By nature, social media sites are, well…social. That means that people use them for very personal and emotional reasons. Likewise, brands should have very different strategies for each channel. Especially at a time when Facebook is emphasizing more meaningful interactions, you should pause before posting the same exact content across all social channels.
After helping judge the “Best Mobile Communications” category for the 2017 eHealthcare Leadership awards, White Rhino’s chief digital strategist Shawn Gross shared with me, “The industry is definitely on a curve of innovation.” But he was quick to follow that up, “there’s also a wide divide between what I would call true digital engagement and traditional marketing efforts.”
Much like your average cup of joe with cream and sugar, customer experience in healthcare has become a commodity. Patients don’t have any sort of loyalty to a particular brand. In fact, 23% of patients see 3 or more PCPs in just 2 years. And unless you’re delivering a great experience, they’re not simply switching to a new doctor in the same hospital. They’re making a wholesale shift to the hospital across the street. A Press Ganey survey found that hospitals with patient satisfaction in the bottom 10th percentile lost 17% of patient volume.
Ahhh, tax season. It used to be that time of year that you handed a giant folder over to your accountant – not merely for convenience but because he actually knows how to navigate the complexity of tax forms. Until, that is, TurboTax reimagined the tax experience, empowering millions of consumers to complete their taxes all on their own.
I recently sat down with White Rhino’s healthcare practice leads, chief digital strategist Shawn Gross and VP of client services Tara Becker. With more than 15 years experience leading marketing for Boston’s top hospitals, I wanted their perspective on what 2017 holds. Shawn made a chilling comparison:
I recently facilitated a discussion with a boardroom full of hospital executives about how to improve patient experience by making hospital quality data (mortality rates, average length of stay, and the like) more transparent.
The healthcare industry is up in arms over the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) new hospital quality rating measure – 22% of which will be dictated by patient experience. According to Bloomberg BNA, when the new rating system goes into place, “many prominent hospitals that are in the top echelon of other quality rating reports…may receive one or two stars out of a possible five, indicating that they have the poorest quality in comparison with all other hospitals.”
While hospital executives are putting pressure on the CMS to ensure the ratings methodology is accurate and fair, smart marketers aren’t even breaking a sweat. Instead, they’re creating a brand experience that results in happier patients – and quality ratings.
