RESEARCH REPORT
The power of trust: Unlocking patient loyalty in healthcare
3-MINUTE READ
April 30, 2024
In brief
- Access, ease of doing business, digital engagement and trust is important to drive loyalty according to our survey of nearly 18,000 people in the US who use providers and payer services.
- A seamless and satisfying healthcare
experience is more important to people than price.
- Download the infographics below to learn
more about how trust drives patient retention in healthcare.
Are patient behaviors changing?
As a follow up to our 2021 study, “The difference between loyalty and leaving,” we wanted to assess how health insurers perform across 9 key touchpoints that drive satisfaction, loyalty, value and ease of use to understand people’s selection and switching behaviors. Likewise, we asked people who had sought or received care in the last 12 months to evaluate their healthcare providers performance across 10 key touchpoints and how that affects their selection and loyalty.
Primary drivers of trust
From provider-patient relationships to payer interactions, trust has a cascading effect on people and the operational excellence achieved by the health organizations that excel in building trust. In today’s transactional mindset, we can lose sight of the primary drivers of trust, providing (or enabling) access to expectations of care, facilitating understanding of coverage, and delivering diagnoses/treatment-through experiences that humanize healthcare. Trust significantly influences people’s behavior in terms of patient engagement, loyalty and digital technology adoption. As leaders address workforce challenges, and invest in new technologies, including telehealth and generative AI, it would be wise to place trust as the cornerstone of investment and outreach efforts.
Key facts about consumer loyalty to their payer and provider
Payers:
+50%
left insurer because of a poor experience
2x more
likely to switch when insurers aren't easy to work with
3x more
trusting when the insurer gives consistent and accurate information
Providers:
6x more
likely to stay with their providers if they trust them
2x more
likely to switch providers with negative front desk or online experience versus a poor clinical experience
+ 84%
likely to stay with their provider if they are easy to work with
A personalized, empathetic approach built on trust builds consumer loyalty.
These findings underscore how essential it is to get health experiences right on consumers’ terms. The health organizations that achieve consumer loyalty are those who take an empathetic lens to improve access, experience and outcomes by providing a personalized health journey built on trust.
Download the infographics below to see all the findings.