Revolutionizing Customer Experience in Healthcare: for Better Outcomes

In today's rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, providers face the challenge of delivering exceptional customer experiences (CX) to meet the rising expectations of consumers. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for digital care solutions and has highlighted the importance of predictable and mobile-friendly, user-optimised experiences.

However, many healthcare organisations are still lagging behind in providing smooth, personalised services. Today, we'll look at 3 crucial strategies for improving the customer experience in healthcare: leadership, capabilities and measuring success.

1. Align Leadership to a customer-centric strategy

Creating a customer-centric culture starts at the top. It requires an appreciation among organisational leaders including the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Chief Technology Offer (CTO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). By fostering collaboration and the strategic value of marketing, these leaders can drive changes that move the business beyond traditional marketing models.

"Leaders can drive changes that move the business beyond traditional marketing models."

This alignment moves the focus away from traditional and digital marketing activities that rely on mass, undefined channels. Instead, healthcare providers should aim for sophisticated marketing capabilities, including personalisation and targeted messaging. Cross-functional collaboration can help design and build a single source of truth for consumer data, usually a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

2. build capability through a unified techstack

Healthcare providers often face capability gaps that hinder the ability to deliver personalised experiences for clients or consumers. Fragmented information, disjointed customer experiences and siloed old-fashioned systems hinder the seamless integrations required to create a unified customer experience.

"Smooth customer journeys are delivered through an integrated tech-stack."

Bridge the gaps by investing in a technology stack that improves priority touchpoints in your customer journey. For example, patient scheduling tends to be a top priority for most healthcare providers. It needs to be a seamless process to book an appointment, and appointment reminders are now a user expectation. Collaboration between marketing and technology teams is critical for smooth execution and seamless communications between client and service providers.

3. measure what works

Attribution enables healthcare providers to analyze the effects of campaigns and gauge conversion rates. Build connections between digital channels and desired outcomes, such as appointments booked online. Setting this up correctly can be complex but is critical to informing ongoing marketing strategy. Clean data will contribute to continuous improvement of the customer experience.

"Foster lasting relationships, improve health outcomes and position the business as a leader."

Improving the customer experience in healthcare requires a strategic and holistic approach. By aligning leadership, choosing integrated technology platforms and measuring the impact of marketing activities, healthcare providers can not just create a seamless business process, but improve patient health.