According to the doctor's answer statistics, 95% of patients share bad customer service experiences in the healthcare industry. That shows clearly how critical it is to enhance the customer experience with healthcare providers in order to increase customer loyalty. The importance of high quality of customer experience influences strategic growth and brand loyalty.
The healthcare industry has made significant progress in recent years. Healthcare companies are aware of the advantages of a patient-centric approach and how it may extend the lifetime value of a customer. In addition, our healthcare solutions Live platform really helps you to keep all your customer-oriented communication streamlined in one place.
Such innovative healthcare solutions have the potential to greatly enhance patient care at healthcare companies, which might raise the customer satisfaction index and increase sales.
Customer service experience in the healthcare companies refers to how patients view a healthcare system or organization based on their online and offline interactions. In any industry, providing an excellent customer service experience is crucial. However, in the healthcare industry, it is even more important for the following reasons.
Even if you have the best doctors and nurses in the healthcare companies, if you can't give your customers a consistently excellent customer service experience, they won't recognize you as a top healthcare provider. According to a PwC report, 55% of customers would stop buying from a company after several bad experiences. So instead of treating each interaction with customers as if it were a transaction, healthcare companies should aim to build meaningful relationships with them.
Customers who are satisfied are also more likely to recommend healthcare companies to friends, family, and coworkers. The strongest doctor-patient relationships begin with excellent customer service experiences. Even though they may not be as obvious or frequently recognized as other forms of customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction and whether they would use your services again depend heavily on the reputation your healthcare companies build for providing either excellent or poor medical customer service experience.
The healthcare industry relies on precise customer data to diagnose and prescribe treatments. Errors, incomplete records, and staff members' inability to access customer necessary data can all have a negative effect on how well customers are treated. The first line of defense against costly errors are the systems and procedures from the customer service experience.
The effectiveness of the customer service experience is frequently an indication and an indicator of more serious issues within an organization. Healthcare companies with strong and well-developed processes and systems are likely to offer an excellent customer service experience. Companies with poor customer service experience are likely to have issues with staff training, process inefficiencies, and data quality.
The key customer touchpoints in the healthcare industry are described in detail in the following section, along with suggestions for how to make them better.
The customer's first interaction with the healthcare industry happens when they search for and choose the products and services they require. To evaluate their healthcare options and find the best services and products for them, many customers will compare testimonials, advertisements, recommendations from other providers, and advice from family and friends.
Tip: For a healthcare company, adding social proof to your websites, such as customers testimonials and professional credentials, is an excellent place to start.
The customers and healthcare companies typically engage in active communication for the first time through appointment scheduling. The company identifies and gathers basic data about the customer and his or her healthcare requirements during this interaction. With this information, the provider can make a first decision on the patient's urgency and schedule an appointment.
Tip: Healthcare companies can improve the scheduling experience by reducing wait times to speak with a scheduling agent. Shortening the time it takes to collect customer data and having accurate and up-to-date scheduling data are key. Additionally, sending appointment confirmations, instructions, and reminders via email or text message can help.
The moment a client shows up for their booked appointment, the healthcare companies start providing services. The majority of the patient's interactions with the customer experience happen here. Doctors, nurses, technicians, dentists, and other healthcare professionals don't frequently realize how important they are to providing an excellent customer service experience. In the healthcare industry, it is crucial to improve the service delivery experience and make it positive.
Tip: Giving practitioners full access to patient records, health histories, and the appropriate diagnostic tools and systems is essential for delivering an excellent customer service experience in this situation. Digital tools that enable practitioners to record treatment notes, customer queries, recommendations, and diagnosis notes while interacting with the customer will help them focus more on the needs and customer experiences rather than the technical aspects of providing healthcare.
Only if you get customer feedback on their interactions with your healthcare companies, you can make the customer service experience for them better. You can learn what went well for customers and the issues they ran into throughout the entire customer journey by asking for feedback on how the website, appointment scheduling, check-in, or the service delivery experience was.
With a straightforward post-appointment follow-up interaction, you still have the chance to turn around a bad customer service experience if you sense a bad one.
Tip: Show the patient that the facility cares about his or her health and experience by making a follow-up phone call from your call center to see how the patient is feeling, indicating personal attention from staff.
Future appointments for a different issue or follow-up appointments for a health issue shouldn't be considered brand-new customer service experiences. Customer interactions with healthcare companies are continuous from beginning to end throughout the duration of the relationship. Even when a health condition isn't being managed actively, customers address healthcare professionals as "my doctor." This is crucial because it establishes the standard that healthcare companies will follow: every future visit will be treated as an extension of previous customer care.
Tip: Healthcare companies should concentrate on keeping customer service experience records for the entire series of interactions. Personnel should review and update any data and insights gathered during one engagement. This guarantees that the healthcare companies can offer comprehensive care without repeatedly requesting the same information from the customer.
Our Live solution is here to help you to manage everything from scheduling appointments to sharing patient reports. Live, keeps all your patient-oriented communication streamlined in one place.
The following healthcare benefits can assist your company in providing your customers with superior service:
Live smart calendar helps you actively manage all your bookings, so you never waste doctors' or customers' time. Managing all internal resources in combination with time slots and customer availability has never been easier.
Omnichannel approaches help customers book an exam from any channel they prefer at any time they like. Being there for your customers is what makes healthcare such a unique industry, and Live help you with that.
Some customer queries don't require a healthcare professional to answer. For example, which bills should be paid or when there is a free slot for a medical exam. That is why Live uses bots in order to automate responses to non-professional queries that could significantly save time on both sides, customers and healthcare companies.
Providing a high-quality treatment in a non-negotiable category. Providing exceptional post-discharge customer care should also fall into that category. With Live, your customers will truly feel you are thinking of them constantly.
Your healthcare company wants to give customers the best possible healthcare services. However, today’s customers have more intricate and different expectations for the care they receive. You must concentrate on fulfilling these expectations if you want to continue competing. Live is here to help you, bridge the gap between appointments and resources.
Learn more about how the Live product family can help you support and improve your customer experience strategy.
