1Chapter 5

The Definitive Guide to Healthcare CRM

A practical guide for successful CRM selection, implementa-tion, and value creation

Getting Prepared for Healthcare CRMAlso including a readiness self-assessment worksheet

EXCERPT FROM:

The Definitive Guide to CRM: A Practical Guide for Successful

CRM Selection, Implementation, and Value Creation

2

In this chapter, we’ll answer your questions about:

• Is my organization ready for healthcare CRM adoption?

• What do I need for an organizational strategy and

cross-functional team buy-in for CRM?

• Are we ready to select a CRM vendor, or do we need to do

some more work around strategy, support, or integration

preparedness first?

Chapter 5

A CRM system is not just technology; it is a strategy

and a philosophy that often finds healthcare

organizations less prepared for CRM than their retail

and hospitality counterparts. Answering the following

questions will help you determine if your organization

is truly prepared for a CRM implementation or if work

needs to be done before moving forward.

Clear VisionSpray

SupportGloves

DataIntegration

Solution

Chapter 5 3

Getting prepared for Healthcare CRMTo a certain extent, getting ready for CRM is like cleaning your house before the cleaning lady comes. The time spent preparing your environment upfront is necessary to achieve the desired results.

Use this worksheet to determine how ready your organization is to move forward with a CRM implementation.

For CRM to deliver against its true enterprise-wide potential, there must be executive buy-in, broad leadership acceptance of the underlying need to move forward, and shared commitment to a sustained effort to cooperate and contribute to CRM programs.

One of the reasons CRM should be a corporate-level initiative is because your whole organization has the opportunity to re-evaluate current routines and work patterns to improve

the consumer experience at multiple touch-points — extending well beyond the marketing function. Without a unified vision and strategy grounding your efforts, you’re likely to encounter attitudes like, “The contact center works in a different way and has no need for a CRM system,” or “I have all my emails saved in folders in Outlook, so I know how to find them.” Establishing a common vision and road map for data-driven consumer experience upfront can help mitigate and overcome these kinds of objections.

Readiness Self-Assessment Worksheet

QUESTION 1

Have you established a unified consumer experience vision and strategy?

Our organization has expressed a need for market differentiation.

Our organization is universally aligned around a commitment to improve the consumer experience.

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

STRONGLY AGREE

STRONGLY DISAGREEto

4Getting prepared for Healthcare CRM 4

QUESTION 1 (continued)

Have you established a unified consumer experience vision and strategy?

The overall working environment is generally free of any significant "we/they" mentality between or among the departments or divisions.

Marketing, operations, clinical, and IT/IS teams coordinate patient data and communications today. If not, all department leaders are willing to work towards improving this process.

We have created a consumer journey map for key service lines and procedures, recognizing this is a great way to start breaking down the silos.

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

STRONGLY AGREE

STRONGLY DISAGREEto

CRM is directly linked to defined and measurable goals in two or more leaders’ annual plans (not just marketing). 1 2 3 4 5

5Getting prepared for Healthcare CRM 5

QUESTION 2

Do you have the required support?

A project manager has been or will be assigned to coordinate efforts across teams and divisions.

All CRM stakeholders have time to serve on the evaluation and implementation team.

One or more resources that are comfortable with data and making data-driven decisions will be available to assist with audience segmentation and targeting, custom reporting, and monitor the CRM dashboard to evaluate campaigns in progress and make strategic recommendations.

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

STRONGLY AGREE

STRONGLY DISAGREEto

Senior leadership has shown its commitment to new resource levels that are required for success.

1 2 3 4 5

CRM will become an integral part of your organization’s go-forward marketing plan and will require dedicated resources to manage implementation, strategic planning, and tactical execution. You will need to staff this internally or, alternatively, you can either choose a CRM vendor that offers a managed service or work with a CRM consultant.

6Getting prepared for Healthcare CRM 6

If you could answer most of these questions with a one or two, then moving forward with CRM selection and implementation should be relatively straight-forward. Your focus will primarily be on selecting the right vendor partner to help you achieve

your consumer experience vision. If your organization scored more fours and fives, then you may not be ready to embark on a CRM initiative. It is worth taking the time and effort to “get your house in order” before attempting to move forward.

We know what format the data is in and how to extract it.

We have identified which data sources will be considered the source of truth when data conflicts arise.

We are prepared to outline the data elements that should be made accessible to various end users, depending on their role (marketing, contact center, admissions, discharge, etc.)

We have sign-off from legal, security, and compliance to leverage these disparate data sources.

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

STRONGLY AGREE

STRONGLY DISAGREEto

We have identified all the departments that house the consumer datawe need to integrate.

1 2 3 4 5

7Getting prepared for Healthcare CRM 7

QUESTION 3

Are you prepared to integrate your data?

HOW DID YOU DO?

There you have it…

everything you ever wanted to know (and then some) about healthcare CRM. Whether your organization is a first-time CRM buyer or looking to replace an existing healthcare CRM with a contemporary solution designed for the digi-tal era, now you understand why CRM is the technology that will propel your organization into the new era of relationship-based marketing and consumer experience enablement with quantifiable results.

Undoubtedly, healthcare CRM is constantly evolving. We’ll continue to stay on the forefront of CRM trends and keep you up-to-date with our website, blog, and CRM resources at https://partners.healthgrades.com/systems/healthcare-crm.

CONCLUSION

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