Customer Care Officer

Job Purpose

• The Customer Care Officer is responsible for providing professional, compassionate, and timely customer service to patients, caregivers, visitors, and other stakeholders. The role supports a positive patient experience through patient navigation, effective communication, complaint handling, feedback management, and coordination with hospital departments.

Requirements

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Welcome patients, caregivers, visitors, and other stakeholders professionally and courteously.
• Provide accurate information regarding hospital services, processes, clinics, operating hours, and patient pathways.
• Assist patients with navigation through registration, consultation, investigations, treatment, billing, and other relevant hospital processes.
• Identify delays or barriers affecting patient flow and escalate them to the appropriate department or supervisor.
• Receive and respond to telephone and other approved customer enquiries professionally.
• Direct enquiries and calls to the appropriate departments or personnel.
• Receive patient complaints and concerns respectfully and record them accurately in the approved system or register.
• Resolve routine customer-service issues within delegated authority and escalate clinical, financial, safety, ethical, or complex complaints appropriately.
• Follow up outstanding complaints and support timely closure in accordance with hospital procedures.
• Collect patient feedback through approved surveys, questionnaires, interviews, or other feedback mechanisms.
• Monitor recurring patient concerns and communicate trends to management for service improvement.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of hospital services and provide approved patient information materials.
• Liaise with clinical and non-clinical departments to resolve patient concerns and improve patient flow.
• Maintain accurate records of enquiries, complaints, feedback, escalations, and follow-up actions.
• Prepare regular customer-care and patient-experience reports as required.
• Support patient-experience audits, quality-improvement activities, outreach, and approved patient-engagement initiatives.
• Maintain confidentiality of patient and institutional information.
• Do not provide clinical advice, interpret clinical results, or make decisions outside delegated authority.

Qualifications and Experience

• Diploma in Customer Service, Public Relations, Front Office Operations, Business Administration, Health Administration, or a related field.
• Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field is an advantage.
• Minimum of two (2) years’ experience in customer care, front office, patient relations, or a related service environment.
• Previous experience in a hospital or healthcare setting is strongly preferred.
• Computer literacy and experience using hospital information systems is an advantage.

Required Skills and Competencies

• Strong patient-centred customer-service skills.
• Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Strong active listening, empathy, and conflict-management skills.
• Good knowledge of patient flow and hospital service processes.
• Good telephone etiquette and professional front-office skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and relevant hospital information systems.
• Strong record-keeping and report-writing skills.
• Ability to remain calm, professional, and courteous under pressure.
• Strong problem-solving, coordination, planning, and follow-up skills.
• Fluency in English and Kiswahili; additional languages are an advantage.
• High level of professionalism, integrity, confidentiality, and accountability.

Expected Outcomes

• Positive and professional patient and visitor experience.
• Timely and effective response to patient enquiries and concerns.
• Improved patient navigation and coordination across hospital departments.
• Timely recording, escalation, follow-up, and closure of complaints.
• Reliable patient feedback data available for management review.
• Identification of recurring service issues and contribution to corrective actions.
• Improved patient satisfaction and service quality.
• Accurate and confidential customer-care records.
• Improved communication between patients and hospital departments.
• Consistent compliance with hospital customer-care, confidentiality, and escalation procedures.