Experience Based Differentiation

I must admit that I haven’t read the book yet, but it has been recommended to me by several people.  (Married to the Brand) 

Instead [of volume or profit], companies should focus on an objective that merits the diligent, even obsessive attention of the company’s managers: customer engagement, and healthy brand marriages. Every manager should be laser-focused on building and protecting the company’s most precious assets — its powerful and passionate customer relationships. These brand relationship assets determine the continued health and future success of the company.  (see more on the book content)

The reason I mention it is that in talking with an experiential branding expert I found their example of Starbucks very comparative to healthcare.   It has died down a little in the past few years, but I have often heard people talk about how hard it is to differentiate a healthcare offering.  I think Starbucks is the perfect example of a different way of thinking about this.

Coffee is coffee (with some slight modifications in taste).  People go to Starbucks and one of their sustainable differentiations is the experience.  It is difficult to replicate the experience that people have.  That should be the focus in healthcare.  How they experience the office lobby, the staff, check-in, admissions, enrollment, the call center, member materials, outbound communications, etc.?  This is what will make you different.

It is never easy to quantify loyalty and correlate that with experience.  But, let me use a simple example.  I bet that price being relatively equal no company will switch health plans, PBMs, etc. if the CEO and/or their spouse has had a great experience with the company.  There are too few great experiences.  This is your chance to step-up.