by Nikhil Gharekhan, Managing Partner, Presciant
Best practice for hospital system marketers is to not just measure NPS, but to also track brand equity. And no huge investment is needed—it’s simply a matter of making sure the right questions are being asked in surveys already underway.
The number of organizations adding other metrics to the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is growing by the day. From Microsoft and Adobe to Airbnb and Burger King, companies across industries are de-emphasizing NPS. A recent study predicts that more than 75% of organizations will soon abandon NPS as the sole measure of success. Should you do the same?
What’s wrong with just measuring NPS?
NPS was created more than 20 years ago and was widely adopted primarily due to its simplicity—it is based on a single question: “how likely are you to recommend the organization.” It has now taken a life of its own and is baked into many hospital systems’ scorecards, becoming a vanity metric and even influencing executive compensations. Unfortunately, if used in isolation, only measuring NPS has many flaws:
- It is not actionable or diagnostic, it does not answer “why” the score is what it is, and so does not help identify tactics or strategies
- It is focused only on current customers who have been patients of the hospital, not the prospective audience whose views also impact reputation
- It is not representative—even among current patients, only the disgruntled or extremely happy ones tend to fill out the NPS survey, most don’t bother
- It is backward-looking—focused on past visits between a patient and a hospital, rather than looking at ongoing future relationships
- It is limited—overlooks the stages of the patient journey, focuses only on recommendation, ignores important dimensions such as ease and sentiment
It is time to supplement measuring NPS with a broader view. Here’s what we recommend.
Measure the brand
Brand is the most powerful asset that hospital system marketers have at your disposal to create business impact for your institution. Brand embodies the patient experience, creates differentiation to attract new patients, draws in new talent (physicians, nurses, administrators), pulls in donors, and solidifies reputation in the healthcare community. Only measuring NPS misses all of this power.
And yet it is astonishing how few hospital systems actually measure their brand with any regularity. Here are our thoughts on how to do it:
- Not just patients: Gain the perspectives of your whole community, not just of current and past patients. The best hospital systems measure their brand not only within their immediate zip codes, but also the broader region, state and even nationally. Brand measurement should also include other stakeholders, such as physicians, clinicians, and potential donors.
- Brand relationship: Measure the strength of your brand’s relationship with the broader community—what is the awareness of the brand? How familiar are people with it? How likely are they to consider it as a place to receive treatment? How much do they prefer it over other hospital systems?
- Brand drivers: What makes a consumer pick one hospital system over another? What makes them come back and select the same hospital for subsequent needs? How well does the hospital system brand perform on these selection drivers?
- Brand image: What do stakeholders associate with the brand? What does it stand for in their minds? What personality does the brand exude? Does it come across as innovative, caring, trustworthy?
Measure the full patient experience
Given the critical importance of patients as a stakeholder group, we also recommend continuing to survey your patients as you most likely are already doing. However, the questions need to move beyond just the single NPS measure. A hospital system’s relationship with its patients is multi-dimensional—so should be the measurement approach. While NPS can stay on, it needs to play a support role within a more holistic set of patient metrics.
- It is not actionable or diagnostic, it does not answer “why” the score is what it is, and so does not help identify tactics or strategies
- It is focused only on current customers who have been patients of the hospital, not the prospective audience whose views also impact reputation
- It is not representative—even among current patients, only the disgruntled or extremely happy ones tend to fill out the NPS survey, most don’t bother
- It is backward-looking—focused on past visits between a patient and a hospital, rather than looking at ongoing future relationships
- It is limited—overlooks the stages of the patient journey, focuses only on recommendation
Tie your brand to financial value
The most critical component of brand measurement is to quantify the financial value that brand and marketing are contributing to your institution—in actual dollar terms. This will arm hospital system marketers with the business case you need to have conversations with your CEO, CFO and the rest of the executive team.
Our research shows that a good brand reputation in healthcare can add 25-30% to business value. We know that most hospital systems can leverage brand more to drive more value—and sustain and build success. Through this, you can not only gain greater financial returns but, more importantly, create additional benefits and deliver even higher quality to patients, families, providers and communities.
To uncover these opportunities, the first step is to set a baseline and measure the financial value that brand reputation is adding today. This will identify the levers through which the brand can deliver financial upside and greater benefits to your constituencies.
So much more helpful than just measuring NPS!
If you need help thinking through your metrics, give us a call.