The Importance of Taking a Phased Approach to Improving Customer Experience in Healthcare

“At the end of the day, what we realize is, we all unite under the same thing, which is to drive the customer experience, get the patient what they need,” says Corrie Quaranto, Vice President of Northwell Health, regarding a patient-focused experience at their facilities.

In my discussion with Corrie, we discuss how Northwell has been taking the time to focus on customer care in a way that reduces stress and confusion for the patient during their healthcare experience, especially in regards to billing and financial responsibility.

Gather Feedback to Understand Customer Pain Points

Corrie shares that the financial responsibility of a patient is becoming a heavy burden, and after hearing patient feedback through the contact center, she understood the difficulties that they were experiencing. After getting more of an understanding of these burdens, Corrie knew it was critical to have a financial conversation with the patient during the multiple stages (pre, during, and post) of the experience. “We want to make sure we’re not only thinking of the clinical experience, but we’re also thinking of the financial health experience,” says Corrie.

Once she gathered this information, Corrie knew that she had to approach the leadership team because she was able to see where satisfaction of the patients started dropping. She noticed that they were typically satisfied with the clinical experience but faced difficulties once it came to the financial services.

Do you know where your client or patient satisfaction with service drops? Listen to this podcast episode with Corrie Quaranto, VP at @NorthwellHealth where we chat about building customer journeys to improve the overall experience. Share on X

Take a Phased Approach to Executing the Plan

With the understanding that Northwell’s relationship between financial and clinical services need improvement, she took the steps to improve the customer experience with her team. Corrie and her team took a phased approach to improving the customer experience with Northwell’s customer billing. Corrie shares that she initiated this process by first developing a vision.

Corrie’s vision-building prompted her and her team to think through the ultimate goal of what they wanted to accomplish for the organization. She explains that they knew a core portion of their work revolved around improving the billing system, so they developed a financial health journey for customers. Next, they developed their mission, and the pillars to support it.

Corrie shares that once she and her team were able to establish their priorities for the financial health customer journey, they approached the leadership team with developed points on what was needed in order to be successful. They put together data points, shared their phase approach, and explained the benefits of why the financial health customer journey was beneficial to the company as a whole. Corrie explains that she had to get leadership to “buy in” to the phased approach, and they ultimately did so because they understood that the journey was about investing in the future of the organization.

You need to get leadership to “buy in” to your CX efforts. They're more likely to do so when they understand the benefits and see that it's an investment for the future of the organization. -- Corrie Quaranto, @NorthwellHealth #CX Share on X

What Do You Know Now That You Wish You Knew Then?

Corrie says:

“I actually think if I started my story, or my ROI, or my presentation, my pitch, with the sense of the customer in the center every time, I would have probably been able to accomplish all the other things that I’ve done a little quicker. I think that it’s really important; to understand who it is you’re talking to. And luckily for me, what I’m selling at the end result people usually buy into, it’s very rare. But if you position it in a way that really showcases who the customers are, what their goals are, I think you can get there faster.”

About Corrie Quaranto

Corrie previously held leadership positions at CareConnect Insurance Company, American Express, and Macy’s. With over 10 years of experience in customer-focused roles, Corrie is committed to driving loyalty, engagement and satisfaction leading to deeper customer connections. Corrie has increased brand value for industry leading organizations over the last 15+ years.

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