Introduction
The emerging technologies have redefined the manner in which firms conduct their businesses in the market. One of the most important impacts that technology has had on business operations is business communication. The manner in which a firm communicates with its target market determines how successful it can be in expanding its market share within a given region. The emergence of websites is one of the technology-driven changes that have become very significant in modern-day business operations.
At first, firms used websites to promote their brands by allowing the online community to understand the values, mission, and vision of the firm and identifying the factors that make the brand unique in the market. However, this has changed as firms try to find more ways of using their websites in their normal operations. Currently, most firms are using their websites to advertise their products and brands. Others have gone a step further and are now using their websites to sell their products.
According to Amit and Zott (2001), whichever business activity that a firm decides to use its website on, it is important to ensure that the website is effective enough to deliver the desired service. An effective website must have specific characteristics that make it superior to that of its market rivals, especially those that share the same market. It should achieve the objective for which it was set-up, and it should be easy to navigate even by online visitors who know little about technology. An effective website can make a significant difference in enabling a firm to achieve the desired objectives within the set deadline. In this paper, the researcher seeks to critically evaluate the Cleveland Clinic website.
Objectives
When conducting research, it is important to clearly stipulate the objectives of the study. As Harder and Jordan (2013) state, conducting research takes a lot of resources and time, and as such, it is necessary to outline what it seeks to achieve before the actual process of collecting data. In this study, the researcher focused on analyzing the website of Cleveland Clinic. The following is the specific objective that the researcher seeks to achieve.
To determine the effectiveness of Cleveland Clinic’s website in meeting the goals for which it was set up.
To achieve this goal, it will be important to look at various aspects of the website in order to understand how relevant it is in achieving these goals. The following are the supportive objectives used in this study.
- To clearly outline the purpose of the website of Cleveland Clinic.
- To analyze the accessibility of the website using Webqual.
- To evaluate e-commerce operations of the website using the Value Creation Model.
Evaluation of the Website
According to Barnes and Vidgen (2001), when evaluating a website, it is important to critically understand the important features of interest that one seeks to investigate. In this paper, the website has been clearly identified as that of Cleveland Clinic. This Clinic is one of the best hospitals, not only in the United States but also in the world. The hospital often attracts clients from all over the world because of its specialized care and top quality services that it offers to its clients. The brand name is also very strong and trusted by those who have not even used its services. It is important to determine if this positive image is influenced by its heavily online presence, especially through its website or otherwise.
Purpose of the website
Cleveland Clinic has a comprehensive website that serves various purposes. One of the most important tasks that this website performs for this organization is an advertisement. As soon as one enters the website, the most conspicuous message that comes out is the fact that Cleveland Clinic is one of the top hospitals in the world. The message reads, ‘Best Hospitals: A Top 5 Hospital’ (Dahlén & Lange 2008).
This alone passes a message to the visitors that Cleveland is one of the finest hospitals in the world. Not everyone knows about the top quality services that this firm offers to the market. For that reason, it becomes important for this firm to remind the visitors that it is the finest among the best hospitals in the United States and in the world at large. According to Wit and Meyer (2015), it is often good if the reputation comes from other websites. It is true that almost all the websites ranking international healthcare institutions consider Cleveland Clinic as one of the best. It is, therefore, not a situation where the message is presented on the website is misleading. The visitors who doubt that message can verify it on the various online platforms.
The second purpose of this website is to inform the visitors about the specific products that this healthcare firm offers. In most cases, clients often prefer visiting hospitals that are specialized in offering treatment to specific ailments. In the past, people would rely on information from friends and family to know whether a given institution offers the services they desire before making a commitment to travel to those countries.
However, this has changed as firms try to make it easy for their clients to access any information they may desire. On this website, visitors can easily know about all the products available at Cleveland Clinic. Most of their questions can easily be answered through this website.
The website also helps this clinic to promote e-marketing to its clients all over the world. According to Levinson and Gibson (2010), technology is transforming the way firms are conducting their operations in the market. E-commerce has become very popular because of its ability to eliminate the geographic barrier. For a long time, healthcare institutions have been struggling to find ways in which they can deliver their services on an online platform.
The need for the physicians to physically examine the patients complicated the ability of the medical experts to offer these services in an online platform. However, these institutions have found ways of overcoming this weakness. Through its website, Cleveland Clinic offers various medical products, including online examination and prescription of the right medicine. The website also offers a host of other services.
Critically Evaluation of E-commerce Operation Using Value Creation Model
Operating in an e-business platform is very distinct from running a brick-and-mortar firm. According to Baumann (2013), when running a brick-and-mortar company, the emphasis is always put on the structures and other physical attributes that clients can see and use in making a decision. In the case of a hospital, clients would always make a decision about the quality of services offered by a hospital by looking at the physical structures such as the buildings, medical staff, the level of cleanliness, the level of concern of the medical staff towards their patients, and such other similar attributes.
However, operating an e-business is very different, and it comes with its own challenges that a firm has to deal with. Unlike in a brick-and-mortar business model that enables the clients to see what they are planning to purchase, operating an online business eliminates all the physical attributes of a business. It creates a situation where a firm has to enable its clients to see its physical attributes through the use of words and pictures.
To win a client in an online business platform, a strong business brand alone may not be enough. A firm must go a step further and explain to the customers why their products are superior to those of the rival firms. They have to explain how their products are used, factors that should be taken when using the products, how the products can be accessed conveniently, and a host of such related factors. The information that a firm uses in its website in an e-business platform must be very clear and comprehensive enough.
This is important because the clients will only be relying on that content to get answers to any questions that they may have regarding the products offered or any other relevant information. E-commerce experts have developed various business models to help explain how value can be created through a firm’s website.
Amit and Zott (2001) developed a Value Creation Model that helps firms in ensuring that their websites have the capacity to achieve the specific objectives for which they were set. In this model, the two scholars talk about the value-creating potential of business websites based on four value drivers. In their view, efficiency, lock-in, complementarities, and novelty are the major drivers of value in an online business environment. For Cleveland Clinic’s website, its ability to create value for the firm can be critically evaluated from four perspectives.
Efficiency
Efficiency is one of the most important factors that an effective website promotes in a business environment. In a traditional business environment, information was only available to clients when they visited the physical stores of the firms from which they intend to purchase a given product. For instance, when a patient wanted to know something about Cleveland Clinic, he would be forced to visit the physical stores of this firm to get the information they needed.
However, this has changed with the emergence of e-business platforms. Information is made available to the clients on a firm’s website so that a patient can make the right decision about the purchase of a given product. According to Amit and Zott (2001, p. 12), “a good website can unlock hidden value by enhancing transactional efficiencies by enabling reduced search costs, transaction speed, reduced distribution costs, reduced inventory costs, and more. These scholars emphasize three factors that a good website should achieve.
The first factor is the reduced cost of the search. In the past, clients would be forced to make phone calls or even visit Cleveland Clinic to know about the products, their costs, and when they can be purchased. Given that the firm is now operating e-commerce, clients should have this information readily available without having to visit the premises of the clinic. On its website, Cleveland Clinic has outlined all the important medical products that it offers. The website enables clients to review the services available at this firm. Through this website, a client can then make an appointment with a doctor. The process is simple and straightforward.
The website also has a section that specifically addresses the asked questions by the online visitors. The Cleveland Clinics website also gives the clients directions when planning to purchase any of their available products. The hospital has various clinics, laboratories, and pharmacies located in various parts of the country. Some of them are located outside the United States. Through this website, clients can know about the nearest facility where they can get these products conveniently.
Value can also be created by enhancing transaction speed. According to Baumann (2013), time is an important factor when planning to purchase a given product on an online platform. The middle class spends most of their time at work, trying to advance their career. They do not have a lot of time to waste in trying to move from one location to the other. This is specifically the case when trying to purchase medical products. In most cases, the clients find themselves in an emergency situation where a decision must be made within a very short time to save the life of a patient or to relieve him or her of the pain. The website of Cleveland Clinic is efficient in this respect.
A visitor can easily navigate the website and identify the products needed within a short time. Patients can then proceed to make an appointment, and arrangements will be made so that the clinic will be ready to receive the patients as soon as they arrive.
Reduced distribution cost is another attribute of an efficient website for a firm that operates on an online platform. According to Rogers (2013), a good website must always help in reducing the costs of making products available to the clients by eliminating some of the fees that a firm has to pay when operating a brick-and-mortar store. This website helps in reducing the distribution costs for this hospital. In this e-commerce platform, clients all over the world can book an online appointment with physicians of Cleveland Clinic.
The client will then explain the health complications to the physicians. Based on the symptoms presented by the client, the doctor will be in a position to determine what the patient is suffering from or the suspected complications. If the client is far from its widely distributed laboratories, the doctor can send the patient to conduct tests in the local laboratories and e-mail the results. The doctor will review the results and prescribe medication for the patient.
A referral will only be necessary if the patient needs further medical procedures that can only be conducted at the premises of the firm. It means that most of the transactions are completed on an online platform. The doctor may prescribe medication that the client can purchase from the local pharmacies. If necessary, the clinic sends the medicine to a location desired by the patient. The online transaction makes it possible for this clinic to operate globally. The costs that the firm would have been forced to incur by setting up and operating clinics all over the world are eliminated.
Amit and Zott (2001) also look at the issue of efficiency from the perspective of reduced inventory costs. In a traditional brick-and-mortar business environment, firms were forced to have stores where clients would purchase their products. However, e-commerce eliminates this problem by making it possible for firms to sell their products to clients without having to visit brick-and-mortar stores. The website of Cleveland Clinic makes it possible for the clients to make purchases of the products of this firm without having to leave the comfort of their homes or offices. To the hospital, this function of the website significantly reduces the cost of inventory management. Once a client makes an order for a given medicine, the sales team will get it from the nearest pharmacies and deliver it to the desired locations.
Complementarities
According to Amit and Zott (2001), to operate successfully in an e-commerce business platform, it is important to create a virtual community of product and service providers of complementary products. It is important to have a system where clients can get all the related products under one roof within the online community. This not increases customer satisfaction but also promotes the brand and sales volume of the companies which decide to co-exist in the online community.
This is one area that Cleveland Clinic’s website has performed dismally and may need to improve in order to help this firm achieve greater success. One of the most important complementary products for health care products is the gym. According to Bainbridge (2007), most of the lethal lifestyle diseases are caused by the junk food that people eat and the problem of lack of exercise. Coronary diseases, fertility problems, obesity, complications relating to aging, and mental stress are some of the health problems that are attributed to lack of exercise.
In most cases, doctors would advise their patients to maintain regular exercise as a way of managing some of their health problems and minimize the chances of them having to visit the hospitals. However, these doctors rarely direct their patients to specific gyms, where instructors have some medical background that enables them to handle clients with health complications. For instance, a person who has a heart problem should be closely guided when conducting an exercise.
There is always a fear that when they are allowed to over-exercise, then they may overwork their hearts, and this may put them in danger. As such, these patients require highly qualified gym instructors who can handle their delicate medical condition. This website mentions the importance of regular exercise for its patients. It explains that the inpatient and outpatients have access to the gym services offered at some of the clinics of this firm. However, it is evident that there is no attempt to create a community that incorporates other gyms located in various parts of the country. The management should find a way of addressing this weakness.
According to Baumann (2013), for a hospital to successfully conduct an online business, it will require a close partnership with laboratories in all the targeted locations. It is true that a physician can get to know about the health problem of a patient based on a detailed and accurate description of the symptoms. However, there are cases where a patient is unable to explicitly explain these symptoms. This may be due to lack of the right words or age factor when handling children unable to explain themselves properly. As such, the services of medical laboratories are indispensible for these online hospitals.
As stated previously, Cleveland Clinic’s doctors may sometimes send their patients to the local laboratories to conduct specific tests that can help them in making the correct diagnosis. A critical review of the firm’s website shows that there is no close working relationship between this clinic and laboratories that offer complimentary products. It is possible that sometimes when the doctors instruct their patients to go and conduct the test, they may advise them on the laboratories to visit. However, it should be official and clearly stated in the firm’s website that these specific laboratories are in the same virtual community as Cleveland Clinic.
Medical research institutions such as the Center for Disease Control and Management (CDC) are very important partners that a firm should consider keeping very close. Cleveland Clinic has one of the finest research centers at its main campus where its teams of researchers often conduct studies to understand the emerging health complications. However, the primary focus of this organization is not to conduct research, but to offer medical services to its clients.
As such, it has a lot to benefit by having a close working relationship with these research institutes. In its website, there is no information about a close working relationship between this firm and other major research centers. This issue should be addressed to ensure that the website shows close working relationship with various trusted research centers in the United States and other parts of the world.
Lock-In
Amit and Zott (2001, p. 67) define lock-in as “the ability of a business model to prompt users to engage in repeat transactions.” It is the ability of a website to encourage a customer to make repeat purchases after making the initial purchase. According to Kim (2012), it is easy for a client to make the initial purchase just to test the effectiveness of the brand in meeting the specific needs. However, their ability to make repeat purchase only depends on whether their needs are effectively met or not. When a customer’s needs are effectively met, then they are more likely to make repeat purchases.
When their expectations are exceeded, then they shall be thrilled. A customer who is thrilled by a company’s products will not only make repeat purchases but also become an evangelist who will encourage friends and relatives to purchase such a product. On the other hand, when a client’s need is not properly met by a given product, then they are likely to avoid making any repeat purchases.
Lock-in is achieved when the website is able to find ways of discouraging clients from using services of other websites offering similar products. This can be achieved by making it challenging for the clients to switch to other website. The Cleveland Clinic’s website has tried to achieve this goal. The website offers its users regular newsletters about emerging health issues and how to stay safe. For instance, the website looked at the issue of Ebola critically and advised its online community on how to behave in case they had to travel to the areas where there were outbreaks. However, it is important to note that the website has no feature that may create a sense of loss for the clients who decide to switch their loyalty to other website.
This is so because they can easily use other websites and still continue enjoying the services offered by Cleveland Clinic’s website. The only factor that this clinic relies on to ensure that their clients do not switch their loyalty to other firms is the quality of its products and the strength of its brand.
Novelty
The Value Creation Model proposed by Amit and Zott (2001) emphasizes on the need to be innovative when it comes to operating an e-business. They argue that the internet provides businesses with limitless opportunities to be innovative and to find ways of creating new revenues through their website. According to Baumann (2013), innovativeness defines how successful a firm can be in the market. The Cleveland Clinic’s website’s main role is to offer its clients opportunity to access medical services in an online platform. The website has identified other ways of earning revenues from its clients. In the website, the firm has a small section that is set aside for advertisement.
Advertisement is one of the major ways of earning revenues in an online platform. Cleveland Clinic is a top hospital and its website is often visited by numerous people all over the world almost on a daily basis. This is a cleaver way of earning extra income from non-core business activities. Corporate social responsibility is often very important but expensive undertaking for every firm.
Firms are forced to set aside some money to ensure that they give back to the society. For Cleveland Clinic, its website is making it possible for it to conduct corporate social responsibility without having to spend anything. It has a ‘Make a Gift’ button where willing people can make their donations towards just course. The firm then uses such donations to sponsor corporate social responsibility. It also has a ‘Need Help’ button where its clients unable to pay their bills can request for support. The website makes it possible for the hospitals to collect donations from well-wishers which are then used to support those who cannot afford paying the bill. Through this strategy, the firm ensures that its customer base is expanded hence an increase in revenues.
Analysis Using Webqual and Relevant Accessibility Measures
Webqual is one of the currently popular tools that used in analyzing relevant accessibility measures. According to Gelder (2014), this tool is based on the Theory of Reasoned Action which states that “individuals’ behavior (in this case revisiting or purchasing from a Web site) can be predicted from their intentions, which can be predicted from their attitudes about the behavior and subjective norms.” This tool will be useful in analyzing this website for Cleveland Clinic’s website. This website quality assessment tool looks at the following areas when analyzing a website.
Usefulness
Webqual analyzes the usefulness of a website in four distinct areas as discussed below.
- Information that that is fit to the task
- The information in the website must fit the purpose for which it was put up. This aspect, in regard to Cleveland Clinic’s website, has been comprehensively analyzed in the above section.
- Interactivity
- Interactivity of a website determines its capacity to meet the needs of the visitors. Cleveland Clinic’s website enables its users to ask questions and in most of the cases responses are e-mail. It should introduce Live-Chat technology to improve its instructiveness further because currently it lacks this important feature. The figure below shows the avenues used by this company to interact with its clients.
- Trust
- Gelder (2014) says that a website must protect personal details of the clients and ensure that third parties do not have access to them. The website has security features that protect clients’ information at all times. The clients who do transactions have accounts with unique security features.
- Response time
- It is important to lower the waiting time as much as possible for the online clients. At Cleveland, clients who transact through the website get their desired services speedily because measures have been put in place to reduce response time. The graph below shows ratings by online customers about waiting time at top healthcare institutions in the country.
Ease of use
This tool also emphasizes on the need for the tool to be easy to use. Ease of use is looked at from the following contexts
Easy to understand
The content of the message in the website should be simple and easy to understand. Cleveland Clinic’s website has clear messages which are easy for the readers to understand.
Intuitive operations
The website should be easy to navigate even by individuals who have limited knowledge about navigating websites. This aspect has been critically discussed in the above section.
Entertainment
A good website should be entertaining. According to Baldry and O’Halloran (2006), the following are the main areas of appeal that a website should have to be considered entertaining.
Visual appeal
Figures, graphs, and images are very important in making a website appealing to the visitors. The website has photos and images which make it appealing and very informative.
Innovativeness
Webqual, just like Value Creation Model, looks at the innovativeness and creativity of a website. Through innovation, a firm gets to earn more revenues. The figure below shows that Cleveland Clinic is one of those earning more revenues from their online activities.
Emotional appeal
The emotional appeal of a website also determines how frequently a website is reviewed. Cleveland Clinic’s website uses images to capture the emotions of the audience, especially when it comes to supporting the needy in the community.
Complimentary relationship
The two tools (Webqual and Value Creation Model) share the view that a good website must try to be part of an online community that brings together firms and customers that offer and purchase complementary products.
Consistent image
The images used in the website should be consistent with the message being presented. Cleveland Clinic’s website uses images to support the messages that they try to pass to their audience. The visitors can easily relate the pictures with the message.
Completeness
The model looks at completeness in terms of presenting the message to the visitors in a clear and comprehensive manner. This aspect of analysis has been looked at critically in the above model.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Cleveland Clinic is one of the healthcare institutions which have become very active in the online platforms. It has designed its website to enable it interact with its customers and offer them products in an online platform. The critical analysis of this website reveals that it has met all the basic features that a standard website should have to facilitate e-business transaction. However, there are some weaknesses that the management of this firm should find a way of addressing. The recommendations below should be observed when addressing these challenges.
- Cleveland Clinic should ensure that its website has Live Chat software to improve interactivity with the visitors.
- The website should focus on creating an online community of complementary products.
- The management of this firm should try to find a way of creating lock-in in its website.
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