Influencing Hospital Choice at Key Moments, Understanding the Healthcare Consumers Buying Journey

As the provider market for the healthcare consumer continues to consolidate through merger, acquisition, liquidation, or disintermediation, there is one clear outcome. Fewer providers mean heightened competition within hospitals or health systems in a bid you stay atop the food chain. But with the consumer's realization that they need a hospital for only three things, emergency care, intensive care, and care for complex acute medical conditions, they are more in control with their physician of the buying process that providers want to admit.

To become part of the consumer's choice for healthcare, successful providers will recognize that understanding the healthcare consumer buyers' journey is the new way of thinking about marketing, how it impacts growth, and can drive the organization in a better direction that is more customer-focused and responsive.

Customer Buyer Journey

In this environment, providers are already losing meaningful differentiation. Marketing campaigns for example with messaging that we care more, see out new third-party awards with no context, the best facilities, technology, or better yet, our doctors care more, are meaningless when the data available shows most care is too expensive and average at best. All hospitals and health systems do the same thing. How they communicate with variations on features and benefits across the continuum of care may be different, but still at its most basic level are substantially the same.

Of course, brand reputation can be a powerful influencer but where some providers struggle is when they don’t have a considerable brand reputation or more than basic customer understanding. Just because you have developed personas doesn’t mean that you fully understand the customer or their buying journey.

Now that being said, this discussion is not for the highly successful hospitals or health systems that are already using buyer’s maps and building customer evangelists along the way.

What change is required?

The requirement is to move from an overreliance on features and benefits marketing to organizational customer-focused culture and strategy. The marketing operation becomes highly integrated and shifts to inbound marketing. Marketing’s job is now to provide the right content, at the right time, in the right healthcare context during the customer's buying journey.

Influencing the costumer’s journey is about highly effective marketing.

When hospital marketing understands the buying processes, then marketing becomes far more useful. Marketing moves from putting the heads in the beds or focused on brand and image in the hopes that they are noticed, to a defined process that enhances growth.

Next steps

Creating a buyer's map takes time and resources. Let me be clear that this is some heavy lifting needs to happen. No shortcuts are allowed.

There are many ways to map and a search on the IoT will provide one with all the templates necessary. Keep a singular focus on the following key points as one gathers information on the buyer stages of Awareness, Consideration, and Decision.

1. Initial moments that lead to the first contact.

2. Process steps the buyers take and the conversations they engage in to find solutions.

3. The flow of the process steps and experiences leading up to purchase.

4. Items associated with purchase and consumption.

5. Ongoing experience and reactions to the purchase.

After all, if you want to survive, thrive, and grow in turbulent shrinking markets, then you must understand the healthcare consumer, aka the patient, and their buyer's journey.

I am the healthcare consumer, and you have no idea who I am, or how I choose providers to meet my needs, not yours. It’s time you started to learn.

Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought-leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Marketing Matters is read in 52 countries and listed on the 100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs, and Websites ranked at No. 3 on the list by Feedspot.com. Michael is a Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives, and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association. As an expert in healthcare marketing strategy, digital marketing & social media. Michael is in the top 10 percent of social media experts nationwide and is considered an established influencer. For inquiries regarding strategic consulting engagements, call Michael at 815-351-0671. Opinions expressed are my own.

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