I’ve spent 10 years helping Healthcare Organizations select, implement, and support CRM in the Healthcare Provider & Payer space. In that time, I’ve come to a few realizations and reflecting on the state of the market today, I wanted to share some insight to help you grade a health CRM vendor with some tough questions.
#1) Customer Data Platform OR Customer Action Platform
I’ve seen a number of vendors excited by announcing their new CDP (Customer Data Platform). I’m excited that many are starting to take data seriously. SymphonyRM has been data first from our start, building on core data ingestion and amalgamation services that modern consumer services like airbnb and others have been using from day one. In fact, it’s an infrastructure that helps us ingest new forms of diverse data every day. Beyond just CDP, making data meaningful requires your CRM platform to distribute personalized, prioritized, and proactive Next Best Actions across every channel.
Suggested Questions
- Ask your vendor how many of their clients are using their CDP Live in production?
- Was their CDP built in-house or through acquisition, if by acquisition, what % of those engineering employees still exist?
- Does their leadership team have cross-industry insight?
- Data & Ethics: what is vendor’s positioning to ensure your success? We are happy to be organizing the first session on Data-driven Marketing & Ethics at HMPS19.
- How is Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Consumer Data being engineered to build a stronger patient and provider relationship? From achieving key population health metrics to driving service line growth.
- How is that data being turned into action that is relevant to today’s health care environment? How are they turning data into personalized, proactive, and prioritized Next Best Actions? Do they support traditional, digital, and the in-clinic channels?
#2) Reflect on the vendor’s business model
Suggested Questions:
- Is your vendor aligned to your metrics, or are they focused on pharma advertising and other income streams?
- Is CRM as a platform, their primary, secondary, or even a tertiary service line?
- Does your vendor discount the technology (CRM) if you purchase their services (provider directory listing management, reputation, reviews, recognition / awards, etc)? If this vendor has these as additional service lines, is their focus really CRM or just an appetizer that leaves you yearning for more.
- Is your vendor’s business model focused on transactional campaigns, or helping your organization build a lasting relationship with the consumer?
#3) Technology & Innovation
Suggested Questions:
- Is your vendor the developer of their CRM and AI platform, or have they built it on a third party industry-agnostic platform? In many cases you pay for “seats” for features that have little ability to move key consumer and health metrics.
- Does your vendor align patient & provider relationships? Being focused just on a patient as a consumer is just one half of the equation on driving transformation in health. Without a connected PRM platform, you will consistently be half empty.
With growing consumer expectations and the entrance of major disruptors like CVS and Amazon, selecting the right Healthcare CRM platform is critical to remaining competitive and gaining market share. We hope this checklist will help you select a platform and team that can provide a holistic view of every consumer (patients, prospects, and providers) and enable you to deliver a personalized experience based on individual next best actions. We’re here to help, so please email info@symphonyrm.com to learn more or schedule a demo.
Sheetal Shah is SymphonyRM's Vice President of Market Development. His experience includes 10+ years health strategy & technology consulting in the Provider and Payer markets. He has deployed Digital Health Technologies at some of the most recognizable national healthcare brands. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheetalyshah/
