CX Is a Key Weapon in the Battle for Market Share

Shari Campbell, marketing director, retail health, MultiCare Health System

“Disrupt or be disrupted.”

That’s the advice Shari Campbell offers to anyone in traditional health care who is concerned about losing market share to retail health care stores as Walmart, Amazon, CVS, and others move into the business.

Campbell, marketing director, retail health at MultiCare Health System in Tacoma, Washington, says MultiCare Health began to disrupt itself about five-and-a-half years ago when the then-CEO saw the coming trends in primary care and decided the health system had to be at the forefront of retail health care or risk losing market share. That’s when the regional health system based in Tacoma launched a retail health division called Indigo Urgent Care.

MultiCare was already operating several urgent care clinics, but they were “born out of primary care,” says Campbell, adding that those urgent care centers were not as concerned with the consumer experience as they should have been.

That’s why Indigo Urgent Care concentrates on delivering an excellent consumer experience, Campbell says: “We really focus on is what we call the Indigo experience.” That includes Indigo experience training for all employees.

“What we are trying to do is intentionally train our staff on customer experience so that it’s part of their care from the moment a patient walks in the door,” says Campbell. One example, she says, is opening the door for patients. “Think of a mom trying to get through the front door with her kids,” Campbell says.

Every Indigo store has other amenities as well. “Each Indigo has a coffee bar with coffee, tea, water, and apple juice for kids,” she says. Employees use specific words and language when they interact with consumers.

Learn more: Can Traditional Health Care Hold Off the Retail Invasion?

Best regards,
Matt Hummphrey
President