About Us
Baird Group, Inc. is a results-oriented consulting group specializing in customer service improvement and mystery shopping for healthcare organizations. The Baird Group delivers insightful observations, customized service strategies, and training. Since 1991, it has provided healthcare clients with targeted solutions for customer-service challenges. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and visit our blog for weekly tips, articles, and valuable healthcare information.
Kristin Baird, RN, BSN, MHA, President/CEO
With over thirty years of experience in patient care, healthcare marketing, business development, and administration, Kristin Baird is a talented speaker and consultant with a passion for service excellence. President of the Baird Group, Kristin earned a bachelor of science in Nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a masters in Health Services Administration from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, WI.
Kristin is the author of Raising the Bar on Service Excellence: The Health Care Leader's Guide for Putting Passion into Practice, Customer Service in Health Care: A Grassroots Approach to Creating a Culture of Service Excellence (Jossey Bass and American Hospital Association Publishing, 2000), and Reclaiming the Passion: Stories that Celebrate the Essence of Nursing (Golden Lamp Press, 2005).
Kristin is also the creator of "Raising the Bar on Service Excellence: Step by Step," a five-part Web series designed to help healthcare leaders implement the five essential competencies for building a service-centered culture. She has worked with hundreds of healthcare clients, including hospitals, medical practices, and long-term care facilities to improve the customer experience.
Kristin received an appointment from the Secretary of Health in 2009 to serve on the National Advisory Council for the National Health Service Corps. Her work in Washington is consistent with her passion for excellence. She brings her talent in customer service and marketing to assist the NHSC in serving the underserved.
Stacy Wagner, Mystery Shopping Director
Stacy Wagner is an accomplished manager with over fifteen years of experience in customer service and account management. Stacy leads the mystery shopping division at the Baird Group, overseeing thousands of mystery shops each year for healthcare organizations across the country. She has personally completed hundreds of mystery shops in the course of her career, gaining greater insight into the art and science of medical mystery shopping. Prior to joining the Baird Group in 2008, Stacy worked in management for Enterprise, Geico, and Remedy Staffing.
Stacy is directly involved in the recruiting and training of mystery shoppers throughout the US. She speaks regularly at mystery shopping conferences about mystery shopping in the healthcare industry. She is both Gold and Silver Certified by the MSPA.
Stacy earned a bachelor of arts degree in English and Public Relations from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Kevin Stranberg, Senior Consultant
Kevin Stranberg is a skilled strategist, trainer, and facilitator. Kevin helps our healthcare clients understand the customer perspective when tackling service and culture issues. Kevin began working in healthcare in 1994 as Director of Public Relations for Memorial Medical Center in Ashland, WI where he spearheaded a successful customer-service initiative. He joined Baird Group in 2004. In addition to his work with Baird Group, Kevin is an adjunct instructor for Northland College, where he teaches courses on leadership and strategic planning.
Kevin has served in leadership roles of many local, state, and national boards of directors, including the Wisconsin Health Care Public Relations and Marketing Society where he served terms as President, Treasurer, and District Representative. Kevin is currently serving a term on the board for the Society of Health Care Strategy and Market Development (AHA affiliate).
Linda Pophal, MA, ABC, SPHR, Consultant
Linda Pophal has more than twenty-five years of experience in strategic communications management, specializing in internal/employee communications with ten years in the healthcare industry as Director of Corporate Communications for Luther Midelfort-Mayo Health System.
Linda has worked with organizations to evaluate the effectiveness of internal communications. She has successfully created and implemented communication plans to achieve measurable improvements in metrics related to employee engagement.
Linda has been a National Baldrige Examiner and has worked with healthcare organizations on the development and submission of Baldrige applications, as well as the implementation of process improvements primarily related to customer and workforce focus.
She is the author of The Essentials of Corporate Communications and PR (Harvard Business School Press, 2006), as well as many articles on strategic communication/employee relations, and is a lecturer in the communication and journalism department for the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Tom Ludwig, RN, MBA, FACMPE, Consultant
Tom Ludwig specializes in medical practice operations and management. Tom brings a wealth of experience to the Baird Group by helping medical practices improve the patient experience. He has been on the front lines of healthcare delivery as an operating room technician, medical assistant, staff nurse, and administrator. He has worked primarily in the ambulatory setting for a variety of organizations over the past thirty years, including large and small organizations, public and private, for-profit, and not-for-profit. Tom has extensive experience in clinic operations management, with expertise in strategic and business planning, process improvement, and workflow efficiency, and supervisory training. His work in advanced access has been instrumental in improving the patient experience.
Tom is a graduate of St. Joseph Hosptial School of Nursing in Marshfield, WI, and has a bachelor of science and masters of business administration degrees from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, WI. He is a member of the MGMA-ACMPE and Wisconsin MGMA. He currently serves on the MGMA-ACMPE Board of Directors and is a Board Certified Medical Practice Executive and a Fellow in the American College of Medical Practice Executives.
Karl J. Krumm, PhD, Consultant
Karl Krumm has been involved in almost all aspects of organizational design for the last twenty years. Working in a broad range of industries, including high-tech, finance, healthcare, professional service firms, and energy, he has designed and delivered high-quality programs from supervisory and management training to leadership development, including performance management systems, talent retention, and succession planning.
With his background in psychology, he works with individuals, teams, and entire organizations on the development of coaching and mentoring programs.
Karl is a contributing author to Earl Maxwell’s book, Service, Sanity and Prosperity, and serves as an adjunct professor at the EMBA Program, University of Colorado-Denver.
Robin Segbers, Consultant, Brand Experience
Robin has worked with health systems throughout the US, ranging from small community hospitals to large academic medical centers in major metropolitan markets. She has a track record of helping health systems build market share in even highly competitive markets.
Prior to her focus on healthcare, Robin worked with many world-recognized brands in consumer goods industries, including the J.M. Smucker Company, Phillips Medical Systems, Pfaltzgraff, Sherwin Williams, Goodyear, T.J. Marzetti, Invacare, and Ross Laboratories.
Robin served as Co-Founder and Vice President at Point to Point Health Care in Cleveland, OH. Previously, she was a senior consultant with The Strategy Group in Norfolk, VA. There, she created and executed brand strategies for health systems nationwide and developed branded destination service lines for several health systems.
Robin holds her masters of business administration from Ohio State University and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Kent State University with a bachelor of science degree.
Emily Ace, Project Coordinator
Emily Ace is a seasoned project coordinator for the Baird Group’s mystery shopping division. Since joining the Baird Group in 2010, Emily has coordinated numerous projects for our healthcare clients, ensuring timely and accurate data collection and report generation.
Prior to working with the Baird Group, Emily served in a wide range of customer service roles in multiple industries, including architecture, hospitality, engineering, and transportation. Emily has a passion for improving the patient experience and ensures that her mystery shopping projects support our healthcare clients’ goals for improving service.
Emily earned her bachelor of arts in Advertising and Marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Bridget Nsibirwa, Project Coordinator
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Prior to joining the Baird Group, Bridget worked in human resources for Watertown Area Health Services, specializing in recruitment. Bridget first worked for the Baird Group from 2004 to 2006 in marketing and returned in 2011 as a project coordinator.
She has over eleven years of experience as a CNA.
Bridget holds degrees in Journalism and Education from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Elisabeth Callahan, Project Assistant
Elisabeth Callahan is a member of the medical mystery shopping team. She focuses on maintaining quality assurance in mystery shopping documentation.
Elisabeth also carefully guides shoppers individually to ensure they successfully capture the patient perspective in valuable quantitative and qualitative information.
Elisabeth earned her bachelor's degree in Sociology with a minor in English Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Yolanda Riddell, Scheduler/Quality Assurance Specialist
Yolanda Riddell has a passion for customer service and brings that into her roles as Scheduler and Quality Assurance Specialist within the mystery shopping division. Yolanda works with project coordinators to ensure the right shopper is assigned to each mystery shopping project. She helps provide shoppers with the tools they need to become successful mystery shoppers for Baird.
Yolanda also provides instructional design and developmental efforts that coordinate with the Baird Group's training webinars and classroom training initiatives.
Prior to joining the Baird Group, Yolanda held a training and organizational development position with Summit Credit Union for nine years, focusing on member service, culture improvement, and soft-skills enhancement initiatives.
She earned her bachelor's degree in Finance and Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Mandy Hunt, Quality Assurance Specialist
Mandy Hunt is a quality assurance specialist within the medical mystery shopping team and helps assure the highest standards in data collection and documentation.
Mandy has more than ten years of experience in the healthcare industry, including over seven years working in quality assurance for Wisconsin Physicians Services (WPS) Health Insurance, TRICARE division. Mandy has experience as a data security analyst within the Medicare division of WPS Health Insurance.
Brittany Klokow, Executive Assistant to Kristin Baird/Office Manager
Brittany Klokow joined the Baird Group team in May 2011 as Kristin Baird's Executive Assistant. She is also the company's general office manager and supervises the Baird Group's book publishing branch, Golden Lamp Press, LLC. In addition to overseeing company schedules, Brittany works to improve company processes, produce technical documents, and is involved in company marketing and advertising.
Brittany earned her bachelor of arts in English with an emphasis in Professional Writing and Book Publishing from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with a minor in Advertising. She also volunteers as Editor of a non-profit Wisconsin conservation newsletter.