Archive for December, 2009
Health Experience Reform: Enlightening Customers
Dec 23rd
While the debate continues over Healthcare Reform, Health Experience Reform is taking place every day. Leaders in the healthcare industry, like Mercy Health System based in St. Louis, Mo, are not waiting for legislation to prompt them into action. Mercy has implemented one of the most aggressive Electronic Health Record initiatives in the country, linking together patients and doctors across a seven-state area encompassing Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. The system is a foundation for a new care model that promises a transformation of the health care experience, away from acute-care and toward a more distributed and preventative care model that is meshed into the community, at retail locations and in the home. But the cornerstone of effective Health Experience Reform is also a well-educated patient. Smarter patients make smarter doctors. As access points expand, customers/patients have to be educated about when to go where. Case in point: One of Mercy’s hospital’s in Hot Springs, Arkansas, was witnessing a dramatic increase in non-emergent Emergency Department visits that was driving up costs while at the same time diverting valuable ED resources from those who really needed it. Analysis showed that in just one year a handful of non-emergent cases generated nearly $700,000 in cost. So the health system recently implemented a campaign at the point of care and in the media called “Know Before You Go”, an attempt to educate the community on alternative access points for care, including express care and primary care. Mercy has realized that expanding the care model is directly dependent on educating patients on how to help control costs by accessing the right type of care for the right reason.
With patient empowerment must also come patient enlightenment.
A Tale of Two Wars – May the Best Consumer Experience Win
Dec 22nd
Two major wars are underway, and I’m not talking about Afghanistan or Iraq. Rather, these two wars are for hearts, eyeballs and wallets of the American consumer. Battle One is taking place in strip malls throughout the land, with Wal-Mart facing off against Target. Battle Two is taking place online, with Microsoft and Rupert Murdoch taking on search juggernaut Google.
Battle One: Fighting Over the Frugal Soccer Mom
Before the Great Recession reared its ugly head, Wal-Mart and Target seemed to co-exist fairly nicely. While both retailers went after thrifty consumers, Wal-Mart concentrated on price, a blue-collar feel, and friendly greeters for its brand positioning. Target went slightly up-market, a little more hip and urban with slightly better brand names. The giants seemed to have carved out their niches until the hip, fashionista Target-shopping mom became the frugalista mom.
As BusinessWeek’s Michelle Collins writes, Target’s target demographic had shifted under the weight of the Recession – Target’s working mom cared less about “thigh-high boots than the price of milk”. So the battle is on, with Target sliding “down market” and Walmart climbing “upmarket” with a revamp of its brand and store experience. What is especially interesting to watch is Target’s effort to launch more grocery products at select locations in a super “hyper-local” way – very regional but completely integrated marketing and customer experience strategies.
Who will win? Soccer moms will dictate that, but my bet is on Walmart, as long as they don’t go too far up-market and lose their base. The value shopper may be here to stay and I think “Expect More, Pay Less” will never be out of style.
Battle Two: Ads, Eyeballs and Applications
Google and Microsoft are coming out swinging. This war is bloody and is being fought on two fronts: Content and Applications. The content conflict first. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is calling for rebellion against Google’s lock on searchable content by throwing all of his content into Bing, Microsoft’s supposed Google-killer. In doing so, Murdoch hopes to re-enforce a “pay wall” strategy that will bolster his revenues and place content producers back in control of their creations. Problem is, Murdoch needs Google, whether he likes it or not – 26% of the WSJ online traffic comes from Google. In this day and age, anyone that doesn’t want to play in Google’s sandbox will feel it in their web traffic reports. Content producers would be better off thinking through a tiered value strategy for consumers that took advantage of Google’s traffic, rather than trying to cut off the flow from search engine giant. When your name becomes a verb for searching online, it’s hard to mess with you.
On the second front, Google is becoming a thorn in Microsoft’s side by introducing free online applications erodiing Microsoft’s once-thought dominance in the software world. Google has launched major campaigns all year long, including Going Google, to target businesses and convince them to drop Microsoft Office for Google Apps. Google says that more than 2 million businesses, schools and organizations have signed up to use the various combinations of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and the other Google Apps. That may not immediately put a dent in Microsoft’s $20 billion desktop software business, but it has prompted Microsoft to come out with it’s own online free version of Office, closely tied in with its desktop version.
The ultimate winners in this battle will be the company that focuses more intently on the customer experience. Making applications “feature relevant” rather than feature rich will be the hallmark of success.
Parting Shots
Underlying the battle between Walmart-Target and Google-Microsoft is a battle for the hearts and minds of customers who have long been taught during the heady ’80s and ’90s that you can have something for nothing. Low prices and a quality shopping experience and great user-friendly software that you don’t have to pay for along with free content online, anytime, anywhere. Companies must re-open negotiations with their customers to determine the new value exchange for their goods and services. The companies who do this best, will be those that thrive in the post-Great Recession era.