The healthcare consumers nowadays know and are more involved in their health information. They actively gather information from multiple contexts and require a healthcare experience that mirrors what they have come to expect in other industries.
This shift has significant implications for healthcare organizations in how they need to be reimagining engagement with patients and thinking about enabling more patient centric care. Outdated assumptions no longer apply. If providers and payers can understand new consumer expectations, they will not just improve the customer experience, but also their business performance.
Understanding what today’s consumers are looking for, recent 2023 and 2024 surveys have dug an inch deeper into the changing preferences and struggles of consumers throughout their healthcare journey.
Why Does a Better Consumer Experience Matter?
This is because improving care delivery for consumers starts and ends with giving them that seamless, assistive journey across the whole of their healthcare experience.
This includes:
- Simplifying the enrollment process
- Making benefit information easy to understand
- Ensuring a hassle-free payment experience
- Disease management and care coordination via both in-person and digital channels
- Frequent access to medications and increased compliance with doctor-input for patients
6 Strategies for More Efficient Healthcare Consumer Engagement
1- Provide More Rapid and Accessible Care
Consumers want convenience. Patients who can’t get in to see their regular doctor are not inclined to wait. In the 2023 McKinsey Consumer Health Insights (CHI) Survey, about 60% of patients experienced trouble in scheduling appointments:
- 27% waited for their provider of choice
- 24% left and went to another provider
- Others were among the 61% who went to walk-in clinics or used virtual care, left untreated or asked for referrals.
2- Be Open About Cost and Keep Your Pricing Competitive
Cost is a huge consideration in healthcare choices. According to the 2024 CHI Survey:
- 35% used the cost information to choose a provider after finding it
- A total of 76% of those chose low or medium-cost providers.
So this is a clear chance to pull patients who are conscious about costs your way by doing the following:
- Offering discounts during off-peak hours
- Displaying treatment prices up front
Additionally, nearly 38% of people, especially Gen Z are now proactively exploring provider pricing before they make decisions. It shows that better price transparency results in greater focus on what resources are open to spend and improves buying as well as business performance.
3- Offer Free Health Education Content to Establish Credibility
Though doctors are the most trusted resource in medical knowledge, someone doing Google searches, or checking:
- Health websites
- Wellness apps
- Social media
- Friends and family
McKinsey’s 2024 Health Media Consumer (HMC) Survey reveals that for Gen Z, trust in doctors and hospitals trails older generations. Instead, they rely on digital for their recommendations.
To adapt, healthcare organizations can:
- Write and distribute easily digestible, trustworthy health information.
- Leverage AI-based tools to (carefully) bolster content creation
- License high-quality third-party materials
This tactic builds consumer awareness, trust and loyalty in a particular brand.
4- Use Targeted Advertising to Empower Consumers
That is what some say turns consumers away from reading sponsored healthcare content. Yet it is quite the contrary.
From the HMC survey:
- 74% see healthy result from military wellness sponsorship
- 62% find at least some of the tactics useful (with 73% stating they find personalization useful)
When it comes to ad engagement, consumers are most likely continue scrolling when:
- Browsing a healthcare website
- Viewing ads customized to conversations that had been recorded about their health within recently
Getting the consumer to think about what they want is a key driver of advertising success and increased brand awareness.
5- Improved Healthcare Journey Through Digital Tools
While consumers may not want tech companies to take over traditional healthcare, they do appreciate technology that helps them.
From the 2024 CHI survey:
- Less than 10% of consumers would like health services directly from the tech giants
These however, want to know of tools that:
- Share health data with doctors
- Offer personalized health tips
- Support treatment plans
By striking this balance, it allows us to integrate into the care experience by partnering with tech companies without ceding control over all data to Big Tech.
6- Use Data Responsibly to Improve Care and Engagement
The current trend contrasts with the days in which people were more wary of sharing personal data.
The 2024 CHI Survey found:
- 74% would share medical data with their primary doctor
- 61% would share it their insurer
- Many are also open to sharing behavioral and lifestyle data
However, consumers only want this data to be used in ways that directly benefit them. For example, by providing personalized health care advice or wellness support. Similarly, if healthcare organizations use this data in the right manner, being transparent and ethical about how they are using it, they will be able to build trust that lasts.
A Strategic Approach to Consumer-Centric Healthcare
Solving this problem is not as simple as creating a prescription reminder cup, or an appointment reminder mug. It is more of a sea change throughout the company.
To succeed, healthcare leaders should:
- Set a clear strategic vision
- Set goals that focus on enhancing the customer experience and unite the whole team.
- Adopt a flexible, consumer-first model
- Keep it agile. Test, learn and go through real time feedback to smaller scale experiments.
- Build consumer-focused capabilities
Utilize tools ranging from personalized communication and clearly defined success metrics to staff training.
These steps, implemented over a 12-month period, will enable healthcare organizations to joyfully disrupt their consumers consistently and change the old thinking that guides how healthcare has operated.
Conclusion
With increasing competition in the healthcare industry, not having consumers at the centre is a luxury we cannot afford. Organizations that accept this trend in healthcare well are likely to:
- Attract new patients
- Keep existing ones
- Improve outcomes
- Lower costs
Healthcare providers and payers are able to progress in a category where consumers are leading their own health journeys by providing effortless care experiences.
If you need more details, contact Prime Well Med Solutions now!
