IHI.org - A resource from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Header Image






Producer Customer Interface:
Listen to Customers

It is easy to get caught up in the internal functioning of our organization and forget about why we are here - to serve our customers. Invest time on a regular basis in processes that "listen to the customers." Sometimes it is important to figure out how to communicate with customers further down the supply chain or even the final consumer of the product or service.




Examples of Tests of this Change

Talk to customers about their experiences in using your products. Learn about improvement opportunities. After spending time with patients (the consumer), a medical supply company found that needles packaged with a drug that they sold caused pain to the patients. The patients were buying their own needles and throwing the ones in the package away. The hospitals and clinics that the company supplied had never given them this feedback.