Now let me ask you – What would need to happen (or not happen) for you to decide to never go back there or seek out a similar alternative?

• Slow service?
• Unfriendly or seemingly uncaring waitstaff?
• Food wasn’t as good (but you still have to pay full price for it)?

Would these problems have to occur more than once for you to seek out other options?

If you chose not to go back, is that good enough? Or would you fill out a survey (assuming they offered) or post on online review?

Now let’s put this into the context of your medical practice. First off, the restaurant issues are well known, and most establishments take measures to avoid them. Not to do so could mean losing patrons. 

However, some issues in the healthcare industry can go overlooked and lead to patients looking for alternatives. Here are some examples.

Not believing it can happen to you

On a smaller scale, it could be a popular restaurant that suddenly goes out of business.

On a larger scale, it could be the used-car industry getting too comfortable with their sales process. Then, CarMax developed an industry-changing methodology that benefited business and consumers.

If a patient feels like a practice doesn’t really care about them, they have ways to research alternatives and publicly share what they think. You don’t want that to learn that the hard way.

Ignoring the advantages of patient convenience

We recently asked 675 consumers between the ages of 21-65+ what convenience feature would motivate them to change physicians.  Here’s how their answers broke down:

37.9% said the ability to schedule, cancel or change an appointment online or through an app.

32.59% said more self-service access (view history, payment portals, etc.)

20.0% said the ability to submit paperwork and payment info online before their visit.

9.48% said getting to receive doctor’s appointment text message reminders or other notifications via text or voicemail

Notice the strong emphasis on mobile and online convenience.  These answers are at the heart of healthcare consumerization because things like patient messaging are consistent with how consumers handle other aspects of daily life. Plus, just like a restaurant or other business, if they find what they need elsewhere – they could make a switch.

Learning what patients are saying online (when it’s too late)

As consumers, we want to know what other people say about products and services.  When I had to find a new doctor a few years ago, patient reviews were incredibly important to me.  Plus, in the healthcare industry, there are physician rating and review sites, and they have some clout.  Consider this:

77% of patients start their search for a doctor by seeking out online reviews

80% of consumers see online reviews to be as valuable as personal recommendations

I did some searching and found patients making comments like these: 

Some tools you can use to learn what patients/consumers are feeling (before they end up expressing them online) include online surveys and post-call IVR surveys. Just remember, your reputation and brand are represented in how you communicate through them as well.

Becker’s Hospital Recommends you don’t wait until the end of a visit, and instead take advantage of every opportunity to communicate value at each touchpoint.

Waiting too long to address areas of improvement

In fact, in our survey, we asked our 675 respondents – Which of the following areas of the overall healthcare process do you think needs the greatest improvement?  

Their answers broke down this way:

25.63% – Transparency in how much a visit or procedure will cost after insurance.
25.48% – Reducing the amount of time spent in the waiting room
19.41% – Reducing the time waiting for a physician once in the examination room
15.31% – The quality of care provided by the physician
14.07% – Greater flexibility in paying out-of-pocket expenses

Consumers are telling you what they expect in their patient experience, and in today’s consumer-driven environment, you have to listen.  It doesn’t mean please all the people with everything all of the time.  It means you have to recognize what’s important and act before your patients take action of their own.

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