Patient experience has become a key feature in defining success for healthcare organizations. Once, this experience hinged primarily on interactions with care teams and front office workers, but in the digital age, the patient journey extends well beyond the clinical office. With this change comes a shift in what patients expect from their experience. This article explains why this shift has happened and gives five examples of healthcare CX trends that follow it.
Why patient expectations are changing
As healthcare customer service trends change, patient expectations change alongside them. In the age of modern technology, people are used to the speed and convenience they experience as consumers, and they transfer those expectations to healthcare without realizing there are many more nuances to navigate.
In the healthcare industry, customer support teams may be staffed by physicians or nurses who are also caring for patients, or, if the clinic has a separate support team, they still have to spend time navigating outdated databases and flipping through documents to answer questions. Support teams also have to balance answering questions while following compliance standards and making patients feel heard without offering any care coordination or medical advice. It’s key for healthcare CX leaders to identify how these patient experience trends are changing, so you can implement these techniques and improve patient satisfaction.
Healthcare CX Trends to Watch
1. Omnichannel patient communication
In industries such as retail, omnichannel support has become the standard. People expect to be able to reach out through the channel they prefer (chat, call, email, etc.), and they are also probably expecting that the context of their past conversations will come with them, even if, for example, they had been talking through text chat before and now they are calling. When people are used to getting this kind of experience wherever they turn, patients are likely to expect omnichannel healthcare communication as well.
2. AI-assisted support with human oversight
AI-assisted agents can focus on delivering a better patient experience, with the AI pulling up relevant knowledge and information from the clinical database while the agent talks with the patient. This ensures the patient doesn’t have to wait for the agent to comb through the database before getting a response.
AI-assisted support tools, such as GuruAssist, can also offer suggested responses for the agent, which can be helpful when they’re not sure how to proceed. It is still ultimately up to the person’s judgment, but with AI support, these agents are more confident handling complex interactions they may have had to escalate to more experienced agents in the past. The key here when implementing AI into your healthcare contact center is to ensure your patient experience gains the benefits without losing the human touch.
3. Proactive outreach and reminders
In the past, patients may have had to call in when they were running low on a prescription or felt it was time for another appointment. Nowadays, intelligent systems can track when patients may need appointment or refill reminders, before the patient ever has to inquire. This can help patients build trust with the healthcare organization, because they know that even if they forget, their care team still has their back.
4. Personalized patient journeys
Previously, personalizing a patient journey meant tailoring a response to each patient who reached out. This is still important, but to make a patient feel heard and understood, it helps to anticipate their needs before they have to lay them out. Tying back to proactive communication, one way to do this is to set up early reminders. Another way this could be done is to offer self-service options for patients that have simple questions or ones that are asked frequently, like what time their next appointment is or when offices are open
Some of this personalization could involve knowing a patient’s medical history or previous communications with the clinic, so they don’t have to repeat details they’ve already discussed with their care coordination team.
5. Compliance-first technology adoption
Being able to discuss these more personalized topics, however, means having to have strict compliance standards in place. Patient data is sensitive information that needs to be protected, but you also need to make sure patients feel their data is safe, which can sometimes require a slightly different approach. This may mean displaying your data policies transparently so patients can review them, or, when they call to ask about private information, including verification steps and a disclaimer about how their data is protected or used during the call.
What these trends mean for healthcare leaders
Years ago, creating a personalized patient journey may have seemed optional, but that’s no longer the case. Now more than ever, healthcare leaders must take the time to build a strong CX strategy that shows patients they are cared for. Some organizations may have the people and resources to build this operation themselves, but if you’re worried about how your company will do it, it may be worth exploring the benefits of call center outsourcing for healthcare companies.
Preparing for what’s next
If you’re thinking about what it may take to build up your patient experience, The Office Gurus’ Healthcare Contact Center Playbook is a good place to start.
This playbook offers materials like a compliance checklist, escalation protocols, a patient experience scorecard, and more, so you can see where your company stands now and track improvements as you move forward. With this help, your organization can find the right balance between compliance, speed, and patient experience.
Closing thoughts
Building a strong foundation for the patient experience is essential to a healthcare organization’s success, and creating a personalized patient journey could be the difference that sets your company apart from the competition. Download the Healthcare Contact Center Playbook to discover some tips and tools built specifically for healthcare contact center operations.
