The evolution of the healthcare CRM

Healthcare marketing has changed quite a bit over the last decade. Patients are now called “consumers,” and they’re more informed than ever. They also expect highly personalized care. Because of this, healthcare marketing departments need to evolve, too.

Enter the healthcare customer relationship management (HCRM) platform. CRM technology can provide relevant information to consumers through their preferred means of communication—phone, text, email, or otherwise. HCRMs can take a vast amount of data about patient and consumer information and deliver information marketing departments can act on in order to provide these personalized experiences and optimize growth through smarter patient acquisition and retention strategies.

Evariant Vice President of Customer Success Gary Druckenmiller, Jr., has provided some insights into how an HCRM can not only keep patients happy but help healthcare systems to grow their consumer base.

First, Druckenmiller says, it’s important to understand what an HCRM is and is not. Only seven years ago, the industry didn’t understand the term “CRM.” Marketing departments didn’t know how to use the data in CRMs for anything other than targeted direct mail outreach. IT departments, service line leaders, and administrators didn’t really understand the impact of a CRM and how digital marketing could drive revenue.

An HCRM platform supports precision marketing and it helps with population health data collecting. In doing so, it allows the HCRM to support robust targeting and segmentation efforts.

Health systems need a platform that not only supports the HCRM, but electronic health records, content management systems, marketing automation platforms, contact centers, and a content rationalization system. Real-time or near real-time data is a requirement for marketing officers. And the best HCRM platforms offer a single, comprehensive view of a consumer that will allow marketers to find, guide, and retain consumers through personalizing their experience throughout the patient life cycle.

Finally, Druckenmiller notes, in order to achieve personalized care experiences for consumers, health systems have to find a way to collect, store, and analyze huge amounts of data that will help marketers do just that: provide personalized experiences. By using an HCRM from a vendor that meets individual organizations’ needs, health systems can increase patient satisfaction and retention.

Read the full essay in Becker’s Hospital Review.