When I go for a haircut, I’m not sitting in the waiting area next to other shaggy customers who’ve been booked for the same time with the same stylist. My appointment time is mine and no one else’s.
When I arrive for a medical appointment, I’m not sure whether other patients are scheduled to see the doctor at the same time as me, but my suspicions mount with every 15 extra minutes spent in a waiting room.
You develop a certain level of trust with both professionals. One is the person who regularly takes a pair of scissors to your head. The other, more important one is critical to a long, healthy life.
Then why do we have an expectation of good customer service for a haircut, but we’re willing to put up with the dissatisfying status quo when it comes to our health?
It’s a question I keep thinking about after attending Modern Healthcare’s recent Digital Health Transformation Summit. The event’s speakers, who represented tech companies, health systems, other providers and investors, sounded common themes on the need to focus on the consumer and how technological innovation will help that cause.
The interlopers, the so-called disruptors like Amazon, Walmart, Walgreens and CVS, aren’t industry insiders, and their onsite and online experience has provided them with an entry point. The tech firms rushing to the healthcare space—and there are plenty of them with a solution trying to find a problem—seek to help solve the customer service puzzle.
I suggest focusing on convenience. It’s a word you don’t hear enough in healthcare. Stressing it—and successfully executing on it—would foster patient loyalty. Put facilities closer to where people live. Let them book appointments online. Start appointments on time. Make it easier to obtain prescriptions. And simplify the phone tree labyrinth at insurance companies and pharmacies.
In a 2021 survey of more than 3,000 consumers, McKinsey found that satisfied patients are 28% less likely to switch providers. Another survey by NRC Health, a healthcare consultancy, reported that 80% of patients said they’d switch providers for “convenience factors” alone.
The healthcare industry has a long way to go. As speakers at our summit made clear, it’s tricky to balance investments made to improve behind-the-scenes processes and workflow with those that address the needs of the patient.
Why can't it be both?
