What Urgent Care Can Still Learn from ‘Best-in-Class’ Consumer Companies

In the past, we’ve pointed out that the urgent care industry has forged a reputation for being more consumer-friendly than many other settings (which is a key part for its ongoing growth). As other industries evolve, though, urgent care operators might want to pay attention to new strategies that are paying off. A post on FastCompany.com suggests taking a closer look at Lyft and Airbnb—two companies that have built their brand on a foundation of service and personal trust among their customers, aided by emerging technologies—for starters. The article makes the point that at the same time public trust has eroded when it comes to the medical profession (in whose hands patients put their lives every day), they feel more emboldened to let their loved ones hop into cars driven by complete strangers in their own personal vehicles, or stay in the home of someone they’ve never laid eyes on. It’s this improbable paradox that urgent care operators and other healthcare outfits can learn from. These digitally oriented service providers depend not on the kindness (or naivete) of strangers, but the validation of user reviews and being able to garner top ratings—a “sharing economy.” The article recommends focusing on a few key interpersonal touchstones to build trust and engender personal loyalty, which may then be shared out in the virtual world of Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Facebook. Those include empathy, predictability of the service, and logic, among others.