Healthcare organizations (HCOs) must be customer-obsessed. Forrester recently brought together practitioners from various HCOs across all sectors to discuss the importance of using customer experience (CX) as a strategic differentiator in healthcare.

The digital economy that we live in every day as consumers, heavily focused on convenience and time, has laid the groundwork for the rising customer expectations when it comes to healthcare. The days of patients putting up with scheduling appointments that result in wait times of weeks and the dreaded hour-long waits once they get to their appointment are behind us. To become customer–centric, HCOs must first start by defining the CX vision, which must be aligned with their company’s overall strategic goals and objectives. Next, they need to build a base of customer understanding, which is where a voice-of-the-customer (VoC) program and a CX measurement framework come into play.

We shared some key questions that organizations must ask themselves across each of the six customer experience competencies. Use these sample questions to guide your own assessment of your organization and where you stand on your journey to achieve customer obsession.

 

Determine Your Organization’s Maturity

Across The Six CX Competencies

_____________________________

1. Research

    • Are you using quantitative and qualitative methods when researching experiences?
    • How are you sharing findings with employees and partners?

2. Prioritization

    • Are you identifying and ranking consumer groups, journeys, and interactions?
    • How are you allocating resources accordingly?

3. Design

    • Do you have a CX vision?
    • Are you defining and refining experiences based on your vision and research-based understanding of customers?

4. Enablement

    • Are you providing employees with resources that help them deliver excellent experiences?
    • How are you verifying that they are leveraging resources consistently to improve the experience?

5. Measurement

    • Are you tracking and analyzing the quality of experiences?
    • How are you linking metrics to your organization’s overall metrics?
    • How are you communicating with internal stakeholders?

6. Culture

    • How are you creating a system of shared values and behaviors that focus employees on delivering great experiences?

 

How did your organization stack up? Did you discover that these questions were a challenge for your organization to answer, or did you breeze through this list?

CX vision starts from the top but must be embraced and championed by the entire organization. This requires a significant culture shift, which will establish a firm foundation for your organization’s efforts toward customer obsession. Start your journey by setting a strong vision as the North Star, and communicate it broadly and often.

Need help getting started? Check out our research on “How To Build A VoC Program In Healthcare,” and reach out for inquiry with Faith Adams or Arielle Trzcinski.

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