Siloed Success Led to Gap in Revenue
Background: A surgical area of a midwest health system wanted to expand its patient base by offering the traditional, mandatory, in-person pre-surgical seminar as an online, self-led, seminar. By removing the need for potential patients to drive more than a couple hours for the once-a-month evening seminar, the health system felt it could drive more patient inquires into the growing program.
We set off to transition the in-person only event to include an optional online experience for a new stream of potential patients. Good news is that we understood the prospective patients were very savvy online and our adoption of the online event wouldn’t have to overcome barriers that other audiences in health care may present.
Besides the multiple layers of adhering to national medical governing bodies (to confirm the online event met required protocols), we successfully developed the needed scripts, graphics, video elements, online in-take forms, policies, etc. to create an online option. This was going to solve for multiple barriers to entry into this growing program. All-in-all the project was completed in a few weeks and launched with success.
Marketing Program Management
People began consuming the online event as well as others attending the in-person option. We had diversified the program! Inquiries into the program grew and we were all riding the wave of project success. I don’t recall the exact numbers but do know that this investment in the online option needed a few patients to proceed through the pipeline from inquiry to surgery to cover the cost of creating the online event. It was far more economical than other tactical ideas and based on the number of growing inquiries, the sense was we would have no problem showing ROI within the year.
Then, one day I asked how many patients from the online experience had appointments, and beyond appointments, were on a path to surgery. The answer, “We don’t exactly know.” As we continued talking, it was explained that the inquiries go to a person in the clinic accountable for a variety of business aspects and she/he* didn’t have capacity to respond to all the inquiries.
We failed to fully operationalize the patient experience so that at each point of interaction we were ushering the next steps in the process. Regardless of the department, we were all accountable and looking back had we applied a few more cross-functional efforts and conversations we may have been able to shift that work elsewhere and not leave TBD revenue and a potential poor patient experience to one human trying their best day-to-day.
What looked like a successful program was, in reality, dependent upon the followup efforts of one person with limited time.
Complimentary gap analysis
Have you audited your current processes in the last few weeks to look for flaws or potential enhancements in how things are operationalized? Where gaps may exist to update or adjust to maximize your marketing and business efforts? If so, that’s awesome! If not, and you need some help, I’m now offering a complimentary audit and recap report to anyone who is interested. Email melindasomm@gmail.com and we’ll schedule time to discuss where the audit can be most beneficial and I’ll return a report within two weeks.
*Respecting the confidentially of those involved.
