Banking on health: How health care clinics can grow like retail banks

Retail bank branches and health care clinics may seem like unlikely twins—but a closer look reveals they share many foundational elements. Both operate under a retail business model driven by convenience, both rely on cultivating long-term relationships with customers or patients, and both must balance stringent regulations with the need to deliver high-touch, personalized service.

As competition grows in both industries, the strategies used by successful community banks to attract and retain customers offer valuable lessons for health care providers aiming to expand their patient base and grow sustainably.

The retail model: More than just location

Retail banks and health care clinics have long embraced a model rooted in location-based convenience. Ideally, the placement of branches and clinics should be based on extensive demographic analysis, commuter patterns, and growth projections. In practice, however, many locations are inherited or determined by availability rather than optimal strategy.

Still, convenience alone does not guarantee success. Both banking and health care are highly regulated industries with high fixed costs—rent, staffing, compliance infrastructure—and low marginal costs for serving each additional customer or patient. This makes customer acquisition and retention critical to long-term viability. Moreover, both verticals rely heavily on building trust and loyalty through personal service and referral networks, whether formal or informal.

And despite increased competition (digital-only banks, telehealth platforms, and retail walk-in clinics), the fundamentals remain: everyone needs a bank, and everyone needs a health care provider. The opportunity lies in becoming the go-to choice at the moment of need.

“The ability to segment and target specific demographics with the right message at the right time— based on location, weather, or other specific criteria—is applicable not only in banking but in other industries, where convenience and service are primary decision drivers,” explains Jackson McConnell, CEO of Pinnacle Bank. “Being able to reach individuals that work, live, or commute near specific locations opens up a whole new market opportunity.”

Two kinds of convenience

For clinics to grow in a competitive landscape, convenience must be redefined. It’s no longer just about being nearby; it’s about being top-of-mind when the need arises. Banking has evolved to meet this challenge through data-driven marketing strategies, and health care clinics can do the same.

Start by considering two types of convenience:

1. Demonstrated convenience – This is the straightforward approach: identifying people who live nearyour clinics and targeting them using geographic segmentation.

2. Predictive convenience – More advanced and powerful, predictive convenience identifies people who don’t live nearby but frequent the area—for work, school runs, shopping, or commuting. This is where predictive modeling shines.

Using GPS-based data and behavioral modeling, clinics can identify prospective patients who are likely to consider their location convenient—even if they don’t live within a tight radius. For instance, someone with a 26-minute commute (the U.S. average according to the Census Bureau) may prefer care near their workplace, daycare, gym, or school. That expands your potential audience significantly.

By leveraging tools commonly used in retail banking—demographic overlays, location-based marketing, and behavioral segmentation—clinics can reach prospective patients where they live, work, and travel.

Smart targeting and the marketing “Surround Sound”

Once the ideal audience is identified, the next step is multi-channel engagement—a strategy banks have refined over decades. This means reaching people through both digital and traditional channels they already trust and use.

This marketing “surround sound” may include:

• Direct digital tactics such as IP targeting

• Targeted direct mail

• Local sponsorships or events

• Email campaigns and newsletters

The key is relevance and repetition. Your message must resonate by promoting services and features that appeal to daily routines and real-life needs such as lunchtime availability, weekend hours, sports physicals, virtual visits, and walk-in care.

Predictive analytics not only help identify the right people but also tell you when and how to reach them. Timing is essential. Banking promotions are often aligned with life events such as moving, getting married, and starting a business. Health care demand is similar, arising with new schools, injuries, illness, or seasonal needs.

Steering demand, not creating it

In both banking and health care, demand is event-driven—you can’t manufacture it out of thin air. But you can steer existing demand to your doors by being visible, accessible, and differentiated.

Retail banks do this by adjusting their message seasonally, even if the product offered is the same. Clinics can adopt a similar mindset. For example:

• Promote flu shots and urgent care in the fall and winter

• Offer sports physicals in late summer

• Highlight wellness screenings and immunizations in spring

These services fill schedule gaps during slower seasons and often serve as entry points for long-term patient relationships. Just like in banking—where one checking account can lead to credit cards, mortgages, and retirement planning—one visit to an urgent care clinic can lead to a lifetime of repeat care.

Consider this: If an urgent care clinic attracts just one new patient who visits three times a year, and the average visit is $200, that adds up to $600 per year. Over an average lifetime of eight years, that patient is worth $4,800—not including family members. That kind of lifetime value makes every conversion count.

Customer experience as a differentiator

Banks and clinics are no longer just in the financial or medical business. They’re in the customer/patient experience business. Today’s consumers compare their experiences across industries. That means your clinic is competing not only with other providers, but also with the ease of Amazon, the efficiency of Chick-fil-A, and the personalization of Zappos.

From scheduling to follow-up, every patient interaction should be:

• Seamless

• Positive

• Simple

Technology plays a critical role in the form of services like online booking, text reminders, digital check-in, telehealth, and secure records access. But equally important are human interactions—friendly front-desk staff, knowledgeable providers, and compassionate follow-ups.

This high-touch approach is what earns trust. It’s what makes people recommend you to friends and family. In banking, the most successful branches create a sense of familiarity and comfort. Patients should feel the same way when they visit your clinic.

Final thoughts

Health care clinics and retail banks share more than just similar business models. They share the same path to growth: understanding their audience, meeting them where they are, and building lasting relationships through convenience and service.

By adopting the strategies used by banks to attract and retain core customers—predictive targeting, omnichannel marketing, demand steering, and customer experience optimization—health care clinics can expand their reach, increase loyalty, and create meaningful long-term value in the communities they serve.

After all, everyone needs a bank. And everyone needs health care. The question is: will they choose you when it matters most?

Rob Rhodes, MD,is Chief Medical Officer at HabWell, a data-driven consulting firm specializing in helping providers, payors, and health systems grow patient volume and improve the patient experience. Rhodes can be reached at [email protected].