What retail health providers have that hospitals don’t
Physician offices should take a cue from Zappos – your competitors are
A disconnect in the business of healthcare is that patients should be treated as customers, especially as more and more are opting for high-deductible health insurance plans and choosing where to spend their money very carefully. The gold standard for customer service is the Zappos business model. Its employees strive to go above and beyond for their customers to make them happy. In order to compete with retail health providers, such as CVS and Walgreens, hospitals and physician practices need to adopt this retail mindset of catering to the customer.
Two big things that retail health providers have, and patients rate as important, are: convenience and transparency. In fact, in a survey from The Advisory Board Company, patients ranked an appointment wait time of 30 minutes or less as more desirable than a free visit. In addition to shorter wait times in a ‘room’ where patients can also get their shopping done, Walgreens offers the convenience of mobile apps that alert patients when prescriptions are ready and allow them to schedule appointments.
In terms of transparency, retail healthcare providers display pricing for all clinic services. Could you imagine walking into a physician’s office with a list of prices and services at the front desk? While pricing may not vary greatly from office to office, if patients don’t have to dig for the information, they’ll most likely choose you out of convenience. Another thing to consider in transparency is to own patient reviews. Take back the power from physician review sites and allow patients to read and write reviews right on your healthcare organization’s website.
Learn about the two other components, convenient wait spaces and ‘all about you’ mentality, through the link below.