September 19, 2024
Prioritizing the patient experience can transform healthcare outcomes and financial stability. Below, MERGE uncovers the power of journey mapping in enhancing patient satisfaction, reducing staff burnout, and driving growth.
Priyama Barua
In today’s consumer-driven healthcare environment, journey mapping the patient experience has a profound impact on brand reputation. In fact, according to McKinsey, companies that use tools like customer journey maps see revenues increase as much as 10-15%, while also reducing their cost of service by 15-20%.
This intersection of patient experience and brand reputation has led modern healthcare marketers to prioritize this effort, rightly understanding that consumers have come to expect seamless interactions, much like those they encounter in other industries. Healthcare marketing teams have the opportunity to lead this effort, in partnership with patient experience teams, and the positive impact extends well beyond marketing strategy.
1. It significantly impacts patient outcomes: Positive patient experiences lead to better adherence to care plans and improved health outcomes. Patients who are more engaged and informed about their healthcare tend to have better results.
2. It can reduce healthcare worker burnout: Enhancing the patient experience through seamless interactions and automation streamlines the care journey, effectively lightening the workload for healthcare staff.
3. The financial implications can be profound: Government payers (and, increasingly, commercial payers) now tie financial incentives to patient experience metrics, rewarding high ratings with bonuses and sometimes penalizing low ratings with financial losses. A decline in patient satisfaction can cost organizations millions and strain payer relationships, as payers look to optimize the performance of providers in their network. These factors emphasize the need to keep patient experience at the forefront of strategic planning.
4. It can increase patient retention: Poor patient experiences can lead to "leakage," where patients switch to competitors. Friction in the patient journey, such as scheduling difficulties and long wait times, can erode trust and impact patient retention and acquisition.
Importantly, journey mapping is best applied through a partnership between patient experience and marketing teams. Marketing teams, with their deep knowledge of customer voice, are well poised to lead the way by leveraging journey mapping as a powerful tool to optimize strategy and integrate their efforts. By identifying critical touch points throughout the patient journey, teams can tailor their marketing strategies to address specific needs and expectations at each stage.
Of course, collaboration is also key. Involving stakeholders from various other departments such as operations, IT, and patient experience can foster a comprehensive understanding of patient interactions and experiences, enabling the organization to implement holistic improvements that benefit all aspects of the healthcare journey.
To create impactful journey maps, MERGE recommends the following approach:
The importance of journey mapping is underscored by people’s increasingly limited tolerance for friction, especially in comparison to smoother experiences in other industries, as out-of-category experiences color their expectations.
Enable Action
Creating journey maps that are both strategic and actionable is where many organizations falter. Often, existing maps identify emotions and moments of truth but lack actionable steps. To overcome this, MERGE recommends utilizing CX journeys as a source of knowledge and a planning tool when designing cross-channel strategies, leveraging data and technology.
Here are some examples where MERGE has used journey mapping across our provider clients to impact different types of healthcare customers:
The Wrap
At MERGE, we work with our clients to define specific journeys and use cases for various segments that will help serve as foundational intelligence to engage multiple stakeholders, provide an astute focus on the customer (versus an organization), as well as bring a level of customer insight that can break down some of the unintentional silos within our organizations.
If you'd like to better understand the benefits and approach to high-quality journey mapping that is high-functioning, we're here to connect!
*Kellie Bliss, MERGE EVP, Client Service, also contributed to this article
