Whether you’re a seasoned patient service representative or an organized person who’d like to work in healthcare, knowing how to improve your customer service skills can help ground you in a successful profession and open the doorway into a career as a patient service representative or patient support medical biller.

What is a patient service representative or patient support medical biller?

A patient service representative is often a patient’s first point of contact in a healthcare organization. It’s a customer-facing role that requires strong organization, communication, and administrative skills. Sometimes known as a patient service representative, this position can overlap with that of a medical biller, whose role it is to connect patients with insurance companies and ensure individuals can receive the treatment they need.

A medical biller or patient service representative’s role may include:

• Liaising with insurance companies to investigate and submit patient claims
• Preparing distributing invoices
• Managing patient data and billing information
• Investigating cases where compensation was denied
• Communicating with patients to ensure their needs are being met

The vital role of customer service skills

What might seem like a highly administrative role calls, most importantly, for exceptional customer service skills. A patient support medical biller may interact with people in vulnerable, often extremely challenging positions on a daily basis. It stands to reason that attentive customer service skills are key.

Customer service skills are a muscle that can be trained over time both on the job and through the myriad tips, courses, and upskilling opportunities available today. In fact, building attentive customer service skills is a practical way of securing a strong career in the world of healthcare.

How to improve your customer service skills & succeed as a patient service representative

Active listening

Most of us, most of the time, are listening to those around us on a level that doesn’t truly serve them. We’re often distracted, searching for subtext, or waiting for the moment when it’s our turn to speak again. In a healthcare setting, where a patient may be experiencing enormous distress, not actively listening can potentially cause great harm.

Active listening is the method by which we ensure we’re genuinely listening to understand another person, and that we’re being fully present for whatever it is that they’re communicating. The benefits of active listening have been scientifically evidenced, particularly in a healthcare setting.

Clear communication

Combining active listening with polite, informed, jargon-free language results in satisfying and clear customer service. Avoiding overly technical language is best; just because a patient service representative knows all the lingo doesn’t mean the patient does. Clarity is a basic quality of good customer service and benefits the patient, you, and your employer.

Preparedness

Providing stellar customer service initiatives in a healthcare setting means having access to the customer solutions that your patients need. You can support yourself in achieving this by knowing your niche inside and out; what company protocols are, answers to common patient questions, and who to refer patients to if you don’t have the expertise . Naturally, you’ll encounter situations where you don’t have all the answers, but if you’re working in a supportive environment, you’ll always have help finding them.

Compassion

As a patient service representative, having the capacity to put oneself in the patient’s shoes can support your ability to provide quality care. Compassion speaks to our ability to be with another person’s suffering and respond to it with presence, attentiveness, and care—vital skills in a patient service representative.

Self-care

Self-care is perhaps one of the less acknowledged elements of providing skillful customer service. Working in a caring role can easily result in compassion fatigue and burnout when self-care isn’t prioritized. As a patient service representative, you have a duty of care not only to your patients but to yourself. It’s impossible to properly care for another person when you’re depleted. Consider what self-care looks like for you; it could be seeking support for your mental health, or arranging to work per diem to achieve work-life balance.

Build your skills with IQVIA

Whatever your professional role or career goals are—be it a patient service representative, medical biller, or sales representative—knowing how to improve your customer service skills can support your life in many ways.

Now that you have some actionable ideas, it’s time to put your new knowledge into practice. IQVIA is currently hiring for a range of jobs across the healthcare sector. Learn about how you can support IQVIA’s vision and discover medical biller jobs today.