CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE QUALITY DIMENSIONS IN HEALTH CARE: PERSPECTIVES OF INDUSTRY EXPERTS

Abstract

Purpose – In an era which patients are acting as consumers, this paper aims to emphasize the importance of patient experience and reveal the key concepts for patient experience according to industry experts’ perspectives. Seven key concepts are presented as the critical dimensions of patient experience.

Methodology - A qualitative study is designed and conducted following the phenomenological approach. 15 experts are interviewed about the patient experience and content analysis is conducted to the answers in texts. Results are grouped under certain concepts which address to key concepts of patient experience.

Findings- The results show that experts agree on certain critical dimensions for patient experience which are: provider type, function, patient type, preference, touchpoint diversity, psychology, interaction, and environment.

Conclusion-This study is about the expert approach of patient experience which intersects marketing and health care. The results contribute to the literature with its novel approach considering industry expert opinions, and also act as a guide for health care managers to improve patient experience.

Keywords

• Patient experience,customer experience,healthcare marketing,hospital experience,experience marketing

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