High-Value Health Care Consumers, Part 1: Who They Are and How They Impact Revenue
// By Paula Serios //
Some companies decide what product or service they want to sell and then use marketing to find people to buy it. Smart companies figure out what problems people face and how they want them solved, then create distinctive products and services to solve them.
The human-centric approach to developing products and services not only determines what people want, how they want it, and where they want it but also breeds category disruption as the new normal.
Take ride hailing as an example. Taxis are expensive but for decades were the only alternative to public transportation for door-to-door rides. Hello, Uber and Lyft. Door-to-door conveniently located on your phone at a much lower cost.
And in hospitality, enter Airbnb. Often at a fraction of the cost, stays away from home are now offered in the more intimate setting of a local homeowner.
And finally, in retail, we have the gold standard in personal shopping services such as Nordstrom’s challenged by the likes of Stitch Fix’s personalized clothing selections delivered right to your door with customized price points and no-fuss returns.
Each of these disruptors did the same thing: They discovered the problem consumers wanted solved, and developed and marketed a distinct, frictionless service to solve that problem. Their services spoke to human beings and their needs, and they were rewarded with rapid growth and loyal, high-value customers.
Health care is ripe for this kind of consumer-centric approach, and high-value consumers are an attractive cohort to target, with more health encounters per year, and the highest per-encounter value.