What Car Buyers Can Teach Us About Care Buyers

It’s no secret that Healthcare is becoming an increasingly competitive and Patients are discovering that they have choices in who cares for their family’s healthcare needs.  It is not enough to just provide “excellent care”.  A successful Practice must also focus on providing the right environment and the right “feel”.  Think about the other choices we make as consumers, such as purchasing a car.  Yes, we want a safe car… but oftentimes the “feel” of the car is how we end up making the choice.  Does it have the right “feel”?  Do the doors feel heavy as we close them or cheap?  Does the clicking of the blinkers sound right? What color is the car?  In fact, automakers realize that it is this small details that combine to give the impression to the car buyer that they are buying a quality vehicle.  Because of this they spend millions studying, designing and testing various ways to improve the sensory experience of the passenger and it pays off in buyer loyalty.  What about Healthcare?  Do you focus on the Patient experience?  What does the tone of voice of the receptionist convey to your Patients?  What about the smells, the color, the sound?  What about the “pace” of activity within the Practice? Do you know if your Patients prefer to be contacted via phone, email, or text messages?  Do you know if they would prefer to make appointments online or receive text alerts if the doctor is running behind schedule?  Even when you are providing great healthcare overlooking the small details can lead to low referrals from your Patients.  Do you spend any time looking at ways to improve this experience?  As our Medical Mystery Shoppers report on the Practices they evaluate an interesting pattern emerges.  Even when they rate the warmth, professionalism and demeanor of the actual Caregiver as being top notch when they add in the “before” and “after” experience with the waiting room staff the rating drops to mediocre at best if the right “feel” wasn’t present.  In fact shockingly, when rating a group  of Practices from best- worst the “feel” of the practice almost always leads to a higher overall rating than great Caregivers.  What could the inattention to this detail be costing in lost revenue from these Patients failing to refer their friends and family?  Perhaps it is time to learn from car Buyers and spend time designing, testing and evaluating how your Patients view your practice.

Related articles by Zemanta

• For Patients – Perception is Reality of What is Important (company.changehealthcare.com)
• Sales Motivation: Voice Tone Says It All (thecustomercollective.com)
• Customer Disservice: Health Care #FAILs again and again (crossoverhealth.com)