According to research compiled by Deloitte, global healthcare spending is projected to reach $10.059 trillion by 2022. An aging population that is larger than previous cohorts means more people will need chronic disease treatment for longer periods of time and more people will ultimately need dementia care each year. It’s a scenario that is spurring competition as more and more providers vie for new and prolonged business opportunities. Indeed, with that amount of money — and so many lives — at stake, businesses in the healthcare sector must find ways to differentiate themselves while still offering quality care. In the same way that purveyors of simple convenience products and high-tech armaments dealers and all sorts of business in between utilize market research strategies to garner insights that hopefully enable them to better their products, as well as their services, the healthcare industry must also ask the right questions to the right people at the right time in order to remain relevant and valuable in today’s economy. Take a look at three reasons why market research is essential for the healthcare industry:
It Helps Businesses Deliver Personalized, Quality Care
First and foremost, the healthcare industry is tasked with improving consumers’ lives. To be successful in that, healthcare businesses of all kinds must match patient problems with the correct solutions. If they can’t or don’t, then the people they strive to serve (just like any other type of consumer) will inevitably go somewhere that can. Whereas previously, the healthcare industry could bank on their services being not just an option but a necessity for the public, today’s technologies, resources and educational opportunities have just made it too easy for all of us to be more informed about our options. The result: we’re more demanding than ever. Thus, to maintain a strong market presence, providers (such as physicians, hospitals, health facilities, labs, pharmacies, medical equipment manufacturers, etc.) must listen to people — via healthcare market research techniques — so that they can assess their own practices, recognize consumer priorities and continue to engage patients/clients/customers in ways that are most beneficial and most profitable.
It Helps Businesses Identify Their Competition
It’s clear that healthcare businesses must maintain some sort of unique value in order to remain competitive in the market. And part of establishing that value is clearly understanding what others offer. The sheer number of companies vying for the same consumer means each business must carve out a niche of its own by defining the products and services that others do and don’t supply. Only then can it properly position its own offerings.
It Helps Businesses Reduce Their Costs
The healthcare industry has moved from a volume-based system to a value-based one. As such, it must reevaluate how it makes and spends its money. By changing the measure of success from economic gain to customer satisfaction, healthcare companies have unavoidably shifted their means of making a profit. Finding ways to offset lost revenue as patients become liabilities rather than assets means healthcare providers, facilities and manufacturers must find new opportunities to reduce their costs or risk losing out to competitors better-equipped to evolve. Healthcare market research can help identify service problems affecting customer loyalty and pinpoint the actions needed to improve bottom lines.
Want to Learn More?
The healthcare industry keeps growing and changing as new legislation, better information and more people continue to make use of its products and services. If you would like to learn how to use healthcare market research to gain the insights you need to remain competitive and profitable while still improving the lives of the people you serve, contact our team at Communications for Research (CFR). We have decades of experience crafting studies that yield actionable intelligence.
