Healthcare is all about helping people and providing the highest level of care. But, if you don’t know what people need, how can you best serve their interests?
Market research is a must for healthcare and biopharma companies. It’s an in-depth dive into the trends in the industry and the needs of the patients to help organizations make educated decisions about where to direct their budgets and the directions they need to take their organization to. Without adequate research, valuable opportunities might be missed and important customer relationships might be lost.
Instead of reacting to market changes and merely surviving, companies need to be proactive in order to thrive. Market research is essential to learn what the market wants, to avoid blind spots, and to create effective strategies to grow your healthcare practice.
What Is the Blind Spot?
A blind spot is an overlooked opportunity. Whether it’s a missed demographic or misplaced funds, a blind spot is essentially an inefficiency in your business strategy.
In a study, managers were asked which stage of the buyer’s journey is most important for driving revenue. Over half replied that attracting new customers was the most important, which is where they spent most of their budgets.
Only after in-depth market research was it discovered that a 5% increase in renewals from existing customers would boost profits by 25%, and acquiring a new customer is between five and 25 times more expensive than keeping an existing one.
What was the blind spot? Their existing customers. These companies were spending a large portion of their budgets on attracting new customers, when retaining existing customers would have earned them much higher returns on their investments.
Blind spots aren’t only about funding the wrong buyer’s stage. Here are some of the most common blind spots companies overlook:
- Not understanding the real reason prospects make decisions.
- Knowing which marketing incentives are most effective.
- Using the wrong strategies.
- Not knowing where your customers come from.
- Chasing the wrong demographic.
- Misunderstanding perceptions of your brand.
While there’s no finite list, it’s easy for healthcare companies to fall victim to any one of these blind spots.
Benefits of Performing Market Research
To avoid blind spots, you need to know what they are. And the only way to do that is with proper market research.
Healthcare market research is the epitome of the phrase “knowledge is power.” With in-depth analytics, healthcare companies can easily see how to maximize efficiency and best serve their patients, leading to numerous benefits:
- Identify the core factors that drive customer decisions.
- Better understand a patient’s experience.
- Bolster marketing strategies.
- Identify gaps in service.
- Stay on top of market trends.
- Optimize R&D investments.
- Learn how customers perceive your brand.
Without market research, healthcare businesses would have to react to changes after they happen instead of being proactive and getting ahead of the changes.
The Brooks Group: Healthcare Market Research Specialists
The Brooks Group is one of the leading healthcare management consulting firms that specializes in market research. We perform in-depth research for healthcare, pharma and biotech companies to help them create effective business strategies. Some of the services we provide to our clients are -
- Survey organizations to identify the voice of the customer.
- Review responses to identify helpful themes, comments, and messages.
- Conduct internal and external gap analyses
- Provide tools to support patient advocacy in the pharmaceutical industry.
- Perform specialized research into case studies, retrospective analysis, and market trends.
- Create marketing or R&D strategies based on response data.
- Concept testing.
Armed with a thorough understanding of how to optimize your operational strategy, companies can avoid blind spots and grow their brand. If you’re ready to take your business strategies to the next level, contact us to get started.
This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2021/01/market-research-in-healthcare-a-must-for-avoiding-the-blind-spot/
