The pool of valuable prospects available to Memorial Hermann Healthcare System had shrunk as the number of uninsured residents in its Houston footprint rose. The chain of hospitals and wellness centers needed a steady stream of more profitable customers for its elective offerings if it was to continue providing service to anyone walking — or being gurneyed — through its doors.

But Memorial Hermann relied on community-based promotions rather than targeted marketing and its strategy was focused on episodic treatment, not ongoing programs.

This changed in April 2002, when the healthcare provider retained The Turning Point Group LLC. The Houston CRM consultancy took Memorial Hermann's Access database and the Cognos tool used for ZIP code segmentation, and introduced a more sophisticated marketing approach.

The revamped system combined information from Memorial Hermann's phone room, marketing and billing operations, as well as its different wards and treatment areas, for the first time.

It also allowed the healthcare provider's marketing department to establish direct mail test matrices that tracked the effectiveness of offers, lists and messaging, and which of its eight locations proved the strongest draws for new business.

In some cases, this information led Memorial Hermann to modify its pitches. During February and April 2003, it tested two direct mailings aimed at middle-aged golf and tennis players, a group found to be profitable through use of database analytics. The targets did respond, in a way: They signed up their high school-aged athletes for conditioning programs. So another mailing to these families began in late March.

The database also has served as the backbone of a fledgling CRM effort. Memorial Hermann has started several new programs, including ones for consumers 55 and older, new mothers and sports enthusiasts. Tracking capabilities now let the healthcare center follow patients throughout all aspects of its services, including inpatient, outpatient and emergency room. “Products are now more in line with the customer's life cycle,” says Thomas Downing, a managing partner at Turning Point Group.

And those customers have responded. Press Ganey Associates, an independent firm that measures satisfaction, found that in Memorial Hermann's Fort Bend County (TX) facility, ratings jumped from a score of 77.5 to 84.9 between the end of 2001 and February 2004.

The analysis and segmentation stops at the hospital door, notes Karen Haney, Memorial Hermann's assistant vice president for CRM. “We don't want nurses looking at financial class,” she says.

But that doesn't mean others aren't. Memorial Hermann's ability to identify and segment customers has opened up partnership deals such as one with a local BMW dealer, who found its high-income individuals irresistible.