The HLS sector is facing unprecedented challenges, driven by increasingly demanding customers. Patients and healthcare providers now expect seamless and personalised experiences at every touchpoint.  

These are all relatively new concepts to the B2B space, but the reality is that B2B is increasingly being challenged to provide a B2C experience. Buyers know the convenience and efficiencies that are available direct to consumers, and expect to have those same conveniences when placing their own orders, regardless of the technical challenges that come from actually delivering that. 

Getting this right is critical, because two-thirds of patients are willing to find alternative options for their health care if they find a competitor offering a superior experience. Getting this right will not only boost your reputation in an increasingly competitive sector, but it will also be one of the most effective ways to differentiate yourself from competitors. 

Health care might look to consumer marketing for guidance on how to better understand how to engage customers, and yet, unfortunately, even there, many efforts to improve the customer experience fall flat. Gartner research shows that most customer experience programs do not deliver on the promise of improving differentiation and helping brands to better compete.  

“Being able to demonstrate that your most satisfied customers deliver more growth, margin and lifetime value is important for CMOs in securing resources for CX programs,” Augie Ray, vice president analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice, said in the report. “By showing this positive relationship, CX teams are better positioned to prove why CX matters to financial performance and the importance of customer-centric practices to long-term brand health.” 

To meet the expectations of customers, organisations need to focus their transformation on getting better customer data on to platforms that can leverage automation and AI, and scale as the interactions with customers become more complex. 

 

The Power of an All-In-One Approach in HLS 

A staggering 88% of customers now consider the overall experience a company provides to be just as important as the quality of the products themselves. It’s easy to see how this would apply in healthcare, where customers, whether they are patients seeking consumer services, or people representing hospitals and other practices in B2B transactions are naturally more inquisitive and looking for a consultative experience.   

Healthcare is often a sector where the customer experience is overlooked, but consider the following example: by implementing a seamless system where patients and healthcare providers have complete visibility and can track their orders anytime it becomes possible to deliver a self-serve model similar to online shopping. This then frees patients up to check their order and status without the need for phone calls during business hours. It allows healthcare resources to be dedicated to more complex and pressing inquiries and provides a better feed of information to the patient. Focusing on the customer experience results in better health outcomes. 

“Customer experience isn’t just a B2C issue. To remain relevant and add value, industrial manufacturers and B2B organisations must develop a deep understanding of their customers’ needs and deliver exceptional experiences across the value chain—without sacrificing hard-won efficiencies in cost and responsiveness,” a PwC report notes. 

“To achieve the right balance of cost, responsiveness and experience, B2B companies must expertly map their customers’ journey across the value chain and create an ecosystem to support customer interactions. By embracing a human-centric approach, they learn to apply the right digital capabilities, at the right times, to deliver on the most important customer promises.” 

This is what we focus on delivering to our healthcare customers at Cloudwerx. With a focus on people, process, and technology, in that order, we are aligned with the customer-centric approach that drives loyalty in modern commerce. We use that expertise to guide businesses through a journey that starts with understanding their unique needs and ends with delivering exceptional customer experiences. 

 

Benefits of an All-In-One Commerce 

An all-in-one commerce approach offers several advantages that contribute to enhancing customer loyalty and driving operational efficiency: 

1) Complete Visibility Across the Customer Journey 

60% of consumers generally feel like they’re communicating with separate departments, rather than a single company. Any healthcare organisation that can drive that percentage to 0% by de-siloing the environment will instantly see an uptick in loyalty. This is one area where Cloudwerx specialises in, so reach out for a free discovery session to see how we can help consolidate the experience of interacting with your company. 

Loyalty comes from feeling like you’re understood and being treated with individual care. Just imagine how frustrating it must be if a patient feels that they need to explain themselves each time they talk to someone different at a healthcare provider. Not only is this frustrating, but it also results in an environment where mistakes are easier to make, as the communication and information flow isn’t consistent. In focusing on building loyalty, a company in the HLS space also produces better health outcomes. 

2) Scalability for Future Growth 

As healthcare organisations expand their services and reach, they need an all-in-one approach to ensure that these systems can adapt to the changing needs and scope of what is being delivered. Whether delivering new services, incorporating new payment methods, supporting innovations in digital and remote health, or otherwise staying current with order management trends, having a foundation that can be built upon, rather than constantly setting up disjointed systems, is essential. 

3) Cost Savings and Reduced IT Burden 

The three biggest challenges that all organisations face, according to the Salesforce State of Commerce report, are: 

1. Technology constraints 

1. Budget/resource constraints and  

1. A lack of training, skills, and education. 

Health organisations are laboured with one of the most straight regulatory environments of all. This alone can strain IT resources, but one of the best solutions to that solution is the kind of holistic, end-to-end solutions that Cloudwerx delivers, as it centralises data, provides better oversights into the environment, and subsequently makes it easier to secure.  

As the Salesforce report also notes the three biggest priorities are: 

1. Growing revenue 

1. Expanding the customer base 

1. Deepening relationships with existing customers 

Being able to focus on these means, first, not having to worry about addressing the challenges. Having a secure, resilient and robust platform for handling data allows the organisation the opportunity to start finding ways to work with it. 

 

Considerations for Choosing an All-In-One Solution 

To be able to maximise the ROI in leveraging an all-in-one solution to drive customer loyalty, businesses should look for a partner that can help deliver four key priorities:

1. Platform Capabilities

As Forrester notes, 53% of marketing decision-makers plan to increase their spending on loyalty technology this year. However, this is being made problematic by the ongoing economic uncertainty. Marketers will need to demonstrate profitability and a short ROI. Achieving this, according to Forrester, requires: 

• A strategy that aligns with the brand’s enterprise goals. 
• A compelling and appropriate value exchange. 
• A technology solution that effectively and efficiently supports the program, fits into the brand’s martech ecosystem. 

The platform and foundation itself need to be secure and agile, and offer out-of-the-box tools and features like content management and storefront search. Uptime is also critical, so partner with a company like Cloudwerx, known for delivering high availability to avoid expensive outages.

2. Payments Solution

According to Gartner, 83% of B2B buyers prefer ordering or paying through digital commerce. As the report notes, though, this is an area of significant opportunity for companies, because it’s an area that many of their competitors do poorly: “Currently, the two levers available to commercial organisations — digital commerce and sales rep interactions — are failing B2B buyers and eroding commercial value. Compared to traditional buyers, digital commerce buyers are significantly more likely to experience purchase regret. When buyers report their purchase process was primarily led by sales reps (as opposed to self-navigated), they make lower-quality purchase decisions. Only 24% of B2B buyers in primarily sales rep-led purchases completed a high-quality deal, versus 65% of B2B buyers who self-navigated the purchase process.” 

A good example of just how important the user experience is can be seen with banks, whose entire business relies on customers using its payments platform. According to research by PwC, 40% of people prefer to use non-banking financial applications as they provide a “better user-friendly experience.” For those in health, it is critical to make sure that the payments solution is not only secure, but it’s also convenient and feature-rich to ensure that the final interaction with health company is a positive one. 

A payments solution should prioritise user experience, localisation, and fraud prevention. Look for solutions that use machine learning and dynamic authentication to detect and prevent fraud and give you real-time insights into the process, without also compromising the user experience in making a payment.

3. Order Management Integration

Seamless integration between each line of business is essential. A good order management solution consolidates customer and order data, streamlining processes and reducing costs. 

At Cloudwerx, we support Salesforce All-in-One Commerce, providing businesses with out-of-the-box capabilities to power their online presence from day one. Our solution scales with your growth, ensuring uptime and enabling the launch of trusted payment methods.