Integrating Voice of the Consumer for better healthcare experiences

In MDRG’s 2022 "State of Healthcare Experience" report, we identified the three key strategies healthcare entities need to implement to create a successful customer experience. In this post, we are going to talk about Integrating the Voice of the Consumer. 

When it comes to the voice of the customer, e-commerce organizations have a long-standing history of understanding their consumers' interactions with their brands. It's arguably easier. A user logs onto the computer, performs a google search or clicks an ad, they browse a website, they add items to their shopping cart and purchase. An e-commerce marketer has built-in platforms to tell them exactly where consumers run into trouble and drop off. Healthcare is a bit more complicated and as such requires a more robust voice of the customer program.

Unfortunately, disruptors were created digital-first, and healthcare's new competitors ARE e-commerce organizations. The advantage of being built mobile-first allows disruptors to focus on the user experience obsessively. Healthcare providers, not so much. The digital front door initiatives for some providers are only just now underway. As digital solutions, data is at the fingertips of disruptors. Healthcare providers have a heavier lift to integrate in-the-moment feedback from their consumers.

3 Challenges to Integrating VOC:

1. Lack of alignment

There are times IT and operational initiatives are moving forward to fix a problem without insight from the consumer. 

2. Sense of urgency

Often systems are caught up in a sense of urgency to demonstrate progress and don't have patience for research to ensure it's the right solution.

3. Inaccessible Insights

In many cases insights might exist but lives in a different department than the stakeholder. Often research is difficult to digest out of context and why it matters isn't clear to other departments.

Those that have been successful in integrating VOC have done so from the top. In one organization the CEO demanded research before a decision was made, making it baked into the decision-making process.

“…any road map item, any new enhancement or change that we're looking to make, it's a requirement that VOC is baked into that rubric or that decision making process. And at the bigger macro level, we've required voice of customer to be included even when building new hospitals.”

-Executive Director, Digital Marketing & Experience, System

Making VOC research a requirement rather than an afterthought is one of the three key strategies we identified in successful healthcare experience programs. For more information download our 2022 State of Healthcare Experience report.

Click here to download MDRG’s 2022 State of Healthcare Experience report.

Read more about the State of Healthcare Experience in our blog!