Healthcare Trends
Customer Experience: every interaction counts
General rules that apply to all clients are especially applicable to healthcare professionals (HCPs). One of them is that developing an appreciative, holistic relationship creates the basis for a good customer experience. However, these days, the positive customer experience is shifting more and more from the analogue world to the digital one. Relationships are made using online platforms and not using fax machines any more. New technologies influence the customer experience, and therefore satisfaction, after each interaction.
Short-term messages are giving way to substantial content. Older cohorts are becoming more receptive to technical innovation, making them younger as a target audience. Mobile devices make it easier to gain the loyalty of target audiences across the entire customer journey, from the initial interest to the use of a product as well as the enthusiastic recommendation of it.
Ongoing digitalisation is resulting in AI-based systems becoming increasingly important for healthcare companies. The initial success was achieved in AI-based diagnostics, a field which is going to grow quickly. Virtual and augmented reality play a role in this, too. Businesses urgently need to consider the question of how the doctor’s surgery of the future will be set up technically. Digital patient files and video consultations were the first steps, with artificial intelligence now making its way into practices. For advertisers, this means that there is a need to develop platforms which meet the highest technical requirements, can process large volumes of data and are pioneering. Specialist medical information will likely also become more centralised.
Companies in the healthcare industry in particular noticed during the pandemic how much they had neglected their digital channels until that time. Fixing up these shortcomings is at the top of the agenda for many of them for this reason. Something that is pleasing in this context is the digital competence that HCPs have developed for the topics of SEO/SEA and content marketing in recent years – even moving into the field of customer experience maturity. While many HCPs were still stuck in their digital infancy just a few short years ago, they are now standing at the centre of their own efforts and looking towards the future.
So, what effect does all of this have on the major advertising campaigns? On personalised messages or possible brand ambassadors? On the budget? It is less dramatic than you might think, because a good idea works independently of the channel it is promoted on.
Through digitalisation, there are now a multitude of possibilities for coming into contact with target audiences, for example, via relevant portals, social media and apps – all whenever, wherever. Or via influencers acting as brand ambassadors close to the doctor’s surgery. Market research from Norstat shows that Germans today are already spending one-third of their life on the internet – 24 years, 8 months and 14 days on average. That is why digital should always be an essential element when selecting a suitable advertising channel.