John Lewis, who have won a number of awards for customer satisfaction.”

John Lewis partners will also talk to the Devon-wide patient experience network, a group where healthcare providers meet the CCG and Healthwatch to work together on improving patient experience. This will not cost anything to the NHS.

John Lewis was recently named ‘The Nation’s Best Retailer’ at the Verdict Customer Satisfaction Awards 2013 and has also been voted ‘Retailer of the Year 2013’ at the Oracle Retail Week Awards and ‘Best Retailer 2013’ at the Which? Awards 2013.

Research published by the King’s College, London in May 2013 strongly suggests there is a relationship between NHS staff morale and wellbeing and patient experience.

Jenny Winslade continued: “We are aware of the research published by the King’s College, London and we know that improving our staff wellbeing is not only important in its own right but can also improve the quality of patient experience.

“The wellbeing of our staff could be improved by doing even the smallest of things, from making sure new starters are well looked after on their first day, to making it easier for staff to make suggestions.

“We hope that what we learn from this will not only benefit patients who contact the CCG, but all healthcare providers in our area, as we plan to share our findings with them.”