The goal isn’t to connect every channel. It’s to connect the experience.

More channels create more possibilities. That doesn’t mean we need to use all of them. Healthcare communication has changed significantly over the last few years.

Email and SMS are no longer the only options. Push notifications, patient portals, mobile apps, RCS and emerging conversational channels continue to create new ways to connect with patients and consumers.

And every new channel brings capabilities that the previous one didn’t have.

For business owners, that can be extremely attractive.

A new channel suddenly means another way to engage, another use case to explore and another opportunity to reach the customer.

But sometimes, having more options should make us more selective—not more communicative.

Just because an organization has n number of channels doesn’t mean it needs to use all of them.

In fact, disconnected communication experiences can do exactly the opposite of what the organization is trying to achieve.

Start With the Journey, Not the Channels

One of the biggest mistakes we can make is designing communication from the bottom up.

The SMS team thinks about SMS.
The email team thinks about email.
The mobile team thinks about push.
Another team manages portal communication.

Individually, every communication may make complete sense.

But who is looking at all of them together?

I believe we need to approach this from the top down.

Start by looking at the patient journey as one connected experience. Then break it down into the individual communication moments underneath it.

Once you do that, some very different questions start emerging.

Where do these communications connect? Where are we repeating ourselves? Are different teams asking the patient to do the same thing? Could one communication replace two others?

That is where omnichannel starts becoming meaningful.

The objective isn’t to connect every channel. It is to connect the experience.

Put Yourself in the Customer’s Shoes

There is another simple exercise that can completely change how we design these journeys.

Stop looking at the communication from the organization’s perspective.

Look at it from the customer’s.

Imagine receiving an appointment reminder in the morning, a prescription message a few hours later, a wellness email in the afternoon, a push notification from the app and another promotional communication in the evening.

Every business owner may have a perfectly legitimate reason for sending their message.

But the customer doesn’t see five different business owners.

They see one healthcare organization.

That perspective matters.

A communication can be relevant on its own and still be unnecessary when viewed as part of everything else the person is receiving.

Define What Is Enough

This may be one of the most important—and most difficult—parts of designing an omnichannel journey.

Organizations spend a lot of time defining when a communication should be sent.

We should spend equal time defining when it shouldn’t be sent.

What is enough?

That needs to become an actual design criterion.

Organizations can establish thresholds and guardrails around communication frequency, priority, previous interactions, channel usage and customer preferences.

Then every communication should be vetted against those guardrails.

Not simply:

Can we send this message?

But:

Should we send it?

Has the customer already received something similar? Have they already taken the required action? Is another communication more important? Is this the right channel? Is this the right moment? Have we already communicated enough?

Sometimes the outcome of that decision should be:

Don’t send anything.

And that can be a successful communication decision too.

Omnichannel Is About Orchestration

The future of omnichannel healthcare communication isn’t about adding every available channel into a technology stack.

It is about making intelligent choices across them.

Start with the complete journey.

Understand how the fragmented experiences underneath it connect.

Look for opportunities to simplify and optimize.

Define thresholds and guardrails.

And most importantly, look at the experience through the eyes of the person receiving it.

Because the best omnichannel strategy isn’t the one that gives an organization the most ways to reach a patient.

It’s the one that knows when, where and whether to communicate at all.