What should be in your healthcare CX tech stack?

Today’s customer expects a seamless, intuitive experience. A digital patient experience is no longer negotiable, and making your healthcare CX frictionless requires a highly integrated and carefully orchestrated ecosystem of technologies and processes.

The tools in your healthcare CX tech stack can be a huge driver in improving the customer/patient experience and achieving your business goals. But with so many tools available in the market, it’s important to make strategic choices that will have the greatest impact on your organization.

We work with leading healthcare organizations who are at the forefront of innovation, and have insights into what works best in today’s ecosystem. Reference the list below to identify opportunities to make your healthcare CX tech stack work harder for you.

*Don’t forget to download your free copy of our guide, Cultivating Personal Customer Experiences in Healthcare, for more insights that can drive your healthcare CX initiatives forward. 

Today’s CX tech stack for modern healthcare organizations:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): A standard of any CX tech stack, CRM software system enables businesses to track all communications (email, text, calls, etc.) and nurture relationships with leads and customers. It’s important for healthcare organizations to have this single source of truth, which can be integrated with EHRs to gain a deeper understanding of and connection with patients.

• Customer service automation: This includes anything that empowers your customer to resolve their issues without another human involved, such as self-help articles. This can help your customer solve issues quickly and any time they need it, 24/7.

• Video chat: Remote work and telehealth has surged since the beginning of the pandemic, making video chat conversations second nature to employees and customers.

• Omnichannel customer support (single customer view system): While your company may employ many communication channels like chat, AI-supported chat (chatbots), video chat, traditional call-in support, or SMS text messaging, customers expect one consistent experience across them all. They expect that information should persist as they move among these different channels, and that they shouldn’t have to repeat information as your company switches between them.  Aggregating all customer data in one place for your agents (your CRM) can help ensure that customers have a seamless experience across all of your CX applications.

• AI-powered chatbots: Chatbots simulate conversations using natural language on messaging applications. These bots can provide customer service, answer basic customer questions, and gather information.

• Guided CX/visual engagement: Solutions that empower your customer service rep, sales rep, or trainer to join the customer in your website or app, see their screen, and deliver human-to-human guidance. 

• Email automation: Sending the right message to the right customers at the right time can be done at scale using targeted, scheduled, and personalized email automation.

• SMS (text messaging): Nearly all Americans — 97% to be precise — own a cellphone. Text messaging services allow healthcare organizations to have personalized one-on-one interactions with their customers wherever they are.

• Personalization engine: Customers expect experiences to be catered to their individual needs. Personalization engines enable brands to be proactive and deliver personalized experiences based on past interactions, current context, and anticipated needs/wants.

• Internet of Things (IoT): Billions of physical devices are now connected to the Internet. Home hubs like Alexa, wearables like fitness trackers, and other health trackers like blood pressure and heart rate monitoring cuffs are connecting healthcare organizations to customers and patients in a profound way. When relevant, this data can play a vital role in your customer’s overall experience with you.

Knowing which solutions are right for your healthcare CX tech stack

You may need solutions from every category in the list above. Or you may just need a few. It all comes down to your goals. Some questions to ask when forming your ideal healthcare CX tech stack include:

• What are the pain points we’re striving to solve?
• Will these solutions scale with our business?
• Are they user-friendly?
• Are they secure?
• What are the maintenance needs?
• Does each tool work synergistically with one another?

Two driving forces in healthcare CX to consider

Today’s healthcare CX trends involve two seemingly opposing forces: technology and human connection.

Technology like automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are driving transformations that can help create next-level experiences at scale, but human-to-human interactions are still at the heart of the customer journey. Nearly 90% of companies say they compete mostly on the basis of customer experience, versus 36% just four years ago. The pandemic accelerated innovation, but it also impacted our desire to connect with one another. Healthcare organizations that leverage technology while maintaining human connection will deliver the best experiences.

Elevate the healthcare customer experience: download your guide

Are you striving to improve your healthcare customers’ end-to-end experience? Download your free copy of our guide, Cultivating Personal Customer Experiences in Healthcare, to gain valuable information and insights to propel you forward.

Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash