You communicate more when you’re unhappy…

High survey response rates often indicate something is amiss. It’s similar to the old chestnut:

“An unhappy person will tell 11 people, a happy person will tell none”

In general practice we are surveyed ad nauseum. Which is why when we send out a survey and there are low response rates we understand. In fact, we have to be a little bit happy about this reality, because it is a proxy measure for happiness or contentment – to a degree.

We know that GP’s tend not to be shrinking violets when we have an opinion about something that is not quite right, so it is nice to see a drop off in people beating down our door to tell us about their discontent with GP training.

We are pleased to see that many of the issues raised by stakeholders in last year’s supervisor satisfaction survey have been acted upon by the relevant RTO.

Consider the statistics:

1. For every customer complaint there are 26 other unhappy customers who have remained silent –Lee Resource.

2. 96% of unhappy customers don’t complain, however 91% of those will simply leave and never come back – Financial Training services.

3. A dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Around 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people. – White House Office of Consumer Affairs.

4. Happy customers who get their issue resolved tell about 4-6 people about their experience. – White House Office of Consumer Affair.

5. 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated – McKinsey.

6. 55% of customers would pay extra to guarantee a better service – Defaqto research.

7. Customers who rate you 5 on a scale from 1 to 5 are six times more likely to buy from you again, compared to ‘only’ giving you a score of 4.8. – TeleFaction data research.

8. It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience – “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner.

9. A 5% reduction in the customer defection rate can increase profits by 5 – 95% – Bain & Company.

10. It costs 6–7 times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one – Bain & Company.

11. eCommerce spending for new customers is on average $24.50, compared to $52.50 for repeat customers – McKinsey.

As a GP Supervisor you are a customer or consumer; so too is your registrar. Your feedback isn’t just collected to tick a box or sit in a dust cupboard. When GPSA ask you what you think, we feed the deidentified trends back to RTOs and the Department of Health. If you have not yet shared your thoughts, that’s great, we take it as a given that you are happy and time poor or perhaps you just have survey fatigue. Not you? Complete the survey now.

Our rural GP Supervisors are the happiest of all!

Not you? Complete the survey now.

OK, so we might be getting a little cheeky there, but frankly if you don’t complete the survey, your voice gets lost and all sorts of substitute claims can be made. We’d love you to share your thoughts… the survey takes just 10 minutes.

Employment Contract and NTCER Hotline

As we progress into a new training term we are receiving a lot of phone calls for support with contracts, leave payout calculations and percentage questions. Keep them coming. We are here to support you. If you need to clarify something it is vastly easier to do it at the start of a term than at the end for you and your registrar. You can email your query through to enquiries@gpsupervisorsaustralia.org.au or call the office on 03 5440 9077.

Yours in GP training,

Dr Steve Holmes