Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/831159
32 Executive Briefing For 35 years, NRC Health has been committed to achieving human understanding. We enable healthcare or- ganizations to know the people they care for with greater clarity, immediacy, and depth. Our partners are able to illuminate and improve the key moments that define an experience and build trust. Guided by our uniquely empathic heritage, proprietary methods, skilled associates, and holistic approach, we help our partners design experiences that exceed expectations, inspire loyalty, and improve well-being among patients, residents, phy- sicians, nurses, and staff. cost-transparent, and easily accessible healthcare services if they want to remain a viable option for today's consumer. Healthy Consumers, Healthy Bottom Line Naturally, healthcare systems that understand the value of loy- alty and take steps to build trusted relationships at every touch- point of the customer journey reap financial benefits, but the quality of care and the consumer's well-being improve as well. In fact, people who have a primary-care physician rather than a specialist as their personal physician have a 19 percent lower mortality rate and 33 percent lower annual healthcare spend- ing, according to a study in the Journal of Family Practice. Population health efforts are impacted by loyalty as well. Pa- tients who are treated regularly by the same physician visit the emergency room and are hospitalized less frequently than those who frequently switch providers, a UCLA study found. What Loyalty Really Looks Like Healthcare is notorious for using patient satisfaction scores, temporary volume growth of a service line, or NPS performance as definitive ways to measure loyalty. Although these all indicate loyalty, they represent different points throughout the customer journey and fail to provide a complete understanding of who customers really are and what they need. Despite lead generation, customer experience, strat- egy, the customer-acquisition process and execution are also often fragmented, which leaves voids throughout the journey. With a Net Promoter Score of a mere nine percent, the health- care industry pales in comparison to other industries. Retail (23 percent) and financial services (27 percent) are perennially near the top. One of the reasons for this is that healthcare is inconsis- tent and unreliable — for example, the experience a consumer has with a hospital in New York City may be drastically differ- ent from the experience he would receive in upstate New York, even within the same healthcare system. Loyalty demands more. According to loyalty expert James Kane, loyalty in any industry follows upon positive answers to three questions: 1. Do you make my life safer? 2. Do you make my life easier? 3. Do you make my life better? True consumer loyalty means that customers not only seek out care, but are willing and eager to take their care provider's ad- vice, because the relationship is already built on trust. Loyalty fosters a sense of belonging, and when customers are actively engaged in their healthcare, the outcomes are pro- found. When consumers are loyal, they choose to receive every single aspect of their care from a single health brand. Studies show that once customers know what they can expect from the healthcare system, they continue to purchase the same products, purchase across product lines, and are more willing to pay for value-added products and services. Since they are confident in the care they receive, they're less likely to look for other providers, and their lifetime value in- creases. They're also more willing to make referrals on their pro- vider's behalf — which is almost always a surefire way to attract more consumers. Creating Loyalists Takes Time. Start Here. 1. Create an easy and exceptional experience The customer journey starts the moment consumers start searching for a provider. Between search, social media, ap- pointment booking, personal encounters, feedback surveys, and billing, there are countless opportunities to make the expe- rience easy and extraordinary. When healthcare systems are accessible, are transparent with quality and cost, and consistently meet or exceed expectations, lifelong loyalty among consumers, their families and the peo- ple they influence is achievable. To meet their expectations, you must ask, analyze, and design. 2. Get real-time feedback whenever possible It is imperative to get a 360-degree understanding of custom- ers not as a demographic, but as real people. Their experience is not limited to what happens within the four walls of an exam room or a hospital. Providers must understand customer expe- riences and feelings, both inside and outside of the care setting. The only way to truly have that level of insight is to constantly ask for feedback from care providers and the customers they serve. Modern methods of short-form outreach provide care- givers and customers with a chance to tell their stories every step of the way, empowering the health system to implement meaningful changes at key moments along their journeys. 3. Right insight at the right time Market and consumer research has little or no value when it's only used to confirm what we already know — and patient feed- back has little or no power to change care delivery when it's collected weeks after an encounter. Research is a powerful tool, but only when used proactively to identify opportunities for im- provement and to understand what matters most to those you hope to serve. Timely, actionable and rich insights will help you stop wondering and start understanding. If building loyalty is a strategic imperative at your organization — and I hope it is — it's time to assess the quality of the insights you have about the wants, needs, expectations and experiences of those who provide and receive care in your system. n