The crucial role of brand experience in your clinics

Healthcare clinics having the same sterile appearance is a thing of the past; thankfully! Yet, with the saturation of the healthcare services industry giving patients a plethora of options to choose from, it has never been more important for organizations to take into account the in-clinic brand experience. The clinic space presents an opportunity for brands to showcase their values, commitment to an exceptional patient experience, and attention to detail and comfort, among the many other factors that make them unique. 

In a clinic setting, patients come face-to-face with the real-life representation of the digital images and logos they have seen on websites, social media, and more. Which is why it’s vital to get the in-clinic brand experience just right. In this article, we’ll walk you through the key elements of a brand, what the healthcare brand experience is and how it impacts the patient experience, and best practices for wowing your patients. 

 

Defining your healthcare brand

Most likely, you already have a brand and a visual identity. One easy way to define the impact you want your brand to have and clearly articulate why patients should choose your brand over the competition is to build a brand pyramid. The elements that make up a brand pyramid can be used at any stage in your organization’s journey to align yourselves around your brand and build a deeper understanding of your overall brand experience. Hopefully, the brand pyramid helps to clarify your unique positioning and to build your brand voice which is key to communicating with your audience. 

Starting at the base of the pyramid and moving upwards, the tiers include: 

• Features and attributes: Starting with a strong foundation, this is where you should list out all your products and services, as they make up the basis of your brand. They are the reason why your organization exists. 
• Functional benefits: Take time to determine how you stand out from your competitors, and highlight the unique benefits patients get from using your products or services. 
• Emotional benefits: Take it one step further and note down the emotional benefits patients might experience or some of the emotions they might feel interacting with your brand, professionals, or while sitting in the clinic, receiving services, or using products. 
• Brand persona: Like you create buyer personas for your customers, build a brand persona for your brand. A persona can make it easier for your team, patients, and partners to understand your key characteristics and translate them to a cohesive narrative. Plus, it makes it more fun to imagine your brand as a human! 
• Brand essence: The final culmination is your brand’s identity. Define your brand in one sentence or slogan that includes all of the information from the other tiers of the pyramid.

 

Building an exceptional healthcare brand experience

Branding for healthcare organizations has become it’s own unique channel. The healthcare brand experience revolves around patients and making them feel connected to an organization and trusting of the services and products offered. The healthcare brand experience includes everything from the look and feel of the physical clinic space to visual representations of the brand in both digital and physical manifestations and how staff interacts with patients, among many other touchpoints. 

A consistent and clear brand experience, across all channels, should be the goal for all healthcare organizations as the stakes tend to be higher because of the necessity of high-quality and professional healthcare services in everyone’s life. Additionally, patients have a lot of choices these days, so the overall brand experience makes a big difference in which organization they choose. A positive healthcare brand experience can, in our opinion, make or break an organization and is the key to growth! 

 

How the brand experience in your clinics impacts the patient experience

Walking into a sterile, white clinic might set patients on edge when your goal should be to make them feel welcome and at ease. At the same time, walking into a clinic that looks completely different from the visual representations of your brand they have seen previously is also very jarring. This is part of the reason why it’s so important to pay attention to the crucial role of branding in the clinic experience. Everything from the clinic wall colors and brand posters to how the staff is trained to greet patients as they enter serves as a reflection of your brand. For example, the posters in your clinic should feature a diverse array of faces representative of the patient population. When you walk into a women’s clinic, you don’t expect to see a lot of photos of men. When patients arrive at the clinic, they should be able to feel a cohesive story among all of the brand elements. 

A positive brand experience in the clinic, which is the second most important physical representation of your brand (directly after your people), will shape stronger brand ambassadors, encourage patients to give referrals and drive better patient retention. By strengthing the patient experience and highlighting the unique factors of your brand while patients are occupying your space, you can build trust and rapport and keep patients coming back.

 

Best practices for getting the brand experience right in your clinics

So, how do you build an exceptional in-clinic brand experience? Start with some of the following items and then ensure you evolve the experience to match feedback and changes to your organization. 

1. Manage wait times – Long wait times are a strong indicator of a terrible patient experience! Avoid long wait times at all costs, and if they do happen, find a way to compensate or apologize to patients. 
2. Maintain consistency – It should be obvious from the moment your patient steps into the clinic that it is your brand. The colors and visual elements should be very similar, as should the look and feel of the physical space. 
3. Train staff – Your people are your greatest strength, and they have the ability to make or break a patient’s in-clinic experience. Be sure to train staff on properly greeting and interacting with patients, along with problem solving and conflict mitigation if necessary. A smile and a kind word go a long way in making someone’s day.
4. Solicit feedback – No brand gets it right all the time. Either informally or formally, consider collecting feedback from patients about their experience in the clinic and make adjustments based on those suggestions. 

If you want more engaged patients that love serving as brand ambassadors, curating an exceptional brand experience in your clinic will make it happen.