Word-of-mouth in the health care sector: a literature analysis of the current state of research and future perspectives

Abstract

Health care is a tremendously expensive service that deeply impacts the daily life of individuals. It has become crucial to understand all the factors that influence the usage of these services. Word-of-mouth (WOM) is such a factor, because it strongly affects the health behavior. A research gap exists when it comes to the analysis of the current state of WOM research in the health care sector. Based on a comprehensive literature review of the leading scientific journals in the health care sector, this paper investigates existing WOM studies. The investigated studies emphasize hospital recommendations as well as the necessary preconditions for WOM. The studies highlight that there are factors which are favorable to WOM and might be influenced by service providers and payers. Fewer studies concerned the spread and impact dimension. In this regard it is somewhat unexpected that three times more studies focus on the preconditions for WOM than the actual impact of WOM. Only a small number of electronic WOM studies could be found. Stakeholder theory suggests emphasizing factors which benefit WOM. As WOM might spread in networks and influence large groups of people, stakeholder theory further proposes considering WOM as a possible way to distribute specific health care recommendations. Even if the studies highlight the importance of WOM, several research gaps still exist. For example, due to the strong focus on hospitals, recent research seems to neglect WOM concerning health care providers such as a general practitioners or nursing homes.

An online card‐sorting study to inform the initial low‐fidelity design of a crowdsourced health information system for individuals who have chronic health conditions seeking local health‐related resources

“…A nationally representative survey of U.S. adults revealed that 85% of respondents reported that WOM recommendations from family or friends were a very important or at least somewhat important factor when choosing their physician (Hanauer, Zheng, Singer, Gebremariam, & Davis, ). Similar studies have also demonstrated the importance of WOM recommendations when choosing hospitals (De Cruppé & Geraedts, ; Martin, ); primary care physicians (Tu & Lauer, ); surgeons (Yahanda, Lafaro, Spolverato, & Pawlik, ); cancer specialists (Jiang et al, ); and other types of healthcare providers and resources (McCaughey, McGhan, Walsh, Rathert, & Belue, ; Pettigrew & Durrance, ; Shreffler‐Grant, Weinert, Nichols, & Ide, ). Individuals can draw out highly experiential insights from their family, friends and acquaintances around their satisfaction and dissatisfaction on a wide array of points of care, such as cost, clinical competencies, staff members' interpersonal skills, and more (Martin, ).…”

“…The concept of eWOM generally refers to consumer‐generated content posted and viewed on social networking sites (SNSs) to provide and garner emotional and information support from other individuals (Liang & Scammon, ). eWOM communication may help individuals overcome the geographic and synchronous communication limitations of traditional WOM recommendations for hospitals and healthcare providers (Martin, ). However, eWOM recommendations may not have the same level of reliability and credibility as recommendations individuals receive from their family members, friends, and other individuals in their co‐located informal social networks (Huete‐Alcocer, ).…”

“…However, the quality, relevance, and comprehensiveness of the information individuals receive solely through WOM communication can be constrained, as each individual is entirely dependent on the composition of their social network. Martin () found that the importance of WOM as an information source decreases for individuals with lower levels of education. This may indicate that individuals in higher socioeconomic groups may have access to more (and/or more relevant and useful) information from their social networks.…”

“…The majority of these eWOM online platforms also tend to focus heavily on providing information exclusively about physicians, hospitals, and/or other types of clinical care (Martin, ). Online platforms that provide information systematically in the form of user ratings and/or reviews on other types of relevant resources in individuals' local communities, such as libraries, parks, health centers, senior centers, recreation clubs, nutrition services, faith‐based services, support groups, and local businesses, seem to be far less common (Jindal, ).…”

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) for Insight Into Client Experiences in Sexual and Reproductive Health Clinics

“…While a positive patient experience is a priority in itself, it is also important because it improves correct family planning method use, contraceptive continuation rates, and consistent use of health services 2 . The importance of a positive experience is amplified when considering the role of word-of-mouth referrals in marketing strategies 3 and the potential for generating demand for family planning services in countries with low modern contraceptive prevalence rates (mCPRs).…”