Where is your market research in patient/customer experience management?

Or, the dangers of viewing the customer-patient experience management process, thinking you know it all, it's easy to do, or only use patient satisfaction survey results.


And from the questions I get from healthcare professionals around the country, it became very clear that a key element is missing from most efforts at improving the patient experience.

Healthcare providers, aka hospitals for the most part, are not doing the required quantitative and qualitative market research on patient experience, attitudes, behaviors and expectations in their market place. They are assuming that because they read an article, go to a seminar that they know it all. They are only using patient satisfaction survey data, lean six sigma results and their previous quality improvement efforts. Few are actually talking to patients.

Had you been conducting market research on your customers-patients in the experience management process outside of  internal patient interactions, you would  be much better off. But unfortunately, most customer-patient experience management programs are focused on the 1/3rd of the encounter as a patient.

Where do you go from here?

It's important to view Customer-Patient Experience Management(CEM or PEM) in its totality, not as one service or clinical line experience. It may be for you, but to the healthcare customer-patient who experiences your organization across numerous touch-points, it's not. They aggregate all of it into one overall experience. You, as a healthcare provider, need to understand the expectations and experiences through quantitative and qualitative analysis. Then integrate that information and learning's into your efforts.

Part of the process of experience management, is actively managing customers-patients experiences to meet expectations and change their experiences, to drive revenue and market share. It's not all about the patient satisfaction numbers. CEM or PEM have definable and measurable financial outcomes. But you cannot achieve those revenue outcomes if you are not looking at experience management in its totality. And that means doing the necessary market research.

By not fully understanding your customer-patient in their totality, you are not successfully managing their experience or expectations.

The wave is here to use an oft quoted metaphor. Its consumer-directed not provider-directed healthcare. And the sooner you get it, that its not about you, but about the patient, and start looking at the customer experience in its totality, the better the chances of your survival in the coming years.

You don't have all the answers.

Read More

How do You Drive Volume, Revenue in a Slow Growth Economy?

Revenue in hospitals, clinics and physician offices are down. Payers earnings are up because of lack of healthcare utilization. They are spending less. Looming Medicare cuts. Slow pay or no pay from Medicaid programs across the country. Increased self-pays. Lowered insurance reimbursements. And of Congress doesn't act on increase the ability of the Treasury to raise the debt limit, "you haven't seen nothing yet".

Healthcare is not a discretionary purchase. There is little if any differentiation between medical providers. With so many individuals out of work, consumer confidence eroding and wage earners fearful of losing jobs, healthcare, whether doctors visits, medication, hospitalizations or insurance purchases, are the last thing on peoples' minds.

What is a healthcare provider to do?

We all know the drill, cut costs, lay-off staff , hiring freeze, decrease marketing. etc. All retrenchment strategies to "weather the storm." In most cases necessary steps. All fatal to the healthcare organizations. When recovery ensues, which it will, you can't take advantage of new opportunities that present themselves because you are trying to recapture what you lost. Focusing resources and effort to make back the revenue and market share that you lost.

You can drive volume and revenue is a recessionary or slow growth economy. Here's how:

Step One: Recognize that healthcare is a purely a discretionary purchase. No one wants to get sick. No one plans to get sick. No one thinks about what health provider they will go to when they get sick.

In recessionary or slow growth economy here is the paradigm:

I get sick » self diagnose and try over the counter medications » doesn't work » consider retail clinic yes/no » call primary care physician yes/no » go to hospital ER.

Hospitals are last on the list and individual healthcare decisions in this economy are driven purely by price. What is going to cost me in co-pay or out of pocket if no insurance and what is the cheapest price.

Realize too, that there is little if any differentiation among providers. You all look and feel the same.

Step Two: Focus on physician and patient experience. Understand every touch point that a doctor or patient comes in contact with you for the first moment that they learn about your brand, to the medical services, to leaving, is an opportunity to create a lasting positive impression. Complete a patient experience map and a physician experience map. Find the issues and fix them now.

Step Three: Focus on the core. That's right, focus on your core services that pay the bills. No wild fancy flights of new services that are consumer or physician discretionary or elective in nature. People won't buy them. So don't waste the time and energy except for planning for those new service lines when the economy turns around. But not now.

Create pricing and service specials for your existing outpatient services, for example with lab create a schedule, test and results in two days (STaR2) program.

Step Four: Crank up the media relations, press releases, statements, white papers, outcomes studies, anything that puts you in a positive light and keep you in the media. Consider a steady stream of health and wellness tips etc. Drive people to your web site and don't forget to use social media efficiently and effectively. Patient and physician success stories are needed as well.

Step Five: Constantly measure and evaluate. Change on the fly. Don't stop. Be consistent in your brand messaging.

The opportunity is now to build for the future.

This is my last post until August. My daughter is a left-handed pitcher on the 14U Plainfield Lightning fast-pitch travel softball team. We are going to the ASA Class B Northern National Championships next week.  Its been a great year for the Lightning: 36-13; 3 tournament championships; a 2nd; 3rd; 4th place finish; and winning streaks of 6 and 12 games. My daughter did pitch a no-hitter too in June! For 2012, the team moves up to 16U.  It will be fun. Enjoy the summer.

You can continue the conversation with me on:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich
Web site: http://www.themichaeljgroup.com/

For more information, or to discuss your strategic healthcare marketing, customer experience management, marketing/sales integration or start-up needs, you can learn more at my web site the michael J group; email- michael@themichaeljgroup.com; or phone by calling me at 815-293-1471.

Read More

Customer Experience Management Applied to Healthcare- Part 7

Or, the dangers of only viewing the customer-patient experience management as only the patient encounter.

An Intuit survey, "Healthcare consumers want online control"- HealthcareFinanceNews.com, March 3, 2011, indicates overwhelming support by the general public for more control over their healthcare via online activities. They want healthcare providers including physicians, to be accessible online. They want to pay their bills online, communicate with the provider, request appointments and get lab results. A clearly demonstrated experience need and expectation of consumers, that except for a few isolated healthcare organizations, is generally lacking among healthcare providers.

Had you been conducting market research on your customers-patients in the experience management process outside of the patient interaction, you would have understood that expectation and need. But unfortunately, most customer-patient experience management programs in healthcare providers are focused on the 1/3rd of the encounter with you as a patient.

Where do you go from here?

Healthcare providers do "dumb things" all the time. And they never seem to learn from that experience. So what happens when test results aren't available, the bill is wrong and a person cannot get the information they want or is on hold for too long? Well, all the compensatory goodwill built up in the patient encounter is lost because of these little "dumb mistakes" that healthcare providers make day-in and day-out. Those mistakes continue to build until they become non-compensatory event. Meaning that all the good encountered in the patient experience is washed away like a flood.

That's why its important to view Customer-Patient Experience Management(CEM or PEM) in its totality and not as an one service or clinical line experience. It may be for you, but to the healthcare customer-patient who views your organization across numerous touch-points and aggregates all of it into one overall experience, it's not.

Use the Internet and social media to frame the experience and meet customer-patient expectations.

Online bill payment, searching for information, communications via email, chats, facebook, twitter, YouTube and other mediums is an everyday occurrence for healthcare consumer. You, as a healthcare provider, need to understand that expectation and experience and integrate it into your efforts.

Part of the process of experience management is actively managing customers-patients experiences to meet expectations and change their experiences to drive revenue and market share improvements. It's not all about the patient satisfaction numbers. CEM or PEM has a definable and measurable financial outcomes. But you cannot achieve those revenue outcomes if you are not looking at experience management in its totality.

You may not want patient portals, but your customers do. You may not want online bill payment but your customers do. You may not want to have people schedule appointments online, but your customers do. You may not want them to have access to their medical information online, but your customers do.

By not fully understanding your customer-patient in their totality, you are not successfully managing their experience or expectations.

The wave is here to use an oft quoted metaphor. Its consumer-directed not provider-directed healthcare. And the sooner you get on the surfboard of true CEM or PEM, and start looking at the customer experience in its totality, the better the chances of your survival in the coming years.

The public, health plans, employers and government are running out of patience with healthcare providers and the "dumb mistakes" that continue to be made due to the lack of understanding of their needs, expectations and experiences.

Change or be swept away.

You can continue the conversation with me on:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich

Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-147. Areas of expertise include: brand management; strategic marketing; sales and marketing integration; physician marketing; product launch; start-up launch and revenue growth; tactical market planning; customer experience management; rebuilding and revitalizing marketing operations; media relations; and service line revitalizations. Mike is Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni.

Read More

Customer Experience Management Applied to Healthcare- Part 6

So why are you not talking to your customers-patients in experience management?

As I look across the changing healthcare landscape, there is a movement gaining momentum to improve the patient and customer experience. Case studies and published articles are appearing in healthcare on Customer Experience Management (CEM). And don't get me wrong, wonderful improvements are being made. But when I delve into these improvement activities, one common denominator is missing and it concerns me.

If you are engaged in the CEM process correctly, that means you are talking to and listening to your customers or patients. Healthcare providers, such as MD Anderson as well as others, are actively pursuing customer and patient engagement that includes an intense and focused effort to actively talk and listen to their customers and patients. But unfortunately, they are far and few between.

Are you using only one means of gathering customer or patient experience intelligence?

There is no doubt that customer-patient satisfaction is an important outcome and can indicate where there are problems in the experience process. An excellent place to start to ask the question why, using the various tools of six sigma etc., to start the improvement process. Improvements are being made and satisfaction as measured by the various tools used improves, indicating success. No question about it and well documented.

But you are still not talking and listening to your customer-patients?

And I really don't understand why that is occurring.

Customer Experience Management requires that you actively engage in multiple ways to talk and listen to your customers-patients. Using one tool to accomplish that misses the point and you are losing valuable customer feedback. If you are not using multiple methods quantitatively and qualitatively to talk and listen to your customers-patients, you are not doing true Customer or Patient Experience Management.

Could it be potentially that healthcare leadership is by nature imperialistic?

Healthcare imperialism is an attitude derived from years of making decisions without customer or patient feedback. Because of training or knowledge, perceived status or being a not-for-profit whose espoused vision is focused on the community, healthcare providers can be imperialistic in their thinking that they know all or see all. The customer-patient can't possibly understand what we are doing. It's too technically complicated, or they don't have the knowledge and training that we do. We can no longer afford to think that way, and individuals seeking our care will no longer accept an imperialistic attitude.

Maybe it's because we are afraid of the answers we might get?

Asking your customers-patients about their experiences, needs and desires can be a scary proposition. Even so, as we move inextricably to a consumer-driven healthcare model and less of a healthcare provider-dominated model, talking and listening carefully are skills that need to be developed.

Take a step back.

Evaluate why you're afraid to talk to your customers and make those internal changes that will allow you to seek out open and honest feedback beyond satisfaction. Customer or Patient Experience Management is not easy and there are no shortcuts. Experience Management forces you, if done correctly, to potentially face some uncomfortable truths about your healthcare organization. It will also give you those shinning moments of organizational success to build upon.

To survive you need to get the process of Customer or Patient Experience Management right the first time. Hospital volumes and admission are down and are not coming back to previous levels of utilization. People are finding high-quality, low-cost, well known established brand options to traditional healthcare providers to receive care. Once those purchase patterns are established they are very difficult to break.

Time to start asking the questions you never really wanted an answer too. And listening to those answers.

You can continue the conversation with me on:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich

Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-147. Areas of expertise include: brand management; strategic marketing; sales and marketing integration; physician marketing; product launch; start-up launch and revenue growth; tactical market planning; customer experience management; rebuilding and revitalizing marketing operations; media relations; and service line revitalizations. Mike is Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni.

Read More

Making Your Customers, Patients, Staff, Volunteers and Suppliers Heroes

With the rapid evolution of healthcare from a provider-dominated and directed industry, to a consumer- driven industry is forcing changes in how we market and do business. Being responsive, delivering an exceptional and consistent customer experience from first contact through evaluation to use and post purchase, meeting individual expectations and needs is never easy. But as many successful healthcare companies will attest, these are no longer nice to have business requirements, but got to have requirements in order to survive.

Treating patients is at the heart of all that you do. Doesn't matter if it's a hospital, long-term care facility, medical device manufacturer, pharmaceutical manufacturer or physician. In one way or another we are seen sometimes as heroes, other times as negligent fools and most of the time as just okay along the treatment path by our consumers.

So why then don't we make our customers, who become patients, staff, volunteers and others our heroes?

In healthcare, especially the hospital segment of the total industry, everyone is undifferentiated. Same medical services, same equipment, same doctors across multiple hospitals, same insurance plans, rooms, beds, gift shop. Little brand or brand promise differentiation.

If you are engaged in a Customer Experience Management process across the whole organization, by listening, learning, changing and adapting your business model, as well as the way you are delivering healthcare services to your customers and patients, then you are making heroes.

Why not tell your audiences who your heroes are?

The patient who extols your virtues. The doctor who admits patients nowhere else. The staff member that provides exceptional care and service day-in and day-out. The volunteer delivering papers each day to patients for the past 30 years. The supplier, medical device manufacturer, and others who because of their innovation make it possible for you to be in the position of delivering what we all hope is quality care.

Let's face it, healthcare on a day-to-day basis is mundane.

Making the mundane seem exceptional is what separates the truly successful from the also-ran. You can use these examples to frame the experience of your organization. Set the expectation that what you do is extraordinary. Medical care is mundane on a day-to-day basis. But it's the customer and patient experience and how we portray that experience to our audiences that will differentiate.

This marketing approach lends itself to developing effective campaigns to be deployed over time. It allows you to personalize and strengthen your brand. It also takes you beyond the we do this, this, and this, with this, that and these medical devices by putting a face on the outcome of care.

And in the end, isn't that what we are all about?

You can continue the conversation with me on:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich

Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-147. Areas of expertise include: brand management; strategic marketing; sales and marketing integration; physician marketing; product launch; start-up launch and revenue growth; tactical market planning; customer experience management; rebuilding and revitalizing marketing operations; media relations; and service line revitalizations. Mike is Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni.

Read More

Healthcare Advertising in a Consumer-Driven Market

I have been thinking about this topic for awhile now. And it does fit into what I have been writing about in Customer Experience Management. Hospital and other healthcare leadership seem to be struggling with the concept of an empowered, informed healthcare consumer who is making active decisions regarding treatment and care, instead of relying on the provider of care making the decisions.

This is leading to any number of hospitals and others advertising outcomes, satisfaction rates, awards for care, no wait ERs and other self proclaimed measures and for example, using web site clocks that provide real-time ER wait times, etc. Some innovative hospitals have even been cleaver in their ER advertising and other communication channels allowing customers to text a message and get the wait time back. Some ads make claims of being the number one in treatment because of the volume of cases. Some support the brand and brand promise very clearly. Others leave much to be desired.

Most ads are agency quality and well done, while some are clearly created in-house and look it too.

Some no doubt are driven by what CEOs and docs want.

My advice to those hospital CEOs and docs is- don't quit the day job. Hire an agency and get it right. In a consumer-driven market home-grown is not cute. Too many headlines confuse people. Bolding copy is like shouting at them. Too much copy means you have no clear idea of what you are communicating. Those ads are not supporting your brand, brand promise or even at times make any sense at all.

Misrepresentation of the data.

But what I am also seeing is misuse and misrepresentation of data related to quality awards from third parties. It's one thing to advertise that you have earned awards for clinical quality in several areas, who the awarding organization is and the importance of the meaning of that award to your audience.


It's an entirely different matter when you take that award and tell people that if all the hospitals in the nation were as good as you, in those categories, which are not all of the categories of care awarded, that 158,000 lives would be saved annually is flat out wrong and misrepresenting any relative value of what that awards means.


And Tax-exempt hospitals chide their for-profit counterparts for misleading advertising?


Did you tell your audience that you had to pay the awarding organization for the right to advertise those awards?

What you should be communicating.

Which is the experience and how that awards makes you a quality provider of care in that category not all categories. Your messaging and visuals should be reinforcing quality, educating about what that award means , strengthening your brand and brand promise, as well as differentiating you from your competitors. You should be the data and outcomes transparent provider in your community. Create trust and goodwill with your messaging. Listen to your consumers and give them the meaningful data that they want in order to participate in the decision making process.

What you should not be communicating.

Do not use "unique", "world- class", "one-of-a-kind" , or "state-of-the-art" in your copy. What you do is not "unique", others provide the same. Unless someone is coming from another corner of the world to get care, you are not "world-class". And "state-of-the-art" is fleeting because a new service, procedure or technology is already on the horizon. Do not write or say "our medical team" or "staff" and use physicians in that sentence. Nor should you say "our physicians". That will get you drawn into physician malpractice lawsuits under the apparent agency doctrine.

Telling people "you care", when that is already an existing expectation of your consumers is stating the obvious. If anything, those types of messages only raise a red flag to consumers and are seen a pejorative.

This a critical component of Customer Experience Management.

In most cases your advertisements and other channel communications are the primary contact that a consumer has with you that starts the customer experience process or even considering changing providers. Talk to your audiences in meaningful ways. Educate. Teach. Inform. Change opinion. Tell them why the quality award is important and what it means to them. Frame their expectation and experience. Manage it.

Frame it in terms of the customer experience and you will find a heightened sense of consumer and brand awareness. Data transparency in outcomes and honesty will drive volume and revenue for that category of service. It won't if you incorrectly position the achievement by making wild claims of superiority that no one believes.

In the end, the FTC is watching.

You can continue the conversation with me on:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich

Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-147. Areas of expertise include: brand management; strategic marketing; sales and marketing integration; physician marketing; product launch; start-up launch and revenue growth; tactical market planning; customer experience management; rebuilding and revitalizing marketing operations; integration of sales and marketing team; media relations; and service line revitalizations. Mike is Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni.

Read More

7 Keys to Marketing ACOs and Keeping Your Patients

With the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), impetus was created to drive providers to create Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). Interesting in that the ACO model was left open. That is, patients can move outside of their ACO home for service and care. Unlike Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) where care was restricted to in-network providers, planners were afraid of the backlash that would occur if they created a closed-model HMO style, ACO model for Medicare beneficiaries. Studies suggest that up to 1/4 of beneficiaries enrolled in ACOs would not stay within the ACO network and would need incentives to do so.

That is a big out-of-network churn rate and too expensive to the ACO.

So what is a healthcare provider to do?

1. Make sure that you have a Customer Experience Management Program place. You need to be close to your members by understanding their current needs and how their needs change over time. This is consumer-directed healthcare not provider-directed healthcare. If you don't meet the experience needs of your consumers, then they will go out-of-network or leave all together. This means listening too, instead of talking at, your customers. It means constantly monitoring that state of the experience.

2. Invest heavily in customer service training. "The Patient", aka customer, is not here to serve you, you are there to serve them. You can never have enough customer service training. A well developed, and implemented customer service program will contribute in significant ways to keeping patients in your ACO. Exacting customer service standards for employee behavior with measurable and reviewed individual performance goals and objectives, are the only way to ensure that exceptionally high levels of customer service are deliver across the entire organization. What gets measured gets done.

3. Brand is everything. A highly developed brand, brand promise and brand promise execution in the organization is essential. Promotional materials, patient education materials etc., need to be of high value, provide useful and usable information, as well as reflect the experience that you want patients, caregivers and customers to have when interacting with your ACO. Your key message must be consistent across all materials. Your employees need to be trained to be brand ambassadors.

4. Define and market the customer experience around quality and outcomes. People will be buying based on price and quality. Since more of a financial outlay will be coming from individuals, they will care about the price they are paying in the way of insurance, co-pays or deductibles. If the patient does not believe that they are receiving exceptional quality and service for the price paid, that will become a large motivator for going out-of-network or changing ACOs all together. You need to be the transparent organization in price, value and quality.

5. Create incentives to use you and not go out-of-network. That may mean lower copayments and premiums. It may mean loyalty programs with no wait services. Online registrations for care etc.

6. Communicate in a variety of ways the value and benefit to the consumer for using you. Educate them to understand why you are better than the next ACO down the street. Don't assume anything. Differentiate!

7. Make access seamless and easy to use. One ACO to the customer/patient, one customer/patient to the ACO.

You can continue the conversation with me on:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich


Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for hiring as your senior marketing executive , for interim assignments in all aspects of healthcare marketing whether it be strategic or tactical market planning, customer experience management, rebuilding and revitalizing your existing marketing operation, integration of sales and marketing teams, media relations or service line revitalizations. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations, I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

Read More

Customer Experience Management Applied to Healthcare Part 5- An Organizational Way of Life

For several weeks now, I have been blogging about Customer Experience Management Applied to Healthcare. The reaction and comments have been most interesting from around the world. Many have come from physicians, CEOs of hospitals, Consultants, Directors, Managers, line-staff and coordinators. The countries of origin for the comments include not only the United States, but Belgium, England, France, China, Russia and India to name a few. Several have asked for the materials offered up to help them internally to start or move forward their companies CEM process.

Some major observations that can be drawn from the comments and discussions.

First, is that leadership across many healthcare industry channels are struggling with the transition of the healthcare marketplace from a provider-dominated, decision-making enterprise, to a consumer-directed, consumer-controlled healthcare system. The consumer has slowly and most assuredly been taking a more active role in healthcare treatment decision-making for a long time now. An empowered consumer is a blessing and a threat to the way business has been done in the past.

Second, many healthcare organizations don't talk to their consumers, be it doctors, community, patients, families, employers, employees, insurance companies, etc. I mean really talk to them and engage in a meaningful conversation. A meaningful conversation regarding their experiences, needs, hopes, desires and expectations. And that is a very different conversation than the one in the hallway or in a patient satisfaction survey.

The third major conclusion is that there is need to accelerate and embrace new ways of doing things that are successful in other industries. That is not to say that new and innovative ways or understanding customers and changing organizations to more fully meet their expectations should be taken lock, stock, and barrel without critical examination and thought. We need to gain an understanding and the knowledge that comes from successful application of innovative techniques in other service industries. Identify what works, adapt, implement, evaluate and evolve. We no longer have the luxury of waiting 5, 10, even 15 years to adapt lessons form other industiures.

Fourth, we have difficulty using the word customer. It is as if that word has some kind of negative connotation because it is used in the for-profit world. It's okay to say customer and only use the word patient part of the time. In the beginning of these blogs I wrote that an individual is only a patient 1/3rd of the time in their experience in an organization. The other 2/3rds of the time, they are a consumer. Yes the 1/3rd of the time is the most critical of the experience chain, but the other 2/3rds of the experience can change the positive work done in 1/3rd of the experience.

CEM is about making lasting and ongoing changes for the purpose of growing the brand, increasing volume, growing profitable revenue and strengthening loyalty.

Customer Experience Management or for those that feel using the term Patient Experience Management is better, is not the "be all - end all" system. What CEM offers is a roadmap that can be used to change your organization to become customer-focused dedicated to meeting their needs and experiences. It is not just satisfaction results but it is part of the process. It is not just consumer market research, but that is part of the process. It is not just about hiring the right staff, that is part of the process. It is all of this and then some.

Customer Experience Management, when done correctly, is a major game changer for organizations. The application of CEM increases brand loyalty, volume, revenue and repeat utilization. CEM creates customer and employee evangelists. CEM takes you to a new level of organizational awareness and performance. One that is industry leading and game changing. CEM applies to all of your customers no matter how you segment or what you call them.

Never has healthcare been more challenging or frightening as we look to an uncertain future with the velocity of directional change. Never has healthcare been more full of opportunity to redefine its business, relationships to consumers and change the scope, cost and outcome of care. An exciting time for innovation, new models and breaking from the past.

To quote Charles Dickens- " It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,... it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, ....it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,...in short, the period was so much like the present."

Thanks for reading and see you next week.

You can continue the conversation with me on:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich

Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for hiring as your senior marketing executive , for interim assignments in all aspects of healthcare marketing whether it be strategic or tactical market planning, customer experience management, rebuilding and revitalizing your existing marketing operation, integration of sales and marketing teams, media relations or service line revitalizations. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations, I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

Read More

Customer Experience Management Applied to Healthcare- Part 4 The Process

CMS has proposed that 30 percent of a healthcare providers quality incentive payment be based on patient experience. Using the HCAHPS patient satisfaction data as the experience measure, hospitals, associations, satisfaction vendors have generally come out opposed for a variety of reasons, some valid, some just nonsense.

This is where Customer Experience Management (CEM)applied to healthcare comes in. However, and let me be clear about this, CEM is more than just looking at your patient satisfaction scores. Satisfaction data can be important in pointing out areas of needed experience improvement, but it is just one data source.

What you really need to do is talk to your customers.

That's right, talk to your customers with one caveat.

Do not talk to your customers until you have analyzed your satisfaction data. If you haven't analyzed your satisfaction data please see my book How to Use Patient Satisfaction Data to Improve Healthcare Quality. Do not talk to your customers until you have started the experience map process tool that identifies all the touch-points along a continuum where consumers first begin to experience you, then as patients, then as consumers again. Below is an example of a total Patient Experience Map for a hospital.

Along the top of the map are chevrons from the initial touch-point of relationship initiation to ending at loyalty. There can be as many or as few as you want. I would recommend that you be all inclusive and see your customer relationship across the entire spectrum. That is how your customer forms an experience of you. Their encounter with you is not just as an isolated event. It is the sum of all that occurs in their experience process. You will be working on individual service aspects to improve the experience, but you must always remember that changes in one area impact another and vies versa. Nothing is isolated from the whole in CEM. This Experience Map should be adapted for individual product or service lines,

Gaining a detailed understanding of the drivers of your satisfaction experience and connecting them to the organizational touch-points, will yield some initial insights into your customers. Brainstorm organizationally what the data means based on the experience map. Brainstorm what you think about the experience. Develop a detailed list of quantitative information that you need from your customers so that you can begin the customer-centric dialogue to understand their view of the experience.

These insights then need to be validated by your customers.

Market research is required.

If you are not going to listen to your customers about their experiences first-hand, then you are not engaged in CEM. Customers include employees as well. Small focus groups, one-on-one research, web enabled survey, telephone and other methods of research are needed to validate your experience assumptions. Don't be afraid to ask former patients about your current process for whatever service experience you pick. What did they understand? What did they not understand? Where were they confused? What would make it better?

This type of process can yield volumes of results. You can expect to have some of your insights validated. You will also be surprised at insights that you will gain from a customer-centric dialogue, uncovering areas for experience improvement that you never would have thought of or considered. Validation and identification assist in prioritizing what changes you need to make for the "ideal experience". With this type of data, you now are able to prioritize those experience changes that are "nice to have", compared to those experience changes that will make the most impact in experience improvement for rational resource allocation. It takes the guess work out of the equation. Cost benefit analysis is required.

It will take 2-3 months at a cost estimate of $30,000 for the research part for each service.

Now it's about operations.

Data drives decisions and knowing what will improve your customer experience based on your dialogue and validation by your customers, you can now develop those operational service improvement plans to improve the customer experience across the totality of that experience. How you allocate resources and change operationally is left to you within whatever process and or quality improvement system you use.

These steps need to be repeated for each service experience or product-line that you choose to improve.

Customer Experience Management is a way of life, not a one-time organizational change.

If you are interested, I have a small 14 slide PowerPoint presentation overview that summarizes Customer Experience Management Applied to Healthcare in an Adobe file format that I can send to you for educating your organization. Just send an email to me at michael@themichaeljgroup.com

You can continue the conversation with me on:

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich


Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for hiring as your senior marketing executive , for interim assignments in all aspects of healthcare marketing whether it be strategic or tactical market planning, customer experience management, rebuilding and revitalizing your existing marketing operation, integration of sales and marketing teams, media relations or service line revitalizations. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations, I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

Read More

Customer Experience Management Applied to Healthcare- Part 3- A Model for Change

Before we go much further, I would like to make a correction in terminology. In an interesting discussion on LinkedIn, a physician pointed out that Experience Management is applicable to physicians as well. I had assumed that individuals understood via earlier posts.

My mistake.

Using the word patient places models and systems in boxes in which we tend to forget, that this is applicable across all customer segments. Going forward I will no longer write about Patient Experience Management, but about Customer Experience Management (CEM) applied to healthcare.  The time has come to see people as they really are, whether they be doctors, insurance companies, individual, donors, patients etc., as individual customers with experiences that we need to understand like never before to improve quality and reduce cost.

To quote Paul Harvey..."Now for the rest of the story".....

Customer Experience Management is understanding your customer and their experiences so thoroughly, that you use that information to improve systems, processes, products, services, prices, employee training and other changes to increase brand loyalty, repurchase and customer evangelization.

Marketing Driven Process

This is not a simple marketing ploy. It is about marketing leadership and driving lasting organizational change. If marketing is not involved in your organization in this, then failure will be your outcome. If your marketing department can't do this, then time has arrived for a new marketing department. CEM is not a one size fit all. This is not the flavor of the day. CEM is about lasting organizational change that requires you to become market-driven and customer-driven.

A CEM organizational model can look like this:

Pretty simple really. Very difficult to carry out.

Start with understanding your customer in far more detail than you have ever done before. It is at this point that you need a formal Voice of the Customer (VoC) program. This model requires that you are in constant contact; monitoring your customers continuously all along the touch-points, utilization and purchase process to alert you to things done well and those still needing improvement. Use the experience analysis to identify key internal systems, processes, products and training to meet your customers experiences and expectations. As you improve, you will see higher quality, efficiency and accuracy. That naturally leads to lower operating costs, lower prices, higher level of satisfaction. You retain your customers and prevent leakage to other healthcare providers. Revenue and market share also improve. Then you start again. It is a never ending cycle.

In this model, as you improve systems, processes, products and services etc, you will have lower operating costs which in turn means that you should be lowering your prices. This is a new concept to healthcare, lowering your prices to your customers. It is possible. It is achievable. I doubt that its ever been done, but like all things there is always a first time.

Because you are focusing on the experiences, needs and expectations of the customer, you become an outward focused organization that changes via a controlled process, product and service improvement model to meet your customers expectations. Doesn't matter if it's a physicians, patient, consumer, insurance company, government, Board member etc. It also does not specify what process improvement tool you use, whether that's Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, TCM,CQI, Lean Production etc. Those systems fit very well into this model. The difference is that it starts and ultimately ends with the consumer.

Your challenge and the most difficult, is to identify and discover what your customers expect of you. That requires an honest internal examination and a willingness to talk to your customers to reality check what you think their experience and expectation is. If you don't reality check against your customers, then don't embark on this journey.  You are not all wise and powerful. Time to stop the healthcare imperialism that occurs today.

Next up on the CEM discussion, getting started.

You can continue the conversation with me on:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich

Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for hiring as your senior marketing executive , for interim assignments in all aspects of healthcare marketing whether it be strategic or tactical market planning, customer experience management, rebuilding and revitalizing your existing marketing operation, integration of sales and marketing teams, media relations or service line revitalizations. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations, I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

Read More

Customer/Patient Experience Management Applied to Healthcare Part 2

There are any number of reasons for beginning the Experience Management movement. Many of my readers have more or less begun some type of Customer Experience Management (CEM) or Patient Experience Management (PEM) process. So this post is really for those who still need some prodding in the hospital and health system segment of the healthcare industry and most specialty pharmacies to a large extent.

Consumer Choice of Provider is Based in Experience

In a McKinsey study published in November 2007, McKinsey Quarterly -A Better Hospital Experience, they found that the majority of 2,000 commercial insurance and Medicare patients surveyed would change hospitals to receive a better experience. It was also shown that only 20% of a patients choice is based on the clinical care experience or reputation, 41% is on the nonclinical experience while the remaining 39% is based on doctors recommendation.

The most surprising finding, was that of the 100 physicians also surveyed, that they are often willing to accommodate their patients' request! Doctors will move patients and honor their request for a better experience.

Now if that doesn't get your attention, nothing will. And that was before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. With 34 million consumers coming online to be able to afford healthcare services through the purchase of some type of insurance, they will wield considerable market power.

Disappointing at best, few hospitals, health systems or specialty pharmacies understand or act systemically to understand the patient experience and use that to drive quality and efficiency improvements in their organizations. Most don't even know where to start or who to place in charge of the effort.

Looking for Revenue from Customer/Patient Experience? Try the Business Office.

In a HealthLeaders Media article from October 8, 2010, How to Boost Post-Discharge Revenue, Customer Service, improving the customer/patient experience with the business office can realize cash improvements of 20-30%.

Experience and Service Go Hand-In-Hand.

In the Customer Experience Report North America 2010, Forrester Research found a number of interesting facts. Some of the most interesting:

• Of those who decided to stop using an organization - 73% was due to rude staff; 51% due to unknowledgeable staff; 55% due to issues not resolved in a timely manner.
• 79% of customers who had a negative experience told others.
• 59% of consumers recommend a company because of its service.
• 40% purchase from a competitor because of their reputation for great customer service.

Finally, in the 2007 Operationalizing Customer Intelligence in the Contact Center, Business Communications Review:

• Customer retention increased by 15% year-over-year for best-in-class CEM practitioner; by 1% for industry-average CEM practitioner; 0% for laggards.
• Customer satisfaction increased 19% year-over-year for best-in-class CEM practitioners; 6% for industry -average; 3% for laggards.
• Profits increased 8% year-over-year for best-in-class CEM practitioners; increased 6% industry-average; decreased 8% for laggards.


A healthcare provider's ability to deliver an experience that sets it apart in the eyes of its payers, physicians and consumers/patients from its competitors - traditional and non-traditional - serves to increase their spending and loyalty to the brand.

I can go on and on about the importance of Customer/Patient Experience Management, but you get the point. The healthcare industry needs to awaken to the potential of Customer/Patient Experience Management before 2014 arrives. By then it will be too late.

Next up a proposed model of Customer/Patient Experience Management that will drive quality and cost improvement that I have developed.

You can continue the conversation with me on:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich

Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for hiring as your senior marketing executive , for interim assignments in all aspects of healthcare marketing whether it be strategic or tactical market planning, customer experience management, rebuilding and revitalizing your existing marketing operation, integration of sales and marketing teams, media relations or service line revitalizations. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations , I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

Read More

Customer/Patient Experience Management Applied to Healthcare

Happy New Year everyone. Welcome to 2011 and a new decade!

There is an increasing amount of activity in what healthcare organizations are calling Patient Experience Management (PEM). Patient Experience Management is not a new concept. In reality, it is Customer Experience Management partially applied to healthcare.

Customer Experience Management (CEM) first appeared 13 years ago in an article published by the Harvard Business Review authored by Pine and Gilmore. The concept proposes that by managing the entirety of the customer experience from first contact to purchase or use, that you can move a customer from satisfied to loyal and then from loyal to brand advocate by actively managing the experience. It is based on thoroughly understanding the customer. Essentially end-to-end management of the chain of events that an individual experiences . Since that time CEM has grown and evolved to became an important business requirement.

This is a critically important topic for healthcare. And it's not just about reading an article, thinking you know all about it and start a program. I submit that it is time we begin thinking about individuals not as patients but as customers.

We need to look at CEM not PEM.

The reason for this?

Two-thirds of an individual's interaction with a healthcare provider is as a customer pre and post treatment. Only one-third of their encounter with you is as a patient during treatment.

Let me repeat.......

Two-thirds of an individual's interaction with a healthcare provider is as a customer pre and post treatment. Only one-third of their encounter with you is as a patient during treatment.

A healthcare provider's ability to deliver an experience that sets it apart in the eyes of its payers, physicians and consumers/patients from its competitors - traditional and non-traditional - serves to increase their spending and loyalty to the brand.

CEM actively manages the customer experience in total by understanding the customer's point of view. That is, all touch points internally and externally that a customer comes in contact with which in turn creates the experience. PEM looks at only one aspect of the exchange and interaction. That which occurs internally when a customer is a patient. It does not consider all of a consumer/patient's cross channel exposure, interactions and transactions with the healthcare provider.

CEM requires you to see the "patient" as an individual customer with distinct needs and expectations that is developed across the organization externally and internally. It requires a complete and thorough understanding of all customers, their needs and expectations.

This is just the first in a series on Customer Experience Management. Healthcare namely hospitals and other direct care providers have done the Total Quality Management, Continuous Quality Improvement, Lean Management, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, Built to Last, In Search of Excellence, etc. All good systems, all good approaches but for one reason or another have come up short in healthcare. We still have the same cost and quality issues when this all started years ago.

Now maybe it's time we started to focus on the customer, their needs and expectations to grow profitably.

In the next posting we will look at some examples in other industries where CEM is being successfully deployed.

You can continue the conversation with me on:

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich

Michael Krivich is a senior healthcare marketing executive and internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger read daily in over 20 countries around the world. A Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association, he can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for hiring as your senior marketing executive , for interim assignments in all aspects of healthcare marketing whether it be strategic or tactical market planning, customer experience management, rebuilding and revitalizing your existing marketing operation, integration of sales and marketing teams, media relations or service line revitalizations. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations , I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

Read More