Revolutionising Customer Experience in Healthcare: for Better Outcomes

The Hard Data Behind Healthcare's CX Problems

The evidence on customer experience for healthcare reveals a gap: most providers have yet to meet today’s digital expectations. For the public smooth interactions with broader platforms has become the norm, while the digital systems in healthcare often remain in the Jurassic period - complete with meteor-sized gaps that would make the ice-age look efficient by comparison. Research from Deloitte backs the need for change - hospitals with better patient-reported experience perform 61% better financially. (Deloitte, 2019) Results suggest that investments in patient experience increase costs but increase revenue even more.

Despite the returns, most organisations continue to underinvest in customer experience.

A 2020 study published in Knowledge Management & E-Learning found that patient journey mapping "holds significant promise improving complex healthcare processes for patients and providers alike" - yet it remains underutilised (Joseph et al., 2020). 

Three Research-Backed Insights About Healthcare CX That Most Execs Miss

1. Your Transformation Timeline is Too Ambitious
   
   Most healthcare executives anticipate meaningful CX results within 3-months. It’s not realistic - research suggests organisations that successfully transform patient experience typically see meaningful results within 6-9 months, with comprehensive transformation requiring 12-24 months of focused effort (McKinsey, 2022). Those who prioritise high-impact touchpoints first (appointment scheduling and digital communication) can reduce that timeline by approximately 30%.
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2. Your Technology Isn't The Main Problem—Your Silos Are
   
   ‍While it's natural to focus on tech limitations, the evidence suggests that’s not the biggest challenge. Memorial Health System operated with the same legacy EMR as their competitors, yet achieved a 37% improvement in patient retention through one key difference: creating cross-functional teams accountable for the entire patient journey (Cleveland Clinic, 2021).
   
   This organisational approach is backed by research. Joseph et al. (2020) identified that siloed systems and "lack of standardisation" in patient journey mapping were the primary barriers to improved experiences—not the technology itself. Technology enables change, but organisational alignment drives it.
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3. Most Healthcare CX Metrics Are Vanity Metrics
   
   Website visits, app downloads, and even satisfaction surveys often track activity rather than impact. Prioritising your metrics works better -  a study by Northwestern Medicine found that streamlining their metrics dashboard from 24 KPIs to just 7 outcome-based measures improved execs’ decision-making by 40% based on resource allocation, speed of decisions, clinical outcomes and consensus building (Becker's Hospital Review, 2022).
   
   Research published in the Journal of Service Management reinforces this point: healthcare organizations that focus on outcome metrics like appointments booked and procedures completed (rather than website traffic) see 23% higher conversion rates from their digital channels (Chen et al., 2023).

Skip the Powerpoint: These Strategies Deliver Results

Align Leadership (and Budgets) to Customer-Centricity

Customer experience initiatives require genuine leadership commitment to succeed. A 2022 Gartner study found that 70% of CX initiatives stall without proper leadership support (Gartner, 2022). Effective transformation requires your CMO, CTO, and CFO singing from the same hymn sheet and—crucially—allocating real resources to the cause.

"Executives demonstrate their true priorities through budget allocation. Customer experience either receives proper funding or remains an aspiration rather than a strategy."

Evolve beyond traditional marketing approaches of broad emails and generic campaigns. Recent research shows that healthcare organisations implementing cross-functional collaboration achieve higher customer satisfaction all by creating a unified view of the patient journey (Sijm-Eeken et al., 2020). Your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system should function as the central hub, not some neglected database gathering dust and occasionally being poked at with the stick of quarterly reporting. Convincingly, "Healthcare organisations with mature attribution models see 23% higher conversion rates than their peers" (Liu et al., 2024)

Build a Practical Tech Stack

Fragmented digital systems affect patient retention. Forrester data shows that 67% of consumers are frustrated by disjointed healthcare digital experiences (Forrester, 2021). From the patient perspective, your organisation is a single entity regardless of your internal structure.

"Patients experience your organisation as a unified whole. System integration is an organisational responsibility, and should not be a patient burden."

Prioritise tech investments for impact. Perhaps the quickest win is - appointment scheduling - identified as a top concern for 76% of healthcare consumers (McKinsey, 2022). Standardising the journey mapping process—visually documenting each patient touchpoint across the service continuum—enables organisations to identify and eliminate the most critical pain points (Joseph et al., 2020).

Collaborate between marketing and IT teams. Research indicates that organisations with aligned technical and marketing functions achieve higher patient satisfaction scores (Durham et al., 2011).

Implement Meaningful Measurement

Effective improvement requires effective measurement. A 2020 study published in Knowledge Management & E-Learning identified five distinct journey map types for measuring patient experience (Customer Journey, Experience Map, Mental Model Diagram, Service Blueprint, Spatial Map), each capturing different aspects of the patient experience (Joseph et al., 2020).

Understanding "the patient's mental model as they pass through the continuum of care" leads to "positive patient care outcomes, reduced provider burnout and increased empathy" (Joseph et al., 2020). Moving beyond website metrics to measure what actually matters to patients will enable quality improvement.

The Substantial Benefits of Improved Customer Experience

Research consistently demonstrates that healthcare organisations with strong customer experience outperform competitors across key metrics. The comprehensive Deloitte study mentioned earlier found that hospitals with top-quartile patient experience scores achieve:

• 50% higher patient retention rates
• 21% better clinical outcomes for chronic conditions
• 41% lower operational costs per patient
• 300% higher staff retention rates (Deloitte, 2019)

Improved customer experience delivers benefits beyond patient satisfaction. It contributes to operational efficiency, clinical outcomes, and overall organisational performance.

The question becomes not whether investment in customer experience is affordable, but whether neglecting it is sustainable given the clear data on its impact.

What To Do Tomorrow Morning: Practical Next Steps

For those convinced of the value, here are three evidence-based actions to initiate improvement:

Step 1: Map your customer journey touchpoints

Research shows that organisations that visually document the complete patient journey identify significantly more improvement opportunities than those using traditional process mapping (Philpot et al., 2019). Pull your appointment no-show rates, broken down by service line and booking method. Just this single metric often reveals important CX opportunities. In one health system's analysis, specialty care no-show rates were three times higher for phone bookings compared to digital bookings—highlighting a clear area for targeted improvement.

Step 2: Form your cross-functional CX team

It’s worth reiterating the research: silos kill good customer experience. Identify your "coalition of the willing"—one respected leader from marketing, IT, operations, and clinical areas. Joseph et al. (2020) found that effective patient journey mapping requires "multidisciplinary collaboration" across departments to break down organisational barriers. Task this team with mapping one critical patient journey comprehensively within two weeks, documenting all touchpoints and systems involved.

Step 3: Establish a baseline through direct observation

Observe 10 patients navigating your most common service journey. The academic literature emphasizes using "observations, questionnaires, semi-structured interviews" to truly understand the patient experience from their perspective (Joseph et al., 2020). When Cleveland Regional conducted this exercise, they discovered their "simple" mammography scheduling process actually required 7 steps and 23 minutes of patient time—creating clear motivation for improvement.

A Path Forward

The organisations that excel at customer experience aren't necessarily those with the largest budgets or the newest technology. They're the ones committed to understanding their current reality and taking consistent action to improve it.

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REFERENCES

^{Accenture. (2020). *Accenture Digital Health Consumer Survey*. Accenture.}

^{Becker's Hospital Review. (2022). *Healthcare Customer Experience Benchmark Report*.}

^{Chen, Q., Lu, Y., Gong, Y., & Xiong, J. (2023). Can AI chatbots help retain customers? Impact of AI service quality on customer loyalty. *Internet Research*, 33(6), 2205-2243.}

^{Cleveland Clinic. (2021). *Patient Experience Digital Transformation Case Study*.}

^{Deloitte. (2019). *The Value of Patient Experience: Hospitals with Better Patient-Reported Experience Perform Better Financially*. Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.}

^{Durham, J., Steele, J., Moufti, M. A., Wassell, R., Robinson, P., & Exley, C. (2011). Temporomandibular disorder patients' journey through care. *Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology*, 39(6), 532-541.}

^{Forrester. (2021). *Healthcare Customer Experience Index*. Forrester Research.}

^{Gartner. (2022). *Customer Experience in Healthcare Report*. Gartner.}

^{Joseph, A. L., Kushniruk, A. W., & Borycki, E. M. (2020). Patient journey mapping: Current practices, challenges and future opportunities in healthcare. *Knowledge Management & E-Learning*, 12(4), 387-404.}

^{Liu, S. Q., Vakeel, K. A., Smith, N. A., Alavipour, R. S., Wei, C., & Wirtz, J. (2024). AI concierge in the customer journey: what is it and how can it add value to the customer? International Journal of Service Industry Management, 35(6), 136–158. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-12-2023-0523}

^{McKinsey. (2022). *The Future of Healthcare Digital Experience*. McKinsey & Company.}

^{Philpot, L. M., Khokhar, B. A., DeZutter, M. A., Loftus, C. G., Stehr, H. I., Ramar, P., & Ebbert, J. O. (2019). Creation of a patient-centered journey map to improve the patient experience: A mixed methods approach. *Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes*, 3(4), 466-475.}

^{Sijm-Eeken, M., Zheng, J., & Peute, L. (2020). Towards a lean process for patient journey mapping - A case study in a large academic setting. *Studies in Health Technology and Informatics*, 270, 1071-1075.}‍