There’s a disconnect between what healthcare organizations define as exceptional consumer experiences and the experiences consumers actually desire. The former is marked by smooth, frictionless interactions, while the latter entails sustained, personalized relationships.  

Today, most healthcare organizations are striving to improve consumer experiences one interaction at a time in moments that matter. Unfortunately, the way healthcare leaders think about these interactions misses the mark, and consumers—patients, members, customers—are underwhelmed by their interactions, even the helpful ones.

Our healthcare research consistently reveals that consumers are clear that they desire sustained, personalized relationships. Key themes emerge in the research:

• Consumers want lasting relationships with partners for health 
• They want partners that understand not only their health status, but their lives, motivations, and goals 
• They want relationships built on trust, transparency, and empathy  
• And they want partners that know them well enough to anticipate their needs 

To be clear, meaningful experiences in moments that matter is necessary in healthcare, but they’re not sufficient. These interactions are building blocks to the relationships consumers long for, but more is needed. Healthcare organizations will have to rethink and redesign services and integrate new technologies to meet these consumer expectations. The good news is that technologies enable these lasting, deep relationships in many scalable, affordable ways.

The Necessity for Sustaining Relationships Over Time

To meet the growing expectations consumers have for healthcare experiences, organizations will have to rethink and redesign services, as well as integrate current and new technologies. With those, healthcare leaders can sustain long-term consumer relationships that foster consumer loyalty and deliver tangible impact for both consumers and the enterprise.

Consider the differences in these examples. Bethany received a promotional email from her healthcare provider that said, “Bethany, is it time to address your joint pain?” Bethany has never had joint pain. Rather than feeling known and appreciated by her provider, Bethany likely feels frustrated receiving yet another generic, promotional communication that doesn’t specifically address her health concerns. 

Now let’s imagine she receives an email that says, “Bethany, learn five heart health risks for women now.” At least the provider is focusing on Bethany’s gender and a health concern relevant to a large percentage of women. Better, but now imagine she receives an email that says, “Bethany, we understand heart disease is common in your family, and we know you worry about your own risk of a heart attack. At your age, it can be a good idea to have a healthy heart screening. The screening typically takes 45 minutes, and we are happy to schedule a time convenient for you. If you’d like to know more before electing the screening, you can speak with one of our clinicians at any time by clicking the link below, or going through our mobile app.” A communication like this is not only more personal but can begin the important process of developing long-term engagement and relationship building. It proactively addresses Bethany’s personal circumstances and offers both empathy and practical guidance.

Designing and Sustaining More Personalized Relationships

Successful long-term relationships come from understanding the needs, desires, motivations, behaviors, frustrations, cultural and family contexts, and goals that people have. So, healthcare organizations should focus on designing a full range of personalized experiences, from advice or information sharing to clinical consultations, life or care plan creation, self-management support and more.  

Interwoven human centered service design and technological capabilities make lasting consumer relationships possible. A human-centered design approach is essential so that real people are front and center in each step of the design process. Human centered design recognizes that different people want to receive the same service in different ways, influenced by many factors. And those preferences may change over time. Leading healthcare systems will design for personalized relationships that last a lifetime.  

The importance of exemplary consumer experiences is clear and well known. Research has shown a positive correlation between positive experiences and better medication or care plan compliance, improved clinical outcomes, and lower utilization of unnecessary health services. Experience-driven relationships foster advocacy and loyalty. 

With integrated enabling technologies and well-designed experiences, individuals are no longer just a number in a database. Instead, each patient, member or consumer is an “n” of one. Not surprisingly, it’s human nature to want to be listened to, treated as a person rather than a disease or condition, given choices (how, when, where to interact), treated with respect, and communicated with in understandable, culturally aware, and preferred language that invites empathy and partnership.  

Using Technology to Build and Strengthen Sustainable Relationships

Technology plays a critical role in helping healthcare organizations create long-term relationships. In fact, technologies available today deliver experiences better than humans in many regards. Those include sensing consumer emotions, understanding their motivations and interactions free of judgment or impatience. 

To create and deliver these sustained relationships, healthcare organizations must first understand what consumers want, then design the aligned experiences that meet or exceed expectations. An important part of achieving this is integrating and implementing leading-edge technologies that include infrastructure, systems, applications, and devices. Additionally, emerging technologies, including many forms of artificial intelligence, are making deeper, insightful relationships possible in ways not available in the past.  

For example, sentiment analysis, also known as emotion AI, combines computational linguistics, natural language processing and text analysis to identify and understand feelings, emotions, assumptions, opinions, and perceptions. All of those help connect hearts and minds. Behavioral analytics, another form of AI, help understand the actions and choices individuals make to better customize exchanges and predict future choices. 

Enterprise and information architectures are critical enablers that integrate processes, platforms, and data. Well architected, integrated technology stacks enable the experiences consumer want. Key service dimensions and related technology include:  

• Empathic: Enough personal data to understand a person’s context and feelings to inform suggestions.  
• Holistic: Technology ecosystems integrated and connected to provide a comprehensive view of individuals.  
• Predictive: Data-driven, human behavior-led technology based on past interactions.  
• Precise: Accurate, customized, and personalized for the individual and the situation. 
• Organic: Automated intelligence that constantly learns to better understand any individual.  

Where technology is concerned, it’s also important to understand that consumer willingness to share personal information or data often correlates with both reason and reassurance. Reason means there is something of value to be gained by the consumer from sharing the information. Reassurance is the belief and trust that information will be secure and used only in the person’s best interest. Informed consent and transparency are key aspects of personal information sharing. And like any trust relationship, individuals share more over time. 

Consumer-facing technologies such as sensors, monitors, portals, apps and virtual assistants all round out the technology mix. Not only do these capabilities enable rich exchanges, but for many consumers, digital experiences are better than human interactions. Years of research have shown that healthcare consumers of all ages often prefer virtual human coaches and care managers more than clinicians providing the same support.

While healthcare leaders face daunting financial and operational challenges, organizations that invest the time and money to deliver experiences that create relationships will find their consumers more willing to engage in ways that benefit both. Closing the gap between how healthcare leaders define consumer experience today and the lasting relationships healthcare consumers want will support a lifetime of health, while delivering tangible ROI to the enterprise.