Ryman Healthcare rates top for customer service

Ryman Healthcare rates top for customer service

It’s three times a charm for the retirement village operator

New Zealanders have voted Ryman Healthcare the top retirement village operator for providing exceptional customer service for the third time.

Ryman has been awarded the gold medal in the 2018 Reader’s Digest Quality Service Award as the retirement village operator that Kiwis believe best demonstrates excellent customer service.

The company also won the award in 2017 and 2015.

Ryman Healthcare chief executive Gordon MacLeod said he was delighted to hear the result, crediting the company’s 4,500 staff for the achievement.

“I am constantly blown away by the sheer hard work, dedication and kindness that our staff show towards both our residents and their families.

“It is because of their commitment that we have received this award.”

Mr MacLeod added that while it was wonderful to be recognised, it wouldn’t stop Ryman from continually looking for ways to improve and build upon it.

Residents, their families and staff were regularly surveyed to ensure standards were maintained across the board.

“We recently had the best residents’ surveys we have ever had so we currently have the highest levels of happiness in the company,” he said.

Ryman had recently introduced a number of initiatives to improve the service that residents and their relatives had come to expect.

These included Ryman Delicious - a complete revamp of village food menus to give residents meal choices prepared and beautifully plated up by trained chefs; a new electronic medications system called IChart; and myRyman, which was a tablet-based nursing app which provides a live history of everything to do with each resident including all medical records. By eliminating paperwork, myRyman enables staff to spend more time looking after residents.

The company had also commissioned designer Annah Stretton to create a beautiful floral-inspired uniform which had been positively received by both staff and residents.

“We wouldn’t win awards like this without every one of our 4,500 staff doing their bit. It’s a fantastic accolade for them and an achievement they should be extremely proud of,” Mr MacLeod said.

Reader’s Digest commissions these awards annually, calling upon Catalyst Market Research to survey New Zealanders’ opinions of a range of service providers.

A total of 41 categories were surveyed with 1,500 New Zealanders asked to rate their experience of service by a range of businesses and organisations they have used.

This year they have adjusted the survey date to give Kiwis an overview for the upcoming year.

This would give the public a list of companies they can turn to knowing they can expect an excellent level of service, New Zealand Reader’s Digest editor Louise Waterson said.

“Companies that understand their success depends on maintaining customer expectations will always enjoy the edge over their competitors,” she said.

“Category winners can be especially pleased with the results, as the survey has also revealed that New Zealanders are quick to reward exemplary service with repeat custom and information sharing.”

The methodology behind the awards involved asking those surveyed when they had last used each of the listed brands.

All the organisations used were then rated – on a score of one to 10 – for personalisation, satisfaction, simplicity and understanding.

The survey respondents were then asked open-ended questions that were drivers of positive/negative experiences.

Feedback revealed customers are extremely likely to recommend a company if it offers easy and efficient service, excellent value, and knowledgeable and professional staff.

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