One of the difficulties in determining value for your customer, patient, student, or anyone else you want to serve is that they may not be like you. They may have different values. They may want different things. This seems obvious, but it presents a problem: what will your approach be?
One approach could be to make your offering in such a way that it filters the people you attract. Everything you do consistently reinforces your culture, your values, and the experience your customers will have. You clearly define what you're not, and this helps to deflect those who want those things. A good example of this approach would be the kind of upscale boutique, restaurant or club which basically stops undesired clients (physically or psychologically) at the door. The undesired client will generally feel undesired and make a decision to go somewhere else (of course there are exceptions!).
The advantage of this approach is that your message is strong enough to deliver good potential clients: they have clear expectations and are well-aligned with what you're offfering.
Another approach could be to appeal to a wide variety of customers or users, either because volume is part of your plan or because your mission (as a hospital, for example) demands it. In this case, you will have to discover who your users are and how to serve them, and continually update your plan to meet their needs. Obviously it will be impossible to completely satisfy a huge and diverse group of patients, but you can certainly detect their key concerns and act on them.
All of this sounds pretty simple, but I think the challenge occurs in really listening and understanding people who aren't like you. It's just really easy to think that your customers share your values, but they might not at all, or not to the extent you believe. For example: people with lower incomes are often motivated by price. It's important for them to get what they need for a price they can afford, and they may be willing to spend an entire Saturday waiting in lines and going to discounters in order to achive this. People with higher incomes tend to be motivated by perceived value, and they're willing to pay high prices for things they appreciate. At the same time, however, they may put a greater value on their time than others, and be unwilling to wait in lines or put up with slow service. If the people serving these groups have no understanding of their values, the business in question will probably fail.
So what's the solution? Either design your business to attract the customers you want, or design your business to serve the customers you need. Both strategies will require attention, training and continuous improvement based on the evolution of your service and those you're serving. Both require you to make sure that the people serving your customers are the right ones, and that they have what they need to do a good job.
