CRM Of State-owned Hospital Research

In 1980s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) sprang up in the US, and has acquired favorable result in many foreign industries. However, the application of CRM in China is still in the primary stage. Moreover, CRM's application in the hospitals is totally blank without any successful experiences for reference. In the face of the challenges brought by the medical market reform, hospitals are crying for the introduction of Customer Relationship Management to direct the management practices of hospital-patient relations. Under the conditions of market economy, the customers mean market. Without customers, everything including technique and services is all prate. Customers presume the basis of existence and development, and customers'maintenance is the driving force of the sustainable development of hospitals. As the deepening of Chinese medical system reform, Customer Relationship Management will become another key competitiveness in addition to technical skills. Customer Relationship Management in hospitals covers many aspects, but this essay focuses mainly on management of hospital-patient relations, which will most likely decide the existence and development of modern hospitals.According to the author's survey, the understanding of most hospitals in CRM is still insufficiency. The hospitals are still taking themselves as the standard and emphasizing the upgrade in medical techniques, while neglecting the customers'appeals of humanistic medical services in the new market conditions and overlooking the important influences of customers and CRM on the existence and development. A few hospital chiefs who have realized the importance of CRM have little experiences for reference and can find on way out on the questions such as how to introduce the ideas of CRM, what are the focuses, how to carry out, how to raise the satisfaction of patients and how to maintain long-term harmonious hospital-patient relations. Therefore, the research on application of CRM in hospitals is in dire need of and worthwhile.Firstly, based on the survey of the CRM of 20 state-owned hospitals in large-size, the essay deems that building up harmonious hospital-patient relations is the key and premise of CRM application in hospitals. Government, hospitals, patients and media are the four main factors which leading to the inharmonic hospital-patient relations.Secondly, the core of CRM is to raise the satisfactions of the customers, therefore enhance the loyalty of the customers. The satisfactions of the customers are built upon the basis of harmonious hospital-patient relations, and the key factors affecting the satisfaction includes technical skills, services, prices, working time, etc. The essay argues that under such highly tensed conditions of hospital-patient relations the hospitals must start from patients'needs and focus on the raise of patient's satisfaction. The necessary measures include improving the competitiveness of the medical team, building up the idea of customer-centric, optimizing internal management. For improving the competitiveness of the medical team, the hospitals have to set up the competitive mechanism with motivation and pressure, and foster its own culture and values. In building up the idea of customer-centric, the hospital chiefs have to attach importance to the CRM, and set up the institutions specializing in CRM and equip professionals, and reinforce the training in techniques and ideas in customer service. As for optimizing internal management, the focuses are to constitute professional management team and to design various management procedures. Customer satisfaction is the foundation of customer loyalty. To strengthen the customer loyalty, the hospitals have to acquire unique core competitiveness, to implement differential strategy, to enforce timely and actively hospital-patient communications and to set up effective customer appeal management.Thirdly, the ultimate goal of CRM is customer maintenance. In terms of the theory of life long value of customers (customers'purchasing value, public praise value, information value, knowledge value, transaction value), the long-term and stable relations with loyal customers have great influence in the margin of the hospitals. The hospitals manager should attach great importance and carry out customer maintenance strategy, which includes raising customers'satisfaction, enhancing customer loyalty by customer caring and differential service strategy, moderate brand publicity, building up and managing customer data and perfecting the management of patients'appeal.In the conclusion, the essay puts forward the following argumentations:1. CRM is a new type of management mechanism aiming at improving the relationship between enterprises and customers, which is implemented in marketing, sales, customer and technical support of enterprises and other relevant fields.2. Patients are the important strategic resources of the existence and development of hospitals. In the market economy, facing the all round challenges brought up by medical system reform and highly tensed hospital-patient relations, the hospitals must fully implement the management idea of"customer-centric"and establish harmonious, stale and long-term hospital-patient relations through improving service quality and efficiency, optimizing internal management and meliorating brand image.3. Medical industry is a very special service industry. The formation of current hospital-patient relations has its unusual historical and realistic reasons. Therefore, to acquire satisfactory result, the implementation of CRM in hospitals must process thorough analysis by combining its particularities.4. In currently CRM in hospitals, the primary thing is to raise the satisfaction of patients, which is also the foundation of CRM. Secondly, to win more loyal customers is the core of CRM. Thirdly, maintaining loyal customers, preventing the losses of customers and improve margins are the ultimate goals of CRM in hospitals.5. According to the survey on 20 state-owned top hospitals in large size, it was found out that the understanding of hospitals in CRM was still very superficial and its application was also in its primary stage. The key barriers which holdback the developing of hospital CRM are due to the lackness of the customer-orientation management concepts and shortage of professional CRM management crews and the lowness of the information technology.The essay has carried out systematic research and analysis on CRM in hospitals with pertinences by means of proposing and solving questions, and put forward operational scheme, which is referential and instructive for the CRM in hospitals. Meanwhile, by acquiring large quantity of first-hand materials and data, the essay has supplied a gap of quantitative studies. However, because the author has no experience in medical industry, the essay needs to be improved in its argumentation and conclusions. In addition, the readers should bear in mind that all the data samples are taken from the state-owned top hospitals at high level, so it can't reflect the average level of medical industry completely.