How To Seal The Deal And Close The Last Mile With Patients with Jessica Walker, Founder and CEO of Care Sherpa

[00:00:01] This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth. Visit outcomesrocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945.

[00:00:25] Hey everyone, welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket podcast, Founder Stories. I'm excited to have Jessica Walker with us today. She is the founder and CEO of Care Sherpa. I really love her background because not only is she a healthcare pro, but she's also big into marketing. As you guys know, those are my two sweet spots. So I wanted to welcome you to the podcast, Jessica.

[00:00:54] Super excited to get into it. Well, thank you so much. I was very much looking forward to our conversation as well. Love it. Love it. So look, Jessica, why don't we start off with telling us a little bit about your business, what you guys do, and how is it different and why does that all matter? Yeah, well, thank you. So I like to say that it was completely born out of my background. I've spent 20 years in the research around patient engagement, consumer behavior, patients as consumers, right?

[00:01:25] Working with organizations like Gallup and Preskini, understanding how patients buy. But then prior to my healthcare world, I was in hospitality. So I lead with a service orientation and a service heart. And what I found time and time again, especially when it comes to marketing, is that providers would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing campaigns, but then have this inability to cover that last mile. Like when somebody actually shows interest, picks up the phone, fills out the web form and we like seal the deal and close it.

[00:01:54] And when I surveyed the market to see like what solutions were out there, I couldn't find that right combination of how do you present a high consumer experience while simultaneously managing it as a sales pipeline. So in a lot of ways, that's what CareSherpa is about, is helping us get those patients across the line in that last mile. I love it. And if you invest the amount of money that is being invested in this space, you got to get that last mile right.

[00:02:24] So yeah, when you think about how much, you break it down by the price per, right? So you know that your cost per click, your cost per lead on all your marketing campaigns, but you're going to completely flush all those leads down the toilet and not even care to pick up the phone, then you might as well consider your entire marketing investment not worth it. And nobody wants that. Nobody wants that. And so in comes CareSherpa.

[00:02:49] So talk to us about the end customer that you serve in the healthcare ecosystem and what you guys are doing to prevent these leaks. So I started the business with helping health systems and providers to think about your national providers really specialize when it comes to those high value patients. So there's the big five, right? When we look at like oncology, general surgery, et cetera. And those are the bulk of where CareSherpa started.

[00:03:14] However, where we've grown is really recognizing that the need for our services fit the best with those group and private practices that are maybe the Davids up against the goliaths of the health systems. So we really serve the whole market when it comes to that. But the niche that I say that we would play in and where we fit best is where it is high margin. There's high consumer choice. So typically competition. Typically, the patient as a consumer has some cost or out of pocket that they have to consider that could delay their choosing to move forward.

[00:03:43] And then there's usually some level of a clinical kind of qualification as well. So the ability to do that in a way that is very consumer focused, very white glove, very much like helping someone have trust and confidence that not only are they comfortable moving forward with this procedure or treatment, but they trust you as the provider to do that well. And that's really where the intersection that we play. And every day I'm approached by just new service lines that I hadn't considered like

[00:04:11] specialty therapies or really interesting like interventional radiology as an example. So just the fit is where you can understand the patient is the consumer in the driver's seat. Yeah. And it's interesting what has happened in healthcare with the payer, the introduction of the payer back in the day. It's taken away that consumer feel, right? Like it's not. But to your point, Jessica, you brought up the point that nowadays with how big deductibles

[00:04:39] are, seven to 10,000 in some cases or more, the consumer's back. Yes. Yes. Well, and if we look at it from like, where are those leakage points in your, again, let's put on our revenue hat, right? No money, no mission. So if we're not from driving profit and driving revenue, the leakage point comes where the patient as a consumer has the time to think about it and they, that support. So financial is a huge part of it. And even if they have commercial insurance, they have a copay, they have a shared kind

[00:05:09] of payment structure. And if a provider isn't helping the patient as a consumer to think about that and maybe navigate them to options, it's easy to say, well, I'm not going to do that knee replacement today. I'm going to put that off and maybe tomorrow it doesn't hurt that bad or whatever this kind of delay tactic is. And so we fundamentally believe that as a, the Sherpa, right? The guide for the patients for the process, we have to help. If we know that you're clinically qualified, we know that, you know, you should be financially

[00:05:38] qualified for all intents and purposes. Then our job is to clear the path for you to get over that mountain of healthcare and get to the care that you need and you want. Sometimes it's navigating to payment options. Sometimes it's helping the patient think through, are there different financing or tools that they could leverage? Or sometimes it's also just staying in touch with them so that when they have the financial means, they still remember you and your brand. That's awesome. That's really helpful to know. And you've been doing this for quite a while, Jessica.

[00:06:07] What would you say is one of the most uncommon things that people don't know about the business that you're in? Well, I'll say the business of healthcare. So I'll give you two fast facts. So one, why I started CareSharpa is if you look at it, when I started the business, it was like 79% of healthcare consumers don't move forward. In our recent studies, it's actually gotten worse.

[00:06:32] It's 81% of healthcare consumers don't move forward and have the surgery procedure or treatment of intent. So yikes, right? If we look at that from a revenue leakage, all that money we spent to get them there and then 81% are just gone off the top. So that's your first kind of area of like, let's plug the leaks. But the hidden fact that not everyone, because they're not tracking, they're not paying attention, they're not seeing the subtleties. The next biggest area of leakage for providers is that post first visit.

[00:07:00] So someone comes in, they cross the threshold, they meet with the provider, they're contemplating the care or the service. 52% of patients do not move forward. And what we would consider that activation timeline, typically about a 90 day window. And if you send that right farther because of people who say, oh, maybe I'll do that six months from now, it actually gets worse. So when we look at that from why for profitability within healthcare, those are two big areas to

[00:07:26] pay attention to that I fundamentally believe it has everything to do with the consumer experience and how you're supporting and guiding them. I love it. Well said. Those numbers are shocking. Actually, I'm shocked at how large the leakage is up front. But then there's that continuity, right? Putting together a program that will keep patients around, that'll keep them coming back. Yeah. And we're doing a study right now that's really interesting looking at consumer behavior of

[00:07:56] the proactive versus reactive patient support, right? So the typical healthcare provider right now says, oh, if they want that, they'll come to us. They'll call us back. And so we take a different lens to say, we need to help support, roll out the red carpet, open the pathways. So we're doing a proactive outreach at certain time intervals of folks who've lapsed or folks who are maybe on the nurture path. What we're finding already, and it's astonishing, when we engage with consumers after they've lapsed

[00:08:26] with a practice or a provider, meaning that they're not quite sure, they weren't ready to move forward. I don't have hard numbers on this. Right now, the feels statement is that over 60% of these consumers, when we reach out to them, indicate some level of they were waiting for someone from the practice to call them. Even though the practice note says they're going to talk to their doctor, they're going to talk to their spouse. In the consumer's mind, it was, oh, the doctor is going to call me, the office is going to call me and talk about next steps. And it's just wild to think about.

[00:08:55] But like in this mind, they're like, that's what they've been trained on from a consumer behavior perspective. Totally. Yeah. There's a definite mismatch there. And look, Jessica, we can't have a conversation like this without talking about people, process, and technology. And so maybe this is an opportunity for you to share more about your solution. But what solutions are out there? And what percentage of it is people? And what percentage of it is tech? And are patients being receptive to tech? Yeah. So the hot new buzz, right?

[00:09:25] And everything in healthcare just came back from the Vive conference. That's a great innovation summit. We missed each other. I know. We completely missed each other. But, you know, of course, all things AI, right? You saw how big the AI kind of summit area was, right? I was there for it. I'm all for it. And don't get me wrong. We use AI in the work that we do, right? However, I fundamentally believe that there's a time and a place and a structure for AI. But when a human indicates a need for a human touch or there's complexity or there's an emotional

[00:09:54] sentiment to it, human to human is where you have to go, right? And so when we talk about maybe the future of technology, like I do believe that there's a tech stack that most providers have to think about when it comes to, of course, your good old basics of CRM. Your EMR is not your CRM. Totally different functions and tools, right? And then, but the people have to be involved and the integrations have to be involved so that your data is flowing between the CRM, the EMR, and the marketing systems.

[00:10:22] So I was sharing with someone recently, like, hey, the bare minimum, let's just start with understanding. Can you get to tracking your leads in a way that's not Sally with a Post-it note or a Google sheet somewhere? Let's just start there. Because when you can uncover, whether it be using a phone tracking system like Line or CallRail, something like that, you're understanding then, like, what's our real opportunity cost and where are we leaking? So then you can make appropriate investments downstream. Love that.

[00:10:51] No, I love your philosophy on that for sure, Jessica. And guys, there's huge opportunity to take your practice, your health system to the next level. That's why we have conversations like these. But look, shifting to the entrepreneurial focus of this session that we have, we love to learn from successful people. What would you say is your favorite business resource or business hack that you would recommend to our listeners and why? I think if you're an entrepreneur, it's a very lonely place, right?

[00:11:19] So you are guiding your whatever your B2B, your B2C at the top is very lonely, right? The wind blows quite strongly. So for me, my hack has always been from the very beginning to find my tribe. So whether that be I have a female entrepreneur group that I meet with on a monthly basis, that's accountability. And it is being able to like report up successes, failures, take the mask off and be real and vulnerable. It's not a BS club of like, oh, we're all killing it and crushing it because some days you're not right.

[00:11:47] Right. So I'd say that's been one of my biggest like hacks or resiliency. And I think the second piece of it, though, just becomes having that reflection internally, which I have to do before I go to my group. Right. So those two things, I think from a resiliency and a mental health as a founder and entrepreneur is so critical because no one else understands the place that you are in.

[00:12:10] And so having that tribe around you really gives you that huge get that tribe, folks, if you don't have them, get them. If you do, that's great. That's great. You're doing it. Or even evaluate if your tribe isn't working for I just recently changed. And as your business grows, you ask that self challenge. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I like one of my favorite quotes on that point, Jessica, is yesterday's systems won't serve tomorrow's needs. Yeah. And that's true for tribes. Yeah. So and I forget who said it.

[00:12:39] I'm going to quote it terribly, but it's like you're the average of the people you surround yourself with. So when you're average, when you realize you're at the top of the class and the average, then it's time to move without curves. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Get out of that room. Run. No, this is so good, Jessica. We definitely share some of the same thoughts there. Look, I want to make sure that people listening to this that have practices are looking to get to the next level, reduce that leakage, know where to get in touch with you.

[00:13:07] So what's the best place our listeners can get in touch with you and tell them a little closing thought there? Yeah, absolutely. I've been on LinkedIn apparently 18 years as of last week. So I'm on LinkedIn and easy to find. You're an OG. You're a LinkedIn OG. I have actual Jessica Walker in the path there. So yes, easy to find Jessica Walker, Nashville, Tennessee, CareSherpa. Our website is CareSherpa.com, but then would love to. And just a quick little tidbit to your listeners, no pressure, no salesmanship.

[00:13:34] But if you just want an assessment of how you're doing, we're happy to do mystery shopping and actually pressure test your new patient experience and compare you to our benchmarks. See, hey, here's where we see with three phone calls, I can tell you where you're probably leaking revenue. Wow. Folks, I just take Jessica up on that because that's no strings attached, no cost. Get to know where you're at. That's where it starts. So Jessica, I love that offer for our listeners. Thank you for that so much.

[00:14:01] And folks, check out the show notes for all the ways to get in touch with Jessica. We'll include the LinkedIn, her LinkedIn page, her company website, and all the ways you could get in touch with her for this assessment. And Jessica, thanks so much for being with us. This was a lot of fun. You too. Thank you. Bye-bye.

[00:14:16] This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare-exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth.

[00:14:43] Visit outcomesrocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945.