10 Best Customer Engagement Strategies For Healthcare Apps
Introduction
Two major disruptions that are changing the shape of the healthcare landscape today are digital transformation and consumer behavior. Most healthcare organizations are investing in healthcare infrastructure, such as a patient engagement platform, and aiming to provide smarter healthcare to consumers. For the consumers, this can mean available and actionable healthcare information for better health outcomes, while for the healthcare providers this can mean reduced costs and more structured operations.
Smarter healthcare has also led to the rise of consumer engagement in healthcare. Consumers are taking an active part in their healthcare decisions and engaging more with healthcare providers who are offering value-based care. Healthcare providers too are utilizing digital tools such as machine learning to gather more health data and then analyze the data to get meaningful insights to provide more personalized care.
The Key Qualities Required For Successful Consumer Engagement in Healthcare
Matching healthcare services to consumer expectations is the ideal way to encourage more consumer engagement. For example, an omni-channel marketing platform can bring in the necessary simplification and personalization required to meet the value-based care that consumers are looking for. Most consumers look for the following qualities in the healthcare services they choose:
● Convenience — With most functions available to consumers at a touch, healthcare is no different. Consumers expect a seamless healthcare experience across several channels. They also seek easily available access to care at the touch of a button.
● Reliability — Since patients today have transformed into consumers, they expect improvements in the quality of healthcare service too. Real-time interactions with providers and timely customer support are ways you can earn their trust.
● Transparency — Healthcare consumers are looking for clarity in communication too. For example, before making any decisions, they want to know about the cost of treatments. Moreover, they want to learn more about health problems and treatments explained in a simple language.
● Quality — Quality of care is an important aspect for healthcare consumers today. They are looking for more proactive delivery of services coupled with a personalized approach and finally high-quality patient outcomes.
● Proactivity — Healthcare consumers are more interested in two-way communication. They are looking for care not limited to just during visits but even before and after visits. Healthcare providers thus can benefit from being proactive and providing ongoing care that encompasses geographical, socio-economic, and health history as well.
10 Best Customer Engagement Strategies For Healthcare Apps
Healthcare brands need to keep up with the digital transformation to keep their patients engaged and keep providing them holistic care. Developing a strategic approach like creating a healthcare app is a great way to boost patient engagement. Moreover, adopting a patient engagement platform to drive engagement to your app is equally important. With more and more consumers opting for digital solutions to their healthcare needs, healthcare companies should actively utilize this space to meet their needs. For example, the 2018 McKinsey Consumer Health Insights Survey found that more than 50% of consumers preferred digital tools for their healthcare requirements.
Personalization
Today’s healthcare consumers want more from their healthcare providers. The only way to meet each of their varied needs is by creating personalized experiences and delivering them when, how, and where they need it. Every consumer will have quite different needs from one another. However, with the vast volume of consumer data available and the digital tools present to analyze it, customizing experiences has become easier. You can also use several customer experience measurement tools to see if your efforts are bearing fruit or not. McKinsey’s report further found out that around 36% of consumers preferred a healthcare provider who cared more about them as a person.
Understand your target audience
It’s important to debunk the myth of the “average healthcare consumer”. Trying to create a strategy based on a general audience will not bring the desired results. It’s important to understand that consumers can come from a wide variety of backgrounds and lifestyles and portray varied healthcare expectations. Here segmentation can help you in reaching the right audience by providing the right insights. However, if you segment your audience without a prior goal, it will be difficult to address the particular needs of the group. Using a customer segmentation platform can help you to align your segmentation to your objectives and send the right communication to the right people.
Add a human touch
Healthcare companies should stop looking at consumers as just patients and trying to make a sale. Communicating with them just on the product level will not help build engagement. Building a strong emotional connection can help you to build effective consumer engagement. There are several ways to connect with your consumers on a customer level:
● Adding a face to your company in the form of a brand ambassador.
● Share stories and behind-the-scenes to create a sense of trust.
● Share health information through blogs to educate consumers
Use In-product messaging
One of the best ways to reach your consumers and hold their attention is to use in-product messaging since they are extremely targeted. You can use them to remind them to complete an action. You can also use these messages to communicate offers, discounts or certain features of your app. They can also substitute your marketing emails which sometimes may get unsubscribed or seem intrusive.
Build trust
Putting consumers first and creating certain transparency in communication can go a long way in building trust. Tailoring operations and processes with the customer need in mind rather than the other way round will help share the customer experience. Communicating upfront the details of health decisions, cost details, and other procedures can help customers feel confident about your company and choose you over other healthcare providers.
Share relevant information
Consumers need guidance throughout their healthcare journey. Providing them with relevant information can help them make better healthcare decisions. Most consumers feel quality and care to be the most important factors determining their choice of a healthcare provider. However, most of them feel that they need to research costs and care quality from several sources to be able to finalize a choice. Sharing relevant information — one that is personalized, simplified, and trustworthy — will make them engage more with your company.
Host Events and contests
A great way to make customers feel a part of a community is by introducing events, contests, meetups, and webinars. Offering incentives can help your app in engaging them as well as influencing their decisions. A multi-channel marketing platform can be an ideal choice to help craft out incentivization strategies for your healthcare app. Instant gratification will make your consumers engage more with your brand.
Send Push Notifications
A great engagement strategy can be using push notifications to communicate with your customers. Creating relevant and timely notifications will help them stay connected and share vital information without being intrusive. An omni-channel marketing platform can be an effective asset in enhancing the user experience by sending them rich push notifications based on customer data and specific segmentation.
Help understand product usage
The growth of digital technology and the rise in the use of mobile devices have created a sea of change in healthcare services. Although a healthcare app may help consumers in smarter and easier access to care, however, some features can seem too technical for them to use. Thus healthcare providers can help them by guiding them on the features of the app and how to use them so that they can access them easily.
Use Analytics to measure the engagement
To sustain consumer engagement over a long period of time, you’ll have to measure it. With the digital transformation, there are huge amounts of customer data being created. You’ll have to analyze the data to create effective insights so that you know what works and what doesn’t. Understand what triggers help your consumers to engage will help you to keep them engaged for a longer time.
