Community Health Group, a non-profit health maintenance organization based in California, is celebrating an impressive milestone this year – its 20th anniversary. Since 1982, the company has provided high-quality affordable health coverage to families throughout the San Diego region. As one of the oldest health plans in the county, they are dedicated to taking care of each and every member whenever there is a health concern, no matter how large or small.

Chief Executive Officer Norma Diaz is a driving force behind the organization's mission: promoting, achieving and sustaining individual and community health. She explains, “At Community Health Group, we feel there is nothing more important than our community. We are doing our best to make sure everyone in San Diego County has access to quality health care.”

Diaz also understands and values customer service. 

“Because we are locally based, multilingual and multicultural, we can provide individualized service unlike any national health plan. We want every San Diego employer and their employees to know that we care because they are part of our community.”

To ensure that its service level exceeds member expectations, Community Health Group brought in The MAGIC® of Customer Relations for its Member Services Department in 1999. Communico's Talethea Best facilitated the MAGIC sessions and then certified several Community Health Group associates to spread the MAGIC attitude and behaviors to other departments. Since that time, MAGIC has become a part of the company's culture.

“Our employees value the principles taught in the MAGIC program because they realize they now have heightened customer service skills—skills that not very many companies invest in teaching their employees,” Diaz says. “We have also noticed a dramatic improvement in the feedback from our members and physicians.”

Diaz says she often receives letters from plan members praising the attentive and courteous manner in which they were dealt with.

“In honor of 20 years of service to the San Diego community and the future success of the company, I thought that the year 2002 would be a significant time to bring our managers together and ignite the MAGIC spirit once again.” After hearing Diaz's needs and concerns, Communico suggested a solution: a two-day MAGIC Champions Workshop for a group of 28 managers, followed by customized coaching.

The focus of the Champions Workshop was to celebrate the organization's successes; sustain the MAGIC momentum; and inject renewed spirit and fresh thought into Community Health Group's commitment. In this highly interactive workshop, participants deepened their awareness of the service culture and the core behaviors of a MAGIC Champion. Communico facilitators Best and Jean Marie Johnson led the workshop and helped the group identify the drivers and barriers to service excellence and strategies to sustain MAGIC. A true sense of team emerged as participants shared their personal commitments to supporting a MAGIC culture at Community Health Group.

“What was so refreshing for these staff members was being able to express, through various exercises, how they thought the company could improve,” Diaz explains. “We have embraced employees' ideas and find the results of the training invaluable to the future success of the company. If our employees know their opinions and thoughts are truly valued, then their positive energy is reflected in the way employees interact with our external and internal customers.”

To build on this momentum and further enhance MAGIC coaching skills, managers also attended a new two-day program from Communico called Coaching for Exceptional Performance. Johnson and Best worked with small groups of six to help each participant provide performance coaching and feedback in a way that is aligned with MAGIC. Participants learned how to get to the heart of developmental issues and conduct more effective feedback sessions so that associates take ownership of their own solutions. Many commented that the skills learned and practiced in the “coaching laboratories” could be applied to every business relationship.

Diaz and the entire Community Health Group team are committed to Community Health Group's vision of unparalleled service and quality care. They know that, with a little help from MAGIC, the company will stand out above other health plans because its employees are dedicated to making a great impression on the customer.