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When your business is in the medical field, it’s important to realize that you’re dealing with both customer experience and patient experience. And while they might seem like very similar things, the differences can mean a lot to your bottom line, as well as to your overall customer satisfaction.
In this blog, we’ll explore the commonalities and distinctions between customer and patient experiences. We’ll also look at some key factors of patient experience and provide some guidance for navigating these waters and improving your operations.
Whether you’re operating out of a dental office, a cosmetology clinic, or an emergency room, the people who come through your doors aren’t just customers. Once they’re in your care, they become your patients. And while they might be your customers by definition—because you’re getting paid to treat them—the way in which they’re treated is simply different than that of a retail shopper.
Why? Because you’re dealing with something extremely unique and precious to every individual: their body. (Or the body of someone they love.) The stakes and emotions are higher than in an ordinary commercial environment. Their reasons for coming in are very precise. Sometimes, they have little or no choice but to seek your help. Simply put, a person can be a customer and a patient… but the patient experience is a beast all its own.
If you’re looking to evaluate and improve patient satisfaction for your practice, clinic, or business, here’s how you get started. And, by just thinking about your visitors as patients as well as customers, you’re already a step in the right direction!
Thankfully, not everyone working in the medical field has to treat their business like an emergency room. There are many scenarios in which a patient and a customer have more similarities than differences. However, it’s important to understand where your audience is coming from in order to provide the best patient experience you can.
Here are a few examples of the types of patients you might see in your office:
Furthermore, you’ll want to examine the overall demographics of your visitors to determine trends. For example, what’s the average socioeconomic status of your patients? Do you operate in a place with many opportunities for citizens to maintain their health? Are you in a rural area with a lot of tourism? These questions will help you better prepare for the possible needs of people walking through your doors.
You’ve gathered intelligence on the surface-level demographics of your visitors. Next, it’s time to look at the specific factors at play during their visits to your office. This is where the difference between customer experience and patient experience becomes more obvious.
Normally, a typical consumer interaction is fairly relaxed. Whether they’re buying food at a restaurant, shopping for back-to-school clothes, or attending an event, customers aren’t usually thinking about life and death.
It’s the opposite when it comes to patient experience. The very nature of your work is intimate. You’re dealing with something uniquely personal—their body. So while other businesses deal with products, it’s your customers’ health and very existence that’s at stake.
Obviously, this creates a heightened experience for everyone who visits you. They’ll likely enter your office already in some kind of emotional state:
That’s why evaluating the patient experience is so important. If you want your visitors to leave highly satisfied, you have to understand that they’re starting from a potentially negative headspace. Then, you can work with them to create a comforting, safe atmosphere before you move into care.
On top of that, there are also often more limited options for your customers. They may be restricted by distance, insurance, finances, or level of emergency. For example, would you be able to research local emergency rooms if you’ve been knocked unconscious in a fall? The urgent nature of healthcare can sometimes push people to prioritize speed before wise consumer practices. After all, as the old saying goes, “If you ignore your health, it will go away.”
With these higher stakes, patient satisfaction is often directly related to whether their issue gets resolved. Unfortunately, in the medical world, symptom resolution doesn’t always happen—or at least, not in the way that your patient might expect. Whatever the situation, as long as you treat visitors with care and compassion, you’ll be doing a lot for their overall wellbeing in your care.
When you’re not busy directly treating your patients, there’s also the medical network to navigate. You and your patients need to coordinate with pharmacies, specialists, insurance agents, and more. And all of this needs to be managed within the realm of local legislation, industry regulations, and community standards.
To further complicate things, your patients may come into your office with pre-existing negative notions about the medical industry in general. For example, many Americans living at, near, or below the poverty line fear any interaction with a medical professional due to the possibility of incurring undue financial hardship. For this reason, they might shy away from critical procedures—or, perhaps worse, come into your office ready to resist everything you offer. Alternatively, patients might transfer to your practice looking for a second opinion, or because their last experience was unsatisfactory. They might even feel they were treated unfairly, or that their concerns weren’t adequately addressed.
Part of improving your patient experience includes making every process as smooth as possible. Your entire staff should be friendly, compassionate, knowledgeable, and well-trained to handle most situations. That way, patients won’t have to worry about being charged incorrectly or misdirected.
Now that we’ve thoroughly examined the key differences between customer and patient experiences, it’s time to acknowledge their similarities. After all, not every medical office is dedicated to merely life-saving treatments. For example, any number of cosmetic treatments can be found in these practices. Elective treatments like teeth whitening, facelifts, liposuction, and more put the patient closer to the consumer.
While patients and customers aren’t mutually exclusive, their satisfaction rates rely heavily on the interactions they have while awaiting, receiving, and finishing treatment. This means that, like with customer experience, every interaction they have with your practice, clinic, or business becomes a satisfaction data point:
With this in mind, it’s easy to see that there are plenty of similarities between the customer and patient experience.
Putting all this together, it makes sense that doctors, practitioners, and other medical staff may struggle to find solutions to their customer-patient experience issues. If visitors aren’t leaving satisfied, what can you do to make improvements?
Let’s outline the five best practices when it comes to strategizing CX solutions.
Understanding the differences between customer experience and patient experience is vital for any medical practice. While both experiences share similarities in their foundational principles, the nuances in patient care—such as heightened emotional stakes and the need for compassionate treatment—set them apart.
By recognizing these distinctions and employing strategies like personalized care, effective communication, and modern technology, you can significantly enhance your patient satisfaction. Ultimately, a focus on awareness of patient needs, empathy, and continuous improvement will not only boost satisfaction but also contribute to the overall success of your practice.
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