// By Jane Weber Brubaker // The time change between China and the U.S. made it relatively easy to connect with Lee Aase, Director of Mayo Clinic Social Media Network; it was Wednesday evening on the East Coast, and Thursday morning in Beijing—12 hours apart. Aase was on a two-week trip to China in June, Read More
Are your website visitors captive customers? When an organization fails to meet customer expectations—and the bar has been set high by industries outside of healthcare—the impact on brand can be great. More than a third of visitors to health system websites surveyed by Greystone.Net and Klein & Partners, creators of gSight™, a healthcare and hospital Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // In our self-service, digitally enabled world, healthcare consumers wonder why they can’t do something as basic as scheduling an appointment online. Today, ignoring patient demands for access and convenience can be a costly mistake, resulting in low satisfaction scores, or worse, losing out to competitors who pay closer attention. Read More
A March 2016 editorial in JAMA authored by three University of Michigan physicians, “Health System Loyalty Programs: An Innovation in Customer Care and Service,” begins as follows: “Many people belong to loyalty programs for coffee shops, hotel chains, or airlines. Despite a highly consumer-oriented approach in some health systems, similar types of loyalty programs have Read More
Patients are consumers. They want convenience—especially online. They expect it, and when they don’t get it, they don’t like it. When they don’t like it, they may tell other people. If they’re really upset, they may use the large megaphone known as the Internet to tell the world. Wouldn’t it be great if they told Read More
“If talk of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) brings to mind comically unfashionable goggles, a dearth of useful applications, and headache-inducing graphics, we’d understand. Until two or three years ago, we thought the same—they were technologies of the future and always would be. But we’ve come full circle in our thinking and so Read More
// By Kyra Hagan // One of the most significant transformations in healthcare today revolves around consumers’ growing interest and involvement in their health. The consumerism of healthcare has profound implications for marketers, care delivery teams, and IT professionals. New challenges as well as opportunities are emerging, and deciding when and how to leverage technology Read More
Ask the Expert, with Ben Dillon // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Remember when Google was where you went to figure out where to go next? Now Google is more interested in having you find what you need right on the search engine results page. Google’s answers may be taking up much more of the Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // “Every single touchpoint you have in healthcare, we should have the same consistent experience,” says Chantal Stephens of Orlando Health, formerly of Ritz-Carlton and Disney, two organizations renowned for exceptional customer service (eHST, January 2016). The implied word in this sentence is “positive”—a consistent positive experience. When any aspect Read More
eHealthcare Pulse // By Jane Weber Brubaker // A March 2016 editorial in JAMA authored by three University of Michigan physicians, “Health System Loyalty Programs: An Innovation in Customer Care and Service,” begins as follows: “Many people belong to loyalty programs for coffee shops, hotel chains, or airlines. Despite a highly consumer-oriented approach in some Read More
If you could get a physician to refer 100 percent of his or her patients to your hospital or health system, what would that be worth? If the physician refers to specialists, such as neurosurgeons or orthopedic surgeons, it could be worth $2.5 million to $3 million in annual revenue, according to Bryce Bartel, CEO Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Net Promoter Score is a mechanism that collects consumer feedback by asking the question: How likely is it that you would recommend [brand] to a friend or colleague? Memorial Hermann uses Net Promoter Score to measure consumer sentiment across a range of online experiences. “We can get a gauge Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // While many health systems focus on driving volume in high-margin service lines, Gundersen Health System is beginning to think about things differently. “About two years ago we started looking at how to shift our marketing from driving volume to building relationships, and helping consumers engage in their health and Read More
Could your health system launch a brand-new digital marketing campaign on four weeks’ notice? When funding for a marketing campaign materialized in the fall of 2015, Lahey Health’s Specializing in You campaign was fast-tracked, with a mandate to be in market by October 1. “The first email I got from our [marketing and communications] team Read More
Is retail strategy relevant to your work as a healthcare marketer? The answer is a resounding yes, according to Ken Robbins, Founder and President of award-winning digital agency Response Mine Interactive (RMI). “Techniques used to increase conversions for larger retail organizations can be very successfully applied to healthcare,” he says. He offers the following stats in support Read More
In early April, the Economist Intelligence Unit released results of its latest survey of top marketing executives, The Path to 2020: Marketers Seize the Customer Experience, commissioned by marketing automation company Marketo. The report captures the insights and opinions of global marketing leaders spanning multiple industries. We followed up with Marketo’s Chief Marketing Officer Sanjay Read More
// By James A. Gardner // “Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the Internet was also once a dream, and so were computers and smartphones. The future is coming.” —Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg If talk of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) brings to mind comically unfashionable goggles, Read More
“Massive amounts of private health information (PHI) are stored in Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) ready for analysis by those in the healthcare industry for the benefit of all,” notes Suni Munshani. “[But] the healthcare industry must find new ways to defend itself and its sensitive data from bad actors also keen to leverage the wealth Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // If you could get a physician to refer 100 percent of his or her patients to your hospital or health system, what would that be worth? If the physician refers to specialists, such as neurosurgeons or orthopedic surgeons, it could be worth $2.5 million to $3 million in annual Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // How many health systems do you know that could launch their first ever digital campaign on four weeks’ notice? When funding for a marketing campaign materialized in the fall of 2015, Lahey Health’s Specializing in You campaign was fast-tracked, with a mandate to be in market by October 1. Read More
// By Ken Robbins // Conversions are the goal of every marketer. But in healthcare, can you think of conversions the same way you do in other industries? Take retail, for example. Are tactics used to increase conversions in retail relevant to something as unique as healthcare? The answer to both questions is a resounding Read More
An Interview with Marketo CMO Sanjay Dholakia // By Jane Weber Brubaker // In early April, the Economist Intelligence Unit released results of its latest survey of top marketing executives, The Path to 2020: Marketers Seize the Customer Experience, commissioned by marketing automation company Marketo. The report captures the insights and opinions of global marketing Read More
// By Suni Munshani // Massive amounts of private health information (PHI) are stored in Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) ready for analysis by those in the healthcare industry for the benefit of all. But mobile and cloud technologies have blurred traditional enterprise perimeters and the healthcare industry must find new ways to defend itself and Read More
When it comes to selecting software, implementation, or design vendors for major technology upgrades such as a content management system (CMS) or customer relationship management system (CRM), there’s a lot on the line. Even small healthcare organizations may have to pony up hundreds of thousands of dollars; for larger organizations, it could be in the Read More
Online billing: From the patient perspective, it seems like the best you can achieve is a silver lining to an otherwise dark cloud. But Memorial Hermann health system in Texas has implemented an online payment solution from Simplee that is garnering rave reviews. “We understand that paying a healthcare bill isn’t always pleasant, that healthcare is Read More