Previously I discussed how life sciences companies can establish better relationships with patients. This blog analyses developing a strategic plan and how to get started.
When it comes to managing these relationships, the bottom line is that there are some dramatic shifts taking place in healthcare, and life sciences companies need to understand, harness, and benefit from them. Successful organizations are going to be the ones that get ahead of these shifts and develop a strategic vision for patient engagement.
The importance of using digital technology to engage with patients, as well as partners and physicians, has become clearer. But remember, the solution is not as simple as adopting a more modern technology platform. Consider a three-part methodology that incorporates the development of intelligent strategies, the appropriate technologies to support those strategies, and the creation of an exceptional digital experience.
Remember…
- Developing a digital strategy for patient engagement doesn’t simply mean adopting new modern technologies. Don’t just throw technology at your patients, develop a strategy that will work for them. Ensure that the patient journey is part of your strategy. As patients ask questions, study them, and learn what they want and need.
- Use what you learn about your patients to design a strategy around what’s valuable to them. If patient engagement is truly your goal, you need to focus on solving patient problems instead of the needs of the business. The two may be intertwined, but ensuring your priority is the patient will help keep them engaged.
- It is imperative to continue collecting and analyzing data. Use the insights to revisit and revise your strategy regularly. Your patient engagement strategy is just as alive and evolving as your patient.
Strategy, technology, and the overall patient experience are key to achieving success. If you aren’t an expert in one of these areas, ask for help, ideally before you embark on such a digital transformation initiative. This will help avoid missteps, save time and money, and ensure the success of a program. It’s also critical that key stakeholders understand the end-to-end patient journey, how it impacts the organization, and how to go about implementing and managing a patient engagement program.
How to Get Started
We have partnered with some of the world’s leading companies to deliver their digital vision for an exciting new integrated customer experience.
With support from our experts in life sciences and our in-house agency, Perficient Digital, we are well positioned to enable life sciences companies to join the digital revolution.
Our proprietary jumpstart tool, the CX IQ, evaluates a company’s effectiveness in creating, delivering, and sustaining a compelling customer experience across 57 attributes/capabilities in seven CX dimensions: customer insight, strategy, design processes, enabling technologies, operations, measurement, and culture.
The six-week engagement is an effective way to engage the management team, create alignment, and guide decisions about where and how to improve CX. As part of your CX IQ engagement, you’ll receive a CX IQ scorecard, a summary of data and metrics to explain the CX score, and an action plan with a prioritized list of defined CX projects, and a full day CX workshop event.
To learn more about the relationship between companies and patients, the shifts in healthcare that are changing how organizations are engaging with patients, and how to approach the development of a patient engagement initiative; you can click here or download our guide below.
The topic of focusing on how people consume information is often discussed with reference to millennials, but less frequently discussed as it pertains to patients. Bringing this to the forefront will help both patients and life science companies have a better experience when engaging with each other.