Bill of rights: Does a patient have the right to refuse medical treatment?

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You have the right to refuse medical treatment. But there are three exceptions to the right to refuse treatment. They occur when others are subsidising the patient’s income during his or her period of injury, sickness and inability to work.

Here are the three main exceptions to the right to refuse:

Workers’ Compensation

If you have been hurt or become sick as a result of your work or your work environment, and you are receiving income through workers’ compensation, then you may not have the right to refuse treatment. While specific laws addressing this issue vary from state to state, the idea is that an employee cannot legally continue to benefit financially by refusing treatment.

There will be gray areas, of course. There may be times a patient wants to refuse treatment for a medical problem unrelated to the injury or sickness that keeps him or her out of work. Refusing to get a flu shot is not the same as refusing a surgery that will repair someone’s body. Drug dependencies, whether or not they are the result of whatever treatment the employee is receiving, may affect that employee’s right to refuse treatment.

Employees may not have the right to refuse to go through a detox program, for example, depending on the results of those drug tests. This varies by state law. If you are receiving workers’ compensation and wish to refuse any sort of treatment, be sure you take the right steps and notify the right people in order to make that treatment refusal decision.

Social Security Disability (SSD)

Similar to workers’ compensation, people who receive social security disability may also find that they cannot legally refuse medical treatment. When taxpayers are providing you with income because you are sick or hurt, and if that illness or injury can be improved or repaired well enough so you can once again support yourself, you will not be allowed to refuse treatment. If you do, you will yield your right to receive that SSD support.As in workers’ comp, there are gray areas to this rule. SSD recipients are expected to pursue all “reasonable” forms of treatment. Of course, “reasonable” is left up to interpretation and treatment outcomes are never certain. If you are receiving SSD payments and wish to refuse any sort of treatment, be sure you take the right steps to make that treatment refusal decision. 

Private Disability

You may have chosen private disability insurance through your employer or individually through a company like Aflac or MassMutual. If your injury or sickness is unrelated to your employment but is affecting your ability to work or support yourself, that’s when your disability insurance will subsidize your income during your convalescence. Your ability to refuse treatment will vary by insurer.

In general, the rules for refusal will be similar to those for Social Security disability and workers’ compensation. The disability insurer won’t be willing to let you choose not to be treated if that refusal means they will have to pay you more money over a longer period of time. If you refuse treatment, you may forfeit those payments.If you are receiving any sort of disability payment and wish to refuse any sort of treatment, be sure you take the right steps to make that treatment refusal decision.

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Don’t neglect your customers complain

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When a customer presents you with a complaint, keep in mind that the issue is not personal; he or she is not attacking you directly but rather the situation at hand.

Think about the times when your customers have complained about an inconvenience. There is a great opportunity for improvement if you have ever responded.

If you know that something is annoying your customers, change it.

  • The climate of a business needs to be set with the comfort of the customers in mind. If multiple customers complain about being too hot or cold, adjust the settings.
  • Banking customers need pens. When they are chained to the counter, it sends a message to customers that they cannot be trusted. These are the same customers who are trusting the bank with their money! What is the point of providing pens if they are out of ink?
  • Why not provide a tray of pens imprinted with the company name, website, and phone number? That way, if customers do take one along, it will provide them with easy access to important information about the bank.

Fix the root cause of the problem.

Customer complaints are process improvement alerts. If several customers complain, it creates a great opportunity for your team to improve on methods for delivering exceptional service. When a business hears the same complaint from more than one customer, it’s time to identify and fix the root cause of the problem.

Otherwise, they will eventually go away. Customers are too valuable to ignore their feedback. There is no point in listening to your customers’ complaints if nothing is going to be done to correct the issue. Dealing with the same complaints, again and again, creates frustration and employee apathy. It is also a considerable waste of employee time that could be better-spent building positive relationships with customers.

So in summary, the next time you receive a customer complaint, follow these tips to help transform it into a golden opportunity for your business.

  1. Listen and understand. Always listen to your customers. …
  2. Don’t be afraid to apologize for a mistake. …
  3. Find a solution. …
  4. Follow up with the customer. …
  5. Exceed Expectations.

To grab your customers attention, surprise them

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Ways to grab your customer’s attention  in a distracted world

Who doesn’t like a surprise? The best way to form an instant connection with your customers is to surprise them. Creating a sense of delight among your customers can help them in staying connected with you for a longer span of time

Target the right audience

If you choose the right audience, it ensures that your brand has a higher probability of success. You need to begin with narrowing down your potential audience. This can be done by analysing current customers and studying demographic trends.

Thereafter, you could study the market and figure out the kind of people that would use your product or service. Once you have done this, you could look at the marketing activities of your competitors in order to identify gaps in the market. Finally, after identifying the gaps, you need to create a compelling brand copy that can grab the attention of your customers and hold it.

By choosing the right audience, you are ensuring that your campaigns are reaching customers that are already interested in the product. You just have to form a connection with them. They are also more likely to share your campaigns with others, giving you free publicity.

Keep it simple

Any campaign that you design needs to be simple. This is because complexity can often prove to be a turn off for your customers. You do not want that to happen, especially in today’s world.

Nowadays, people are exposed to brands all the time. Be it in the online world, or in the real world; brands have become omnipresent. This means that there is a lot of competition that needs to be dealt with. Often, simplistic brand campaigns can work like a charm.

People do not have the time to go through elaborate product descriptions and features. Instead, they tend to look for something that is much more simplistic and yet serves the purpose. By keeping things simple, a brand can ensure that it can appeal to the masses and grab their attention for longer periods of time.

Simplistic campaigns also help your customers in making a quick decision. This can prove to be a game-changer in today’s competitive environment. Once the customer begins to feel that they have seen what they want, they are ready to make a decision. This helps your brand in quickly realizing sales and building your customer base rapidly.

Feuding Employees: How to mediate conflict between employees

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 How you can tactfully turn conflict into consensus between feuding employees

Image result for dealing with employee conflict
How to mediate conflict between employees – Customer service mediator

It’s natural to try to avoid conflict, but as a manager, you’re going to eventually have to deal with a conflict between employees. It is inevitable that there will be some amount of conflict on a team with a variety of industry experts and leaders. Some amount of conflict can be healthy, as long as it is discussed and a conclusion is reached. Clashing personalities or opposing viewpoints can actually bring new thoughts and discussions on aspects of a project that had not been imagined before.

Use the following methods to create harmony in your team and your project.

  1. Be Aware That Conflict Occurs. …
  2. Set the Ground Rules. …
  3. Learn About Destructive Conflicts. …
  4. Stop Conflict When it Happens. …
  5. Get the Whole Story. …
  6. Meet for Resolutions. …
  7. Discuss Both Sides of a Perspective. …
  8. Make Compromise a Goal.

The type of conflict you have to worry about more is unspoken resentment that can erupt in an outburst, or even more deadly, in quiet mutiny or deviation from agreed upon roles, tasks and goals.

So first be aware that conflict occurs

Knowing that conflict may and will occur is the first step to resolving it, especially if you know that certain team members may disagree with each other. By recognizing that there will be conflict, a project manager knows what to expect.

Secondly, set the ground rules

At the beginning of your project set some ground rules in your first meeting. Be sure to address what process will be taken to address conflicts, as they are bound to rise and will need to be taken care of before they spiral out of control. Tell team members that everyone’s ideas are valid and that they shouldn’t be dismissed, even if you do not agree with them.

Then learn about destructive conflicts

Conflict becomes destructive when no resolution is in sight or the issue cannot be resolved. A psychological model for explaining destructive patterns is the persecutor-victim-rescuer triangle. The persecutor would be the bad-guy or bully in this scenerio, but the rescuer is also placing him or herself in a position of superiority over the supposed victim. Stop yourself if you see yourself slipping into any of these roles and also try to recognize it in your team.

How you can tactfully turn conflict into consensus between feuding employees
It is inevitable that there will be some amount of conflict on a team with a variety of industry experts and leaders. Some amount of conflict can be healthy, as long as it is discussed and a conclusion is reached. Clashing personalities or opposing viewpoints can actually bring new thoughts and discussions on aspects of a project that had not been imagined before.Use the following methods to create harmony in your team and your project.

  1. Be Aware That Conflict Occurs. …
  2. Set the Ground Rules. …
  3. Learn About Destructive Conflicts. …
  4. Stop Conflict When it Happens. …
  5. Get the Whole Story. …
  6. Meet for Resolutions. …
  7. Discuss Both Sides of a Perspective. …
  8. Make Compromise a Goal.

The type of conflict you have to worry about more is unspoken resentment that can erupt in an outburst, or even more deadly, in quiet mutiny or deviation from agreed upon roles, tasks and goals.

Painless way to Free Yourself of Problem Clients

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Letting go of your first “problem client” can be an emotionally charged experience, but honestly it’s one of the most important milestones in your businesses.

It’s important because with each problem client, you’re able to get clearer view on what your “deal breakers” are and which customers are your ideal customers. So while you’ll never be able to filter out every “problem client” regardless of how good your client intake process is or how fine tuned your contact form is, letting them go does get easier with experience.

Here are things you should remember when ending the relationship.

  • Politely explain the situation
  • Focus on their interests
  • Be professional, you never know where people will be 5, 10, or 15 years in the future.
  • Set expectations of what next to expect.

Easy way to tell customers they aren’t right – without saying, ‘You’re wrong’

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Image result for wrong customer

Let’s face it: Nobody likes to be wrong. But sometimes clients aren’t as receptive to the bad news as we may hope. When it comes to opinionated clients, at times, they have an idea of what they want, but we, as the agency, have the market knowledge and experience to know that these expectations may be unrealistic.

 Be Diplomatic and Communicate Effectively

Diplomacy is crucial when it comes to communicating with your clients. Your clients are entitled to their opinion and (many) suggestions, which is why you can’t tell them that they are flat out wrong. To avoid belittling them, make sure to provide reasons why they are right, first.

Give honest and Constructive Feedback

Nobody wins with dishonest feedback. Always remember to give the valuable feedback that you would like to receive. A survey revealed that 92% of professionals agreed that negative feedback can improve performance if presented appropriately. And when applied to client relations, by letting them know what isn’t working, your team can follow that up by providing a solution that will provide results that better fit with what your clients originally had in mind.

In summary: 

  1. Stick to the facts. Avoid pointing to what’s been said, and focus on what’s been done and is documented. …
  2. Bring up “miscommunication.” When using the word “miscommunication,” you don’t point blame. …
  3. Change his perspective. …
  4. Offer alternatives.

Five ways to eliminate customer service friction

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The biggest friction point of all with customers is making them wait and disrespecting their time. So the basic ways to eliminate frictions are as follows: 

  1. Duration: How long do we make customers wait? It could be on hold for customer support or in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. Waiting is friction. Wasting our customer’s time is friction. That little recording you hear when you’re on hold should say, “Your call is NOT really that important to us. Otherwise, we wouldn’t make you wait!”
  2. Memory: I’m always frustrated when I call a customer support number that I’ve called in the past and have to retell my story. Same goes for when I’m transferred to another person. There is no reason for this. Employees should be armed with information about the customer’s past calls, purchases, and any other interaction they have had with the company. Making a customer repeat their story is a waste of time. It’s friction!
  3. Consistency: Consistency isn’t the problem. It’s lack of consistency. Specifically, I’m referring to inconsistent information. One day I called my cellular provider with a question about an international calling plan. I didn’t like the answer I got, so I called back and a different agent gave me a different answer. My assistant asked me which plan I thought was correct. I jokingly said, “the one with the lower price.” Inconsistent information derails confidence and trust.
  4. Empowerment: When we talk about empowerment, we’re usually referring to empowering employees to take care of the customer. In this case, it’s empowering the customer to take control of their situation. Self-service tools are a powerful way to take care of the customer’s questions and problems quickly and efficiently. Customers like a good self-service solution.
  5. Proactiveness: With today’s technological capabilities, why should a customer have to reach out for help to begin with? In many instances, companies can know a customer is having problems before the customer does. Predictive support will soon become a customer expectation.

In truth, there are lots of ways we can eliminate friction for our customers. The above list is a reminder of the most painful points of friction, meant to give you an idea of where to start. So, take a look at your business. Listen to your employees and, most importantly, your customers. Where do they encounter friction? And what can you do to eliminate that? Give your customers the experience they expect and deserve—one that is easy, convenient, and friction-free.

Is Your Focus on You or Your Customers?

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Having a customer focus is usually a strong contributor to the overall success of a business and involves ensuring that all aspects of the company put its customers’ satisfaction first. Customer service is a series of activities designed to deliver customer satisfaction. The process of providing customer satisfaction is based on an understanding of what customers want and need. Effective businesses aim to anticipate and meet or exceed these needs.

Complete focus on customer simply means the orientation of an organization toward serving its clients’ needs. Having a customer focus is usually a strong contributor to the overall success of a business and involves ensuring that all aspects of the company put its customers‘ satisfaction first.
So to maintain customers focus on your customer and not necessarily you, you will need to do the following: 

  1. Get aligned with your customers’ wants and needs. A customer focus should go beyond product, to the way a customer prefers to do business with you.
  2. Work with your customers to fully understand their business model.
  3. Provide value-added services to establish a direct relationship with customers.
  4. Make the Effort to Follow-up: Some customer service situations require a follow-up contact. The big question is who should take responsibility?Let’s say a customer calls to check the status of an item she ordered. The customer service rep verifies the order is in production and is scheduled to ship the following day for a Friday delivery. A transactional customer service rep might say, “Give me a call if it doesn’t arrive by Friday and I’ll track it down for you.” While a customer-focused rep might say, “I’ll monitor the status of your order and follow-up with you on Friday to make sure it arrived in good condition. All you need to do is, make sure you follow-up. 

Customer-focus is a powerful skill. It helps you better understand your customers, which in turn makes it easier to meet and often exceed their expectations. I encourage you to try at least one of these exercises right now and see how they can make a difference!

Misconceptions About Customer Feedback and Complain

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The feedback you get from customers is of utmost importance to you. A lot of companies consider market research and customer interaction at the start of their developmental process, they often fail to incorporate feedbacks and complains at later stages mainly because they see both as the same thing.

No! They are not the same thing. We will define the two for you to truly understand the difference. 
Customer Feedback describes the process of obtaining a customer’s opinion about a business, product or service. It could be either praise or criticism.

Customer Complaint can be described as a report from a consumer providing documentation about a problem with a product or service, or “an expression of dissatisfaction on a consumer’s behalf to a responsible party”.
Feedback is great for your company and you might even find negative and frustrated remarks or complaints in your feedback.

However, when a customer has a complaint, it is as a result of dissatisfaction with your company, product or service. With customer complaint, your primary aim is to resolve the complaints as soon as possible.


Nevertheless, customer feedback is equally important and every bit of feedback must be accounted for and acted upon. Always thank customers for their feedback and inform them about any changes implemented as a result of their feedback.

Think about it: if a customer’s feedback has helped you make a change and they aren’t receiving a response, they’d believe that you are ignoring their opinion and not giving them any credit at all. 


This would only result in customers who don’t want to give you their feedback: not something you want, is it? One method of interacting with customers that is underused is a personal ‘thank you’ or follow up note. Whether you’re a small or a large company, this opportunity must be used! After all, your customers are the ones taking time out of their day to give you feedback on why they do business with you.


In conclusion, listen to customer feedback with such care that customers truly see the changes that they suggested and want to keep coming back and aim to gather customer feedback throughout the life-cycle of the company.

Working too much can cause heart disease and diabetes – Janine Morgan

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Steps companies can take to avoid employee burnout

A survey presented on Pulse shows that companies are facing an employee burnout crisis. In a hyper-connected world, it’s very easy for employees to work longer hours. The rise of instant messaging makes work-life balance increasingly rare. If not managed properly, employee burnout can lead to unproductive workers and even the loss of talent. It can also cause numerous health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, and gastrointestinal issues.

1. Get Regular Feedback

It’s important for managers to regularly get feedback from their employees. We suggested that through feedback sessions management will learn what their workers need to stay engaged and productive.

At the same time, it’s a way of saying that you value your employees enough to listen to them and adjust office policies to meet their needs. Studies have proven that getting honest feedback can do wonderful things, such as reduce turnover rates, create higher sales, and improve customer relations.

2. Encourage Teamwork & Connections

Employees are less likely to burn out when they are able to lean on their officemates for support, and it is recommended that managers set collective team goals. When an office is working towards something together, it’s more likely to foster collaboration and strong employee relations.

Another way to encourage teamwork is to set out-of-office bonding sessions where employees are able to get to know their team members outside of a working environment.

3. Support Employee Vacation Leaves

Encouraging your employees to take days off is important in keeping up good office morale. Holiday leaves help employees get the rest they need to come back to the office refreshed and ready to work. Some companies are apprehensive about encouraging employees to go on leave because of the pending work that gets left behind.

This is especially important if your employees are managing valuable clients who require regular coordination. Temporary workers ensure that operations continue while your employees are getting the proper time off to avoid burning out.

4. Set Realistic Goals

Computer World reminds office managers about the significance of setting realistic goals. This allows employees to work at a reasonable pace while still meeting the necessary deadlines. Unnecessary pressure will not do anything for your employees, and could actually be detrimental to them.

Remember that missed deadlines can be very stressful for employees. During times when management does need to push in order to get something accomplished, be transparent with your staff. Help them understand that the extra work is not normal, nor will it be an ongoing demand.

Workers who know that the intense grind won’t last forever will take on the task more efficiently than those who think the daily grind is never-ending.