A Message from the Desk of Dr. Kory Ward-Cook, CEO
June 2012
Last year, the NCCAOM Board and staff worked diligently to set the stage for the activities that will be taking place this year. The year 2011 was a year of evaluation and analysis of the services that we provide to our Diplomates and other key stakeholders. Through electronic surveys, such as our Diplomate Satisfaction Survey conducted in June 2011, our staff was able to obtain valuable quantitative and qualitative information on our Diplomates’ level of satisfaction with our programs, publications and services, as well as receive helpful comments and suggestions. Your feedback empowered us to improve existing services and also to create a few new services to better assist our Diplomates to promote their certification and to advance the acupuncture and Oriental medicine profession.
Last year’s Diplomate Satisfaction Survey results not only had the highest Diplomate response rate as compared to previous surveys (58% increase since 2005), but the results showed an overall improvement in all customer service categories from previous surveys. In fact, combining all of the customer services survey responses, there was a 23% increase in the number of Diplomates that were satisfied or very satisfied in 2011 compared to 2008.
The survey results showed a 9% improvement in overall satisfaction (“Very Satisfied” or “Satisfied”) compared to 2009 and a 21% increase since 2007. The NCCAOM staff is very proud that the percentage of Diplomates who are very satisfied has risen 13% since the first Diplomate Satisfaction Survey was administered in 2005.
We attribute this good news to be a result of the staff’s commitment to continuously improve our e-mail and telephone response rates and to NCCAOM’s management who continuously strive toward an even higher goal of excellence in customer service.
NCCAOM staff also pride themselves on providing helpful and knowledgeable information to Diplomates and candidates that is not only accurate but is also applicable to their needs. The survey results demonstrate this commitment by staff as both areas improved in the “Extremely Knowledgeable” categories from past years.
Thanks to our Diplomates who completed the 2011 Diplomate Satisfaction Survey, the staff received very specific feedback on the need to improve our NCCAOM® Recertification Handbook. According to both the quantitative data and the qualitative data received by Diplomates, the NCCAOM® Recertification Handbook,which explains the recertification process, needed to be simplified, and the requirements and how to achieve and document the recertification activities needed to be more succinct. The NCCAOM recertification process offers many options to our Diplomates and the handbook should represent these options in an unambiguous manner. As a result of your direct feedback from the 2011 Diplomate Satisfaction Survey, the NCCAOM has revamped the 2012 handbook to better portray the recertification process in a more clear and concise manner. Diplomates can get an overview of the Recertification process by viewing the Recertification at a Glance chart on the NCCAOM website. We welcome any future comments or suggestions on the content and layout of the 2012 handbook.
Another area in which we sought Diplomate feedback in order to make improvements was our website. Over the past few years, we specifically requested input from our Diplomates on how to improve our website, and what should be included. Thank you to all who have provided us with website improvement suggestions which have resulted in the creation of a new NCCAOM website launched in February 2011. After the launch of the website, we received further suggestions from Diplomates to further improve the Find-a-Practitioner Directory. I invite you to visit the newly enhanced NCCAOM Find a Practitioner directorywhich enables consumers to now search for active Diplomates by country, which means that international Diplomates will now be featured within the NCCAOM website “Find a Practitioner” tab. The staff also added a feature whereby one may search by zip code and proximity in miles to better locate Diplomates in each city through our Diplomates’ recommendations.
Overall you can see the results of the Diplomate Satisfaction Surveys are carefully considered by the NCCAOM Board of Commissioners and staff who all take the time to review and interpret the outcomes. We are listening to you and welcome all feedback from our Diplomates either through the survey process, if you encounter a problem or an issue that needs to be resolved, or if you have a positive experience that you would like to share with us. You can reach us through the NCCAOM website at https://www.nccaom.org/contact-us. You can also view the entire results of the 2011 Diplomate Satisfaction Survey through the NCCAOM website.
We are listening!