Whatever it was, you knew, as the consumer, you were in the driver’s seat. Statistics show digital technology is forcing retailers to redefine how they market and sell to consumers – and, with that, comes catering to increasingly high customer expectations.
Did you know, for example, that 71% of shoppers believe they will get a better deal online than in stores? Or that 66% of time spent with online retailers is on mobile?
It’s clear that the retail industry is ahead of the curve when it comes to meeting customer expectations, and part of this forward momentum includes using digital efforts to educate, motivate, and engage target audiences.
The healthcare industry is another story entirely.
Research shows healthcare is lagging two years behind other industries in terms of its digital marketing efforts. Yet one Accenture study shows hospitals that are fastest to adopt patient experience and digital health best-practices will be best positioned to improve their reputations, reap the financial rewards, and outperform their peers.
Let’s take a look at some of the tactics retailers are using to engage their customers and drive revenue and explore how the healthcare industry can follow suit:
Create Better Customer Experiences
We’ve all heard this statistic before: It costs six times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one. But try this one on for size: Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by up to 95%.
What this means is there’s an increasing imperative to drive customer service excellence in the healthcare sector. And for good reason: U.S. hospitals that provide superior patient experiences generate 50% higher financial performance than average providers.
In the retail sector, brands must create omnichannel experiences that provide the customer with an integrated shopping experience and ultimately drive customer retention.
It’s no different in the healthcare industry. In today’s consumer-driven marketplace, patients have an abundance of information at their fingertips – across channels and platforms.
Have an injury or illness? Hop online, research your symptoms, and find the specialists in your area that can help you ASAP. Need a physician referral? Join a Twitter chat or other social media forum and find the physician with the best reputation for your specific medical needs.
The point is that healthcare needs to focus on ways to improve patient care, drive patient volumes, and foster engagement just as retailers need to offer the types of experiences that will keep shoppers coming back time and time again.
A big part of this involves connecting multiple, disparate patient experiences that occur over an extended period of time, resulting in a unified patient experience. Developing a full and complete picture of the patient journey allows health systems to provide truly patient-centric care over the long term.
A healthcare call center agent might, for example, use patient information contained in the CRM system to improve the quality of interaction between the representative and patient. Likewise, an agent could view physician specialty information, preferences on appointment availability, and previous referral interactions to coach a caller on the best ways to engage with the most appropriate provider.
Drive Customer Engagement
Let’s face it: Today’s consumer landscape is filled with choices. This includes not only how customers choose interact with brands (brick-and-mortar, social media, mobile, etc.) but also the ways in which brands interact with customers.
As a result of the increasingly crowded ecommerce marketplace, it’s more important than ever for retailers to engage customers in their company, products, and solutions offerings, providing them with the types of exceptional experiences they’re looking to have.
This level of engagement is equally important to consumers; in fact, 64% of people think that customer experience is more important than price in their choice of a brand.
Starbucks, for example, provides a seamless customer experience with its mobile app. The linked app allows coffee drinkers to find stores near them, accumulate rewards points, order drinks ahead of time for a quicker experience, view new additions to the menu, and more.
But what about healthcare patients and consumers?
According to Fierce Healthcare, many health systems are trending toward the retail side of business in an effort to better engage today’s more educated healthcare consumer. Airica Steed, R.N., chief experience officer at University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System (UI Health), says she studies the customer satisfaction models of several Global 1000 companies, including Disney, Southwest Airlines, Google, Ritz Carlton, and Zappos.
The Ochsner Health System also borrows from certain retail approaches to improve a user’s in-store experience. As noted in a SHSMD article, Ochsner launched the “O Bar” – similar to Apple’s retail store, in that it’s staffed by a tech-savvy, digital health “genius” – as a space where patients can explore new digital tools for managing their own health.
“The bar is equipped with iPads that allow visitors to explore hundreds of health and wellness apps,” says Ochsner. “Each app has been evaluated and approved by Ochsner physicians. Visitors can also try out wearable technologies, such as Fitbit activity trackers and other digital health devices.”
One of the primary reasons why the O Bar has received significant media attention since its launch is that it brings healthcare innovation directly to patients. The O Bar “uses a retail store model to bring health resources closer to patients’ daily lives and allows patients to take an active and independent role in their own health,” says Ochsner.
Final Thoughts
The end result of adopting a retail approach in healthcare is being able to foster the kind of patient engagement that leads to proactive health over the long term. It’s an opportunity to boost patient satisfaction by improving communication between patients and providers and deepening relationships between both parties.
About the author: Gary Druckenmiller, Jr. is Vice President, Marketing Practice Lead at Evariant. He functions as lead strategist, digital marketing thought leader and C-level executive sponsor for all of Evariant’s enterprise clients, primarily focused on advising health system leadership of opportunistic methods to improve their digital presence and interactive growth potential. Prior to Evariant, Gary served as Vice-President for Harte-Hanks, responsible for healthcare digital strategy and deliverables including multi-channel campaigns, paid digital media, social media, CRM and analytics. Gary has been with Evariant for 8 years and can be heard often on the hospital marketing speaking circuit. Gary has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Bentley University.
