What practitioners can do to retain their consumers
By Tami Kamin Meyer
If the results of an October 2021 Accenture survey are to be believed, healthcare providers and payers are struggling to respond quickly enough to the changing expectations Americans have of their healthcare experience. That translates into patient loyalty being squarely at stake.
The payer-provider survey, based on the responses of 21,000 US consumers, details how many are re-evaluating how they judge their healthcare experience. For example, today less emphasis is being placed on the medical schools physicians attended. That once-popular consideration is now being replaced by other concerns, such as ease of patient access, digital equipment, trust in the provider and their assistants, and the simplicity of doing business with the medical entity, says the survey.
Other Findings
The survey also revealed the growth of medical practices and hospitals is distinctly tied to patient experiences. Meanwhile, healthcare payers are competing for each medical-related dollar with disrupting competitors buoyed by their digital prowess and their access to patients not enjoyed by most medical entities.
According to the survey, nearly 80% of provider switches were based on the ease of interacting with the medical practice or facility. Other factors cited for changing doctors or hospitals include:
- Difficulties in doing business
- Bad experiences with administrative staff
- Inadequate digital solutions
The survey reveals that nearly 80% of patients will overwhelmingly change their medical provider if another offers simpler methods of communication.
If a healthcare payer is less than satisfactory, 49% of patients say that experience persuaded them to leave. Among factors cited by unhappy patients includes:
- Inaccurate or inconsistent information
- Unanswered questions
- Poor experiences using digital tools
- Poor customer service
- Discomfort with how payers utilize the patient’s personal data
Paul Fahey, a team leader with Smith + Jones, a marketing firm specializing in hospital brands, is also the author of the 2002 non-fiction Under The Influence, The Anthology of Healthcare Marketing Best Practices. The book, he says, focuses “on the influence hospital marketers have on patients.”
Smith + Jones recently released Healthcare Marketing Trends: Navigating the New Normal, its tenth annual healthcare industry trends report. In it, the marketing entity focused on six trends it predicts will dominate the marketing industry focusing on healthcare.
The trends for 2023 are:
- How to improve employee morale
- How to better target your recruitment campaigns
- How to leverage growth marketing tactics
- How to compete with Amazon and big box stores
- How to earn social influence
- How to give the best care both online and in person
“Brands are built on their (a patient’s) experience, and how well that institution meets expectations and delivers a positive one,” says Fahey.
Suggestions for boosting patient loyalty
There are several actions a hospital or medical practice can take to retain patient loyalty. Fahey suggests leveraging employees so they mirror the medical entity’s mission by providing an experience that meets or outperforms it.
Marketing campaigns featuring patient testimonials are another way to boost loyalty. People like to hear how others rate their experiences, no matter the service or activity. Positive bedside manner is important, too.
“Timely access to appointments” is of paramount importance in today’s tech-reliant world, he says. Other niceties such as patient navigators and even valet parking impact a patient’s overall interaction with the medical facility. In fact, says Fahey, patients overwhelmingly pointed to these factors in post-treatment surveys as positive influencers on their opinions of the experience. He notes that while the reputations of the educational institutions where physicians were trained was once cited often by patients as a leading factor in rating an interaction high or low, that is not so much the case today.
“It comes down to patient experiences,” says Fahey.
Matt Dickson, senior vice president at Stericycle Communication Solutions, agrees.
“Hospitals and healthcare systems have to mirror experiences patients are receiving from disruptors. If we think about it, our preferences are not being experienced in healthcare. We are used to (receiving texts from delivery companies) ‘your package is five blocks away.’ We are seeing consumers telling us they want convenience,” says Dickson.
Stericycle oversees numerous surveys that communicate the role of disruptors in the medical industry. He cites CVS as one example of a large company with hundreds of locations across the United States aggressively seeking to take a bite of the $3.8 trillion dollar healthcare industry.
When asking respondents why they chose to utilize CVS for a healthcare service over their primary care physician or hospital, 61% cited convenience, says Dickson.
In the world of non-urgent healthcare, “convenience is king,” he says.
He also notes that many people are still worried about COVID-19, making them wary of pursuing medical care. “Communicating with patients what you’re doing to keep facilities safe” is imperative to ease their concerns, he says.
Another step health systems can take to impact patient loyalty is creating personalized communication plans for them. That action instills a sense of security.
The Power of Follow-Ups to Develop Loyalty
Dickson says a consistent message their surveys reveal is a “big gap in follow-up communication, which is important to retain loyalty.”
For example, says Dickson, 91% of ER patients typically require future medical care related to their visit. However, Stericycle surveys indicate that 34% of respondents reported receiving no medical referral information.
“Offering those resources keeps them. They are a captive audience in your healthcare system,” he says. Moreover, 33% of survey participants indicated they never heard from the medical provider ever again.
“Give them options on how to take steps in your healthcare system. Leaving them to walk out the door to go to one of your competitors” is a sure-fire way to lose patients, says Dickson.
“Healthcare systems need to take notice that healthcare must be convenient and easily accessible, especially with younger demographics,” he says.
Can Doctors and Hospitals Compete?
Despite the numerous reasons consumers cite why they opt for a disruptor over a medical professional, there are steps doctors and hospitals can take to retain patient loyalty.
The emphasis must be on “the experience,” Dickson says.
“Hospitals must understand what influences people” when they are deciding where and how to interact with the healthcare system, he says.
Another reality medical entities must accept when it comes to how they encourage patient loyalty is that “younger consumers are much more likely to be less loyal to a hospital or healthcare system. They are not patient enough to do that. They want online appointments. You can go online to OpenTable to get a dinner reservation, so why can’t I make a doctor’s appointment online, too?” posits Dickson.
He says hospital systems and other medical providers must accept the fact that healthcare must be convenient and easily accessible in order to retain patient loyalty, especially with younger demographics.
