2016 Alliance sponsor feature article provided courtesy of Marketing Works
By Tina Rudisill and Gail Schwartz
First, let’s give credit where credit is due. The physicians in your practice are, of course, the core of your business. They know their medicine, and they know what a good patient outcome requires from a clinical standpoint.
But the physician’s point of view—let’s call it “DoctorThink”—may not encompass the full picture of what it takes to thrive in the business of healthcare. Rightfully placing clinical concerns front and center, they may not be fully in touch with all the other aspects of the healthcare experience that are important to patients—and even referring physicians—in your market.
The reality is that the patients who benefit from the clinical skill of your doctors are often evaluating your practice on criteria that go beyond the medical nuts and bolts. In fact, from the perspective of most patients, clinical quality is assumed.
Sick people want to get better, and well people want their doctors to support their efforts to stay healthy. But unless you’re running the only practice on a small, isolated island, there are probably various competitors that your patients can choose from. So what sways a patient to choose one provider over another? Could it be that their entire experience with a medical practice, starting with the first review they read online or the first call to a scheduler, weighs into their decision-making?
Not convinced? Research supports the concept that outstanding patient experience can even lead to better clinical outcomes. To cite just one example, a 2012 report from the Center for Health Affairs makes the case that positive patient experience favorably impacts clinical quality, patient loyalty, and financial success of providers (The Center for Health Affairs, 2012).
Moreover, if you’re in a specialty that depends on referrals, are you certain that you fully understand what is important to your referral sources? Here, it’s also natural for doctors to assume that clinical issues reign supreme. But the big picture is more complex.
Another study, for example, looked at influences on where doctors choose to refer when a patient needs specialty care. Can you guess what factor was cited most frequently? If you guessed “clinical skill,” you’re right—it is the highest-ranking selection criterion. But patient experience was the next strongest driver. Quality of communication, sharing medical records, convenient locations, and timely appointment availability were also noteworthy factors (Barnett, Keating, Christakis, O’Malley, & Landon, 2012).
What does this mean for you? For starters, it means that experiential factors just might make a patient choose you over a competitor, and provide reasons for them to stay with your practice, especially in a competitive market.
Granted, it’s tough to swallow the idea that the physicians in your practice could be partially misunderstanding the needs of your patients and referral sources. But realize that it probably isn’t a question of “under-serving.” You’re almost certainly doing just fine at the essentials. The problem, more than likely, is that so is virtually everyone else. Standing out as the better choice requires something more: exceeding the benchmarks through patient experience and customer service.
Think about the last time you were “wowed” by customer service—not in healthcare, but in another realm, like a fabulous hotel or retailer that served you well beyond expectations. Remember how that felt? That’s the way you want your patients and referral sources to feel.
So now that you’ve reached this understanding, what’s next? How do you deliver a “wow” patient experience?
Stop the DoctorThink and Start Thinking Like a Customer
To truly understand what it takes to wow customers, you need to escape from the “inside view” you probably now have of how your practice operates.
It’s easy to take what you see every day for granted as normal, or even as an intractable reality. But put yourself in the shoes of a patient arriving for the first time. Her experience is unique. And it begins well beforehand. Every interaction shapes your customer’s experiences and opinions.
To wow customers, you need to focus on their needs, creating a customer centric atmosphere—to an extent that is unmatched in your market. Achieving this could involve any number of approaches: developing a service guarantee, providing amenities that make your patients feel more like they’re in a café or high-end hotel instead of a clinical facility: these are the kinds of changes that build loyalty and generate the positive word-of-mouth marketing you need.
Do this, and you’ll differentiate yourself in a way that’s virtually unbeatable. You need to set the new standard and relentlessly keep raising the bar.
The Importance of Internal Buy-In
When you think about marketing your practice more successfully, do you give much thought to the roles of your administrative staff, nursing team, and mid-level clinicians? Since the objective is to create a customer experience that serves as your key differentiator, you overlook these team members at your peril. Step back and think about all the ways they shape customer experience. They are likely to have an even greater impact on customer experience than your physicians.
That’s why staff buy-in is crucial. A successful, sustainable customer experience begins with the creation of a culture that supports it. It’s essential to educate clinicians and staff at all levels on the impact and value of their contribution to the organization’s success. You must keep them involved. Find ways to engage them by setting clearly defined customer service standards and providing the training they need to exceed expectations. Ongoing monitoring and recognition of jobs well done are equally important. You need to build a cohesive team with a singular focus on super-serving customers.
But Where to Begin?
Once you cast a critical eye on every customer touchpoint, it will probably become clear that accurately assessing your own strengths and weaknesses can be challenging—even after you understand your need to escape from DoctorThink.
It takes unbiased feedback to gain a complete, accurate understanding of your relationships with patients and referrers and how to improve them. And you’ll be more successful in getting that feedback if you use forums like focus groups or advisory panels to bring customers into the loop.
Granted, if you’re a non-physician practice manager, or an exceptionally business-savvy doctor, you’re going to be less prone to DoctorThink, with a wider view of how all aspects of operations affect customer experience.
But even the most business-savvy physicians and practice managers can benefit from fresh perspectives that are informed by expertise in how to transform customer experiences in healthcare. That kind of expertise that can save you the time, effort, and cost of beginner mistakes and unnecessarily reinventing the wheel. When you invest in your customer experience, you’re investing in an important asset—a powerful differentiator that can strengthen your competitive position.
REFERENCES
- Barnett, M. L., Keating, N. L., Christakis, N. A., O’Malley, A. J., & Landon, B. E. (2012, May). Reasons for Choice of Referral Physician Among Primary Care and Specialist Physicians. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 27(5), 506-512.
- The Center for Health Affairs. (2012). The Growing Focus on Patient Experience and Why it Matters. Cleveland: The Center for Health Affairs.
About the Authors
TINA RUDISILL brings more than 30 years of experience to trg Marketing Works, the agency she leads in York, Pennsylvania. Rudisill has delivered presentations on healthcare marketing strategies and spearheaded strategic marketing programs for clients in healthcare, garnering awards for external marketing, advertising, and general brand awareness initiatives. Tina can be reached at trg Marketing Works, 3315 Concord Rd., York, PA 17402; 717-852-7171; trudisill@marketingworks.net.
GAIL SCHWARTZ, Vice President—Healthcare for trg Marketing Works in York, Pennsylvania, has an extensive background in planning and executing strategic marketing and branding initiatives for entire healthcare organizations and specialty service lines. Her work has been recognized with Quest Awards, Aster Awards, and the Annual Healthcare Advertising Awards. Gail can be reached at trg Marketing Works, 3315 Concord Rd., York, PA 17402; 717-852-7171; gschwartz@marketingworks.net.
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