Having completed her micro master’s degree in public health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a registered nurse. Jan is a healthcare professional with over 18 years of experience in customer service delivery, customer satisfaction, sales planning, Marketing, hospitality & operations management, utilization, and case management areas. She has been associated with The Medical City for over a decade now and has been instrumental in formulating highly efficient business strategies for the company so far.

Data analytics and customers insights go hand-in-hand with each other and provide the foundation of an effective customer omnichannel strategy. There are certain tools leveraging which organization can gain a deeper understanding of various customer dynamics such as their behavior patterns, preferences and interactions across all communication channels and many others. This enables the companies to develop seamless, personalized and optimized experiences for each of their customers and drive business growth, which is the end goal of every organization.

Challenges in Implementing a Successful Omnichannel CX Strategy

Implementing a successful and seamless omnichannel customer experience strategy can be challenging depending upon the line of business that the company is operating in. However, there are several challenges that businesses face in this regard. First is the integration of systems and data, which includes multifaceted processes that not only involves different departments of the organization. Based on my observation in the healthcare landscape, the general solution to this is to invest in integrated technology solutions that enable real time data sharing. In other countries, organizations also employ APIs, middleware and unified platforms to connect different systems and create a centralized view of customer data. Also, gaining a holistic view of the customer journey across various channels can be very complex because for every communication channel, there is a different approach. Thus, having in-depth knowledge of what the customers need and align it with their journey with the organization by leveraging advanced analytics tools to map-out customer journeys.

The second key challenge is consistent branding across the channel, which essentially means maintaining a consistent brand image across all the communication channels and targeting different buyer personas. In light of this, the healthcare industry is developing and enforcing clear brand guidelines by using a centralized content management system to ensure that all marketing collateral and messaging are consistent across all channels. Thirdly, customer data security and privacy is another primary concern that most organizations are facing in recent times. This is because gathering and using customer data across various channels raises concerns about privacy and security. One of the solutions that the healthcare industry is doing is implementing robust data security measures, which is also a mandatory practice to be compliant with the regulatory frameworks across many countries. Lastly, the process of integrating various technologies and platforms is often too complex and overwhelming, thus proving to be a tough nut to crack for most organizations.

Ensuring a Personalized & Customer-centric Omnichannel Experience

For anything to be personalized, customer-centric omnichannel experience involves understanding and accommodating diverse customer preferences & behaviors. To do so, healthcare organizations collect comprehensive customer data by integrating robust data collection mechanisms to gather their patients’ behavior patterns and interactions across various channels. By utilizing that data, companies can gain meaningful insights and turn them into customer demographics, preferences and other relevant information. Also, healthcare organizations are increasingly implementing personalized and targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with each customer on an individual level. Additionally, using customer data also enables companies to provide customized offers/discounts to customers as per their historical data. Furthermore, implementing dynamic content strategies allow real time customization of content based on customer behavior and preferences.

KPIs of an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

Measuring the success of an omnichannel marketing strategy involves tracking numerous KPIs that reflect the organization’s efforts in delivering a seamless and integrated consumer experience across multiple channels. However, according to my experience, there are two primary KPIs that companies can utilize for this - CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) and NPS (Net Promoter Score). While CSAT provides insights on how well the organization’s omnichannel strategy aligns with their customers' expectations, NPS assesses the likelihood of the customers recommending the brand to others and helps the organization to gauge its customers’ loyalty.

Staying Adaptable to Changing Customer & Industry Dynamics

Being flexible to quickly adapt to changing customer behaviors and industry trends is crucial for businesses across all industries, and this holds especially true in the case of healthcare sector. This can be achieved by promoting a culture of continuous learning across the entire organization and encouraging the employees to attend various conferences, seminars and workshops that will enhance the skills and knowledge of the employees to a great extent. Additionally, companies must also conduct regular customer research to understand changes in their behaviors, preferences and expectations by utilizing surveys, focus group discussions and social listening tools to gather insights directly from the target audience. Also, by leveraging data analytics tools to monitor various customer behavior metrics across various channels, companies can derive data-driven insights to identify patterns, trends and areas for improvement. Lastly, keeping a close eye on their competitor companies and industry leaders will help the organizations to analyze their strategies, successes and failures, which will prove very useful in gaining insights into emerging trends and customer expectations.