Solving the Patient Loyalty Puzzle
Most health system leaders know not to take patient loyalty for granted, but they might be surprised at just how fickle healthcare consumers can be. Despite how much progress organizations have made in enhancing the patient experience, patients are only about as loyal to their healthcare providers as they are to their mobile phone plans.
This can be disquieting news for health system leaders, but market forces and evolving consumer preferences are pushing patients to be much choosier about their clinicians.
Patients’ share of financial responsibility for healthcare bills rose 11% in 2017. As more healthcare spending comes directly from their pockets, patients are more selective about where they spend it. They’ll take their business elsewhere if a provider falls short of expectations.
Patients are only about as loyal to their healthcare providers as they are to their mobile phone plans.
Meanwhile, patient expectations have been rising. The ease and convenience they encounter in other industries have taught patients to hold high standards for service. This is difficult for healthcare leaders as they chase benchmarks set by companies like Amazon and Netflix.
What Works Elsewhere Doesn’t Work in Healthcare
These trends explain why patient loyalty is becoming harder to secure. They don’t, however, explain why health systems’ efforts at intervention have not yet succeeded. Research has found that organizations struggle due to three unique features of the healthcare marketplace.
1. Branding
Branding doesn’t have the same potency in healthcare as it does in other industries. While a brand name can be alluring to customers looking for entertainment or financial products, it’s unlikely to draw significant interest from a patient. Forty percent of healthcare consumers report that it makes no difference to them whether their hospital is part of a large, well-recognized system.
This is partly attributable to the process behind selecting a healthcare provider — patients must consider their health needs, their insurance coverage and facility locations and capabilities. These practical concerns take precedence over their perception of a national brand.
This means that branding alone is not the patient loyalty solution that health leaders are looking for.
2. Low Engagement
NRC Health’s Consumer Loyalty Awards recently recognized hospitals that showed outstanding retention of consumer loyalty, and even these elite systems struggled with one factor: consumer engagement. The number, variety and intensity of patient-brand interactions remains low compared to other industries.
Healthcare is innately episodic, coming in unpredictable intervals as health needs arise. Between episodes of care, patients may simply not think to interact with their healthcare providers. It’s a case of “out of sight, out of mind.”
3. Slow Adaptation
Finally, a report from Kaufman Hall found that 90% of hospital executives believe that healthcare consumerism is a high priority, but only 8% are aggressively pursuing consumer-centric strategies. These figures prove that prioritizing the needs of consumers is far easier said than done.
Previously, hospitals enjoyed an unassailable market position because patients had few alternatives for care. Today, nontraditional players are making their entry into the market, which means that patients may not default to hospitals when they need care. As more than 30% of Americans do, they might visit a retail clinic instead. Or they might consult a digital health provider. These new entrants mean that hospitals must work harder to keep their patients’ business.
What Health Systems Should Do
To attract and retain patient loyalty in the face of such challenges, health systems will have to reinvigorate themselves. Luckily, some of the problems facing health organizations already suggest their solutions.
First, knowing that patients experience care most at the facility level implies that it’s critical to perfect that facility-level experience. While patient satisfaction will not guarantee loyalty, it’s an essential part of securing it.
Second, health systems can solve the low-engagement issue by pushing their care experience beyond the hospital walls. This gives hospitals more touch points of interaction with the consumer. Sponsoring health events, partnering with nonprofits in the community and opening grocery stores in food-scarce areas are all ways to make a hospital brand feel more visible in the patient’s life.
However, health systems shouldn’t restrict themselves to in-person points of contact. Digital outreach (an arena where health systems have historically lagged) should be a priority, too. Every healthcare organization would do well to improve the design and functionality of their patient portals and focus on building a robust presence on social media.
Finally, healthcare organizations need to proactively fend off the threat posed by retail clinics and other nontraditional providers. More and more, consumers expect their healthcare providers to help them get and stay well — not just treat them when they’re sick. Playing a bigger part in consumers’ lifestyles, whether by offering healthy nutrition services or by providing exercise coaching, will show patients that organizations are committed to their well-being.
That sincerity of purpose is a large part of what draws loyalty from patients. Loyalty, after all, is a result of meeting and exceeding consumer expectations. Organizations that can make a point of understanding these expectations and commit themselves to delivering on them are the ones that will stand the best chance of retaining their customers.
About the Author | Brian Wynne
Brian Wynne is vice president and general manager at NRC Health, a firm which helps healthcare organizations better understand the people they care for and design experiences that inspire loyalty.
