‘Provide a Great Customer Experience’ is perhaps one of the most demanded requirements by a customer but one of the most challenging strategies for a business to comply. A great customer experience is unique to each individual and is often an unspoken expectation. Oftentimes, a consumer may not be able to communicate what their ideal experience is, but is quick to complain when the experience falls short of their expectations. The number one complaint in many contact centers is no longer around product quality, rather it is around a failure in providing a positive experience. The highly competitive consumer market has created a challenge to provide the ideal experience while reducing operational costs.
Creating a ‘Great Customer Experience’ is no longer an innovative strategy used by top performing tech companies to propel them to the next level of seemingly impossible technological advances. These three words describe the minimal level of expectation every consumer has at any given time interacting with any given brand. Consumers’ expectations blend from one experience to the next; if a dental office offers an innovative scheduling device to capture appointments via a survey sent to a smartphone, the customer has the same expectation for their local florist. While these experiences are in different industries and vastly different, the expectations are not mutually exclusive. Psychological transformations over the past decade have translated to a need for a technological revolution.
Creating a great customer experience is no longer an optional strategy; it is a necessity to organizational success 
This revolution has introduced innovative ways to capture consumer feedback and data including eye-tracking heat maps to understand consumer behavior. The healthcare industry is partnering data driven organizations to enhance their customer experience evolution.
For example, medical professionals utilize augmented reality to visualize procedures and increase hands-on training prior to surgery. While augmented reality was originally designed for space exploration, less than 20 years after the first launched augmented reality space navigation it is transforming the healthcare industry. Patients are beginning to expect their care-providers to practice the procedure under their exact conditions virtually before a scalpel ever touches their skin. As employees in the medical environment discuss their positive experiences utilizing augmented reality and management discusses the financial benefits, other businesses and organizations have begun to experiment implementing augmented reality in their own industries. This transformation is impacting other businesses by creating opportunities for construction workers to practice maneuvers on difficult terrains in a simulated environment, car manufacturers engage virtual reality to simulate the driving experience while never turning on the engine, and retail stores are providing a unique personalized shopping experience. As an advancement is made in one industry, it inspires many others to join the revolution.
Another example of transformative healthcare impacting the business world can be found while analyzing the creation of a personal experience through data analytics. As a patient discusses next care steps with their provider, they expect the content to be relevant to their current diagnosis. A patient would leave the office confused and perplexed if a doctor recommended a great pediatrist if they were just discussing gallbladder removal surgery. A doctor provides a targeted discussion or ‘advertisement’ to the proper procedures because they have meaningful conversations and patient records available for deep data analysis to identify the best course of treatment. After the patient leaves the doctor’s office to visit a retail store, they often expect the same level of personalization. Rather than collecting patient records, businesses are collecting consumer behavior metrics to create hyper-personalized, relevant advertisements. The healthcare industry is now able to engage predictive analytics to forecast future health of a patient and pre-diagnose any illnesses; thus allowing medical professionals to provide a treatment plan and preventative care before the illness even occurs. These same expectations cascade across the medical industry to the retail market. Consumers expect to describe a vague need to the sales associate and be presented with a solution that aligns with their specific need. The sales associate must determine the best product to accommodate their functional needs, budget, and quality standards. After all, if the medical industry is able to provide custom care, then what would prevent the retail industry from providing a custom sales experience? The personalized healthcare industry is increasing customer expectations to provide the same custom experience in any environment, even when insightful data is not readily available.
A consumer’s personalized healthcare experience is not only placing demands on businesses to create hyper-personalized advertisements, but the technology filled product market is placing demands on the healthcare industry. As online shopping has transformed the retail industry, businesses are expected to provide goods and services from the comfort of anywhere. These transactions are no longer bound by geographical limitations on store location. As consumer’s expectations increase for product availability, their expectations for available services also increases. The healthcare industry is evolving to provide medical diagnosis and prescriptions via webcam and telephone. The serviced industry is not only competing with similar disciplines but is now working to provide the same convenience available across multiple industries. This reciprocal relationship is advancing both industries to achieve an improved customer experience while reducing costs.
Creating a great customer experience is no longer an optional strategy; it is a necessity to organizational success, expected by every customer during every single experience. As a customer it is easy to appreciate the highly technological advances in the healthcare industry, and as an organization it is important to learn how your customer is being impacted by experiences far outside your organization’s ‘circle of influence’.