Why Healthcare Leaders Should Start Thinking Like Marketers

For a variety of reasons, patients are beginning to increasingly behave more like traditional consumers — shopping for a healthcare provider like they might shop for a new car or new electronics. This means that healthcare leaders need to keep their marketing hats on when thinking about the financial health of their organizations. And in a service-driven industry, the staff that have regular touchpoints with an organization's patient-consumers is a key part of any marketing plan.

Demand- and Supply-side Competition 

Competition among healthcare organizations comes from both the demand side and the supply side. On the demand side, patients have found that the burden of paying for their healthcare increasingly falls on them, with higher premiums and deductibles. This means they are more discerning in choosing where, and even if, they procure healthcare services. On the supply side, competition is heating up as non-traditional players enter the marketplace. These include retail chains like CVS as well as big tech companies like Apple, Google and Amazon.

Thinking Like Traditional Marketers 

In the quest to attract new and continued business from patient-consumers, healthcare organizations and the leaders who run them need to be thinking like marketers. This means not only getting their names out there to potential new "customers" but also retaining the business of those they are already serving. Both of these goals can benefit enormously from hiring and retention policies that take the marketing aspect of the healthcare business into consideration. 

For example, providers should look to hire staff that are patient-focused and driven to maximize the patient experience. This contributes to patients returning to a provider because they had a positive experience the first time around. Additionally, key staff — executives, physicians, etc. — can serve as brand ambassadors in the community by exhibiting the values patients seek out in care providers: integrity, excellence, compassion and others.

The Critical Impact of Employees on the Healthcare Brand 

Healthcare delivery is not tangible. Healthcare is a service organization and, consequently, its “product” is perceived based on the many interactions that a patient has with its people—employees. 

The impact of an employee on an organization's brand can be significant, particularly when that organization is heavily service-focused, such as a healthcare organization. 

About Us:

Trust...the healthcare marketer who has been in your shoes! Jean Hitchcock has spent more than 25 years at some of the nation’s most respected health systems. As a healthcare marketing and communication leader, she understands your competing priorities. Your strained resources. The pressure to differentiate your services and distinguish your brand. All amid seismic changes in our healthcare system. You’re busy. We can help.