Beyond Your Responsively Designed Website: Why You Need a Mobile Strategy Now

August 4, 2016

// By Jane Weber Brubaker //

By now, most of us have seen the 2014 chart that shows the number of mobile users finally surpassing desktop users. Although this doesn’t necessarily mean desktop is going away—78 percent of digital users use both desktop and mobile platforms, according to a 2015 report from ComScore—what is startling is that the other 22 percent are divided almost evenly between mobile-only and desktop-only users, and for the first time, mobile-only users slightly edged out desktop users (11.3 percent vs. 10.6 percent).

Mobile-only-and desktop-only-users

Neal Linkon, Director of Digital Engagement, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin

Neal Linkon, Director of Digital Engagement, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin

To learn more about how these dynamics play out in real life, we spoke with Neal Linkon, Director of Digital Engagement at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, and Kathy Divis, President of Greystone.Net (and member of the eHST Editorial Advisory Board) after their presentation at the 2016 Healthcare Marketing & Physician Strategies Summit, “The Mobile-Only Customer: Are You Ready?” Here are just a couple of their comments on the implications of mobile-only customers for healthcare organizations:

“The mobile revolution isn’t coming,” says Linkon. “It’s in your rearview mirror, because it’s already here.”

“It’s coming, and it’s coming like a freight train, and it’s probably not going away,” says Divis.

Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin began its mobile journey more than three years ago, opting to build a responsive mobile website that would work for both desktop and mobile. But the launch of the new site was just the starting point. “It’s something that we look at all the time, because there are trade-offs,” says Linkon. “Sometimes what works really well on desktop doesn’t work well in responsive, and vice versa.”

A Mobile-First Orientation

This evolutionary approach is a hallmark of the hospital’s mobile strategy, which encompasses the website, a suite of mobile apps, and a text messaging program that has far exceeded expectations. The target audience at a pediatric hospital is a younger demographic—parents of young children. Between 50 and 60 percent of website visitors come from mobile devices. “For us, it’s very much a mobile-first orientation. We already encounter mobile-only users,” says Linkon. “The only computer they own is the one they carry with them everywhere, and that’s their mobile phone.”

Mapping the Touchpoints

The website is the foundation, but the hospital continuously looks for ways to use mobile to make things easier for patients and families. “We have mapped out the touchpoints that a patient has with the organization, from finding a doctor, to aftercare, and every step in between,” says Linkon. “We are trying to identify where we can enhance that experience.”

7 Apps and Growing

The hospital’s current suite of mobile apps is mainly focused on consumers; CHW Refer is targeted to referring providers. Several more apps are on the drawing board, including a diabetes tracker, a sports medicine app to connect with supported leagues, and a dietary tracker.

Childrens-Hospital-Apps

Setbacks and Surprises

In experimenting with apps, there have been some winners and some losers. “One of the main components of our culture is innovation,” says Linkon. “By definition that means you are going to try some things that don’t work.” He notes that some apps get more use than others, and one in particular didn’t live up to his expectations. “The wayfinding component was the hardest part and it falls short of what we hoped to do,” he says. Other apps that weren’t expected to gain a wide audience have surprised him. “Carb Factor is now being used in 40 states. I had my doubts as to whether it would be of use at all,” he says.

Texting Reduces Anxiety for Families, Scores Clinical Wins

The most successful mobile initiative so far has been a text messaging program powered by [m]pirik. “What we are seeing with the text messaging service is not just terrific results from a patient and family experience perspective, but clinical benefits as well, which is always something that we marketers aspire to but rarely achieve,” says Linkon.

The program was championed by an ear, nose, and throat specialist to help patients and families prepare for tonsillectomies. Parents opt in to receive text messages before, during, and after surgery.

1-Pre-op

2-Pre-Op

3-Intra-Op

4-Post-OpThe clinical impact has been very positive:

  • Patients/parents understand pre-surgery instructions, and no one has had to cancel a procedure because a patient wasn’t prepared (one per day before program)
  • No clinical calls post-surgery (65 percent of patients before program)
  • No urgent care or ER visits post-surgery (10 percent before program)

Physicians Say, “Me, Too”

The program has now been made available for other procedures, and word is spreading around the organization. “We initially started talking about it with other doctors and they thought we were crazy, that there was no way it was going to work,” says Linkon. “Now I get a call once a week [from physicians] wanting to talk about how they can use the tool.”

Closing Communication Gaps

When anxiety levels are high, families may find it difficult to absorb and remember critical information, and receiving text messages has helped to close the gaps. “There isn’t one new thing in any of the text messages that they haven’t been told before, sometimes multiple times,” says Linkon. “But we are still averaging about 4.4 out of 5 on a survey question asking whether they learned anything new from the texts.”

Mobile Wakeup Call

“About a year ago I read a white paper by the Altimeter Group on the inevitability of the mobile-only customer,” says Kathy Divis. “I started to think about that from the perspective of the healthcare industry and how that had to scare the bejesus out of so many folks, because we have not been on the cutting edge in moving to really responsive websites.”

Which Category Is Your Organization?

As Divis sees it, healthcare organizations fall into one of these categories:

  • They have a mobile-responsive website.
  • They are planning a mobile-responsive website.
  • They have a site that does not perform well in a mobile environment.
  • Only a few have a mobile strategy.

#1 Priority: Website Should Work Well Across Devices

Kathy Divis, President, Greystone.Net

Kathy Divis, President, Greystone.Net

She observes that when a website functions poorly in a mobile environment, it creates a ripple effect of negativity, impacting how consumers view the organization, their brand perception, and overall patient experience. “We are past the stage where we have to ask whether or not mobile is important,” Divis says. “It’s very important.”

Developing a hospital website that works well across multiple devices should be the number-one priority, according to Divis. “Everyone who has a smart phone or a tablet can get to your website through the browser, but comparatively few people will download your mobile app,” she says.

Develop a Mobile Game Plan

Once healthcare organizations have made the necessary changes to make their websites fully functional across devices, Divis strongly recommends that they take a step back and think about their larger mobile strategy. “There are very few organizations who have seriously sat down and thought through what they really want to do from a mobile perspective, and have a strategy to get there,” she says.

Start Small, but Start Now

But even leaders are still feeling their way. Linkon’s approach is to stay nimble. “We don’t have a long-term plan for where we want to go,” he says. “It is not something that we have a clear road map on. It’s an ongoing discussion.” He offers this guidance for organizations exploring mobile opportunities:

  • Start small and get quick wins.
  • Find advocates within the organization, and get buy-in.
  • Try things, fail fast, learn from it, and move on.

His most important piece of advice is this: Don’t wait.

Jane Weber Brubaker is the Editor of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends. Contact her at jane@ehealthcarestrategy.com.