The Clinical Service Improvement Project

• Background
• Strategy
• Goals
• Objectives
• Audiences
• Key Messages
• Communication Highlights
• Impact

Background

The Clinical Service Improvement (CSI) project, a 10-year-old Egyptian family planning organization, has redefined customer expectations and spearheaded a new national emphasis on the quality of family planning services. Established with USAID and Government of Egypt support in 1987, CSI provides family planning and other reproductive health services through a network of 90 centers located in towns and cities throughout Egypt. Superior quality of care, attention to client needs, and sound management practices have made CSI a model for improved family planning service delivery. It is rapidly becoming a model of self-financing and cost recovery as well.

Strategy

• In-center counseling support materials;
• Community outreach in the catchment areas of its centers;
• Areas with limited access through the institution of a new form of community service delivery and marketing: Capacity Enhancement Initiative (CEI).

Goal

To contribute to the government of Egypt's goals of reducing fertility.

Objectives

• Improve recognition of CSI's identity among women
• Increase % of women who understand CSI's image and can recall its range of services, and
• Increase the number of service volume by 3%, specifically among niche audiences (see section IV-1)
• To increase demand for CSI FP/RH services
• To enhance institutional support of special CSI initiatives (ex: CEI)

Audiences

Clients and Institutional Supporters (International and Regional Donors for FP/RH Services, intended for provision of funding, training)

Key Message

"Quality Services at Affordable Prices"

Communication Highlights

Research/Strategic Planning Activities: To improve CSI's marketing strategy by analyzing its current:

• institutional strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for growth,
• current market position,
• Marketing audit: to examine marketing functions, authorities, and responsibilities.
• Positioning analysis: to determine current market position relative to other service providers and explore new possibilities for differentiating CSI services.
• CSI image review: represented by logo and name, examine among customers, prospects and CSI providers to test level of recognition.

Outreach activities:

• hold 1 day clinics and CEI's to provide community based clinical services to women in the catchment areas of the CSI centers and underserved areas
• enhance with consistent key messages (megaphone car announcement, meetings, home visits, lotteries) to promote CSI services to potential clients
• design and distribute IEC kits among outreach workers to use during IPC encounters and group meetings
• distribute low-cost promotional ads such as circular discount coupons, direct mail, flyers to announce special events
• purchase/obtain free promotional give-aways to create a daily reminder of CSI centers and quality of service
• continue to serve CSI clients with transportation to centers and to follow-up with drop-out clients
• update community outreach database to ensure accurate records of events
• Point-of sale materials in centers
• design and print a client brochure to reinforce the positioning of CSI in the satisfied client's mind. Clients will be encouraged to take multiple copies of the brochure to share with friends and family in an effort to bring new clients to CSI
• Mass Media: design and produce two 30-60 second TV spots emphasizing affordable, high quality FP/RH services to establish recognition
• arrange radio programs, talk shows with local CSI doctors

Institutional Supporters Activities

• to arrange at least two meetings with potential funding agencies
• to secure a grant for upgrading the RH/FP services and/or for establishing the Center for Excellence, and
• to begin talking with at least two NGO's about CSI's capabilities to provide training, technical assistance and observational study tours
• design and print a "CSI story" brochure and outline inserts

Impact

• "Here we speak freely and the doctor listens to us" - A loyal client of a CSI clinic

  CSI considers each new client as a long-term customer. Relationship marketing has proven to be a key strategy for CSI in retaining customers and in spreading, by "word-of-mouth," the quality services message. As a result, returning clients represent 52% of the RH/FP client visits, up from 44% in 1998.

• The addition of Capacity Enhancement Initiative (CEI) to CSI's marketing portfolio is a promotional community mobilization effort designed to link outlying villages to the nearest CSI center. In just one year, the initiative accomplished great success, delivering family planning and other health services to 59,144 individuals in 320 villages.

  CSI's media campaign positioning of itself as a provider of "distinguished services at an affordable price (and living up to the expectations) may have positively affected overall quality care provided by other clinics. Quality care once recognized by the media become legitimate expectation of the public. Other clinics try to improve their services to compete or to avoid being perceived as not providing quality care." Excerpt from report by a UN expert team

Previous Project | Next Project