Susan Wynne Presents on "The Patient Experience"
(April 08) Susan Wynne recently presented before about 100 members of the Healthcare Planning and Marketing Society of New Jersey (HPMSNJ) about how the "patient experience" marketing is being designed at Lancaster General Health System in Lancaster, PA.
"It's time for marketers to move beyond the "four Ps"—product, price, place, promotion—to include "E"—experience, when thinking about how best to connect to customers or patients," Susan said. At Lancaster General, the organization has aggressively pursued creating a new patient experience for its existing facilities and services, modeled through a pilot project involving a new "greenfield" medical campus in northern Lancaster County.
"Experience" marketing is a multi-faceted approach that seeks to create a highly personal and memorable interaction between an organization and its customers. These interactions can be shaped by everything from visual, auditory, and olfactory clues; facilities design and construction; and interactions between customers and staff. Organizations and businesses that excel in experience marketing not only have many satisfied customers, but they build deep-rooted loyalty that can turn customers into advocates.
Susan has been heavily involved in Lancaster General's experience marketing effort. "This transformation is a journey, and it takes a consistent and sustained effort to achieve," she notes. "But the payoff for organizations that do "experience" well is substantial."
"Susan's clear description of how to create a patient experience at a complex institution was insightful, and received high marks from our audience," said Anthony Stanowski of ARAMARK, president of the HPMSNJ.