CRM in Medical Tourism - Making Strides to Better Patient Conversion

• Pramod Goel
• Jul 17, 2023

CRM in Medical Tourism - Making Strides to Better Patient Conversion

CRM and MEDICAL TOURISM

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is a great technology used by many businesses nowadays to help them manage their customer relationships in an efficient and effective manner. It helps you identify new customers and sustain great relationships with them through an organized and reliable support structure and overall lets you save admin costs and optimize your time.

CRM is being opted by big and small companies because of the marketing and sales efforts integrated into it and can be especially found useful if in the medical tourism market. Because of the amount of data needing to be handled securely and correctly, it is critical to have this tool to ensure you get to take care of your patients and deliver the service well.

Currently, less than 10% of medical providers engaged in the Medical Tourism business use systematic/structured processes such as CRM to manage their customer acquisition process. Hence, we see a very low conversion rate when the providers are not engaged in.

WHY DO WE NEED CRM IN MEDICAL TOURISM?

One of the foundations of medical tourism is the relationships you build with your patients, this involves a process that you would like to manage efficiently to be able to solidify your connection with them. Using software such as CRM would help you deliver the best possible results through

• Optimized patient acquisition measures
• Transparency-  clear, common communication platforms used
• Accessible end-to-end care support

At its core, customer relationship management (CRM) is all of the activities, strategies, and technologies that companies use to manage their interactions with their current and potential customers.

"Customer is King", a saying frequently heard and said in many businesses and best describes the feeling that we want to bring to our customers. Through CRM, they are able to build a relationship with their customers that, in turn, creates loyalty and customer retention. This a management strategy that results in increased profits for a business.

CRM tool creates a simple user interface for a collection of data that helps businesses recognize and communicate with customers in a scalable way.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF CRM IN MEDICAL TOURISM?

1. Better Patient Relationships

The more you know about your patients by understanding the data properly, the stronger and deeper the trust you will build.

2. Mapping the Patient’s Journey

Patients in the medical tourism business need to be engaged. By using CRM’s functionality properly, you are able to analyze and manage the support you provide using the patient’s perspective.

3. Improved Efficiency 

Again, the more you know about clients, the better able you are to serve them. If everyone is using the CRM to record their customer interactions, the discussions made with customers can be easily referred to and used by the whole team without having to make the customer repeat their concerns.

4. Improved Ability to Cross-sell

Once your customers feels a sense of trust in you as you aid them with their discovery process, other solutions can be easily offered.

5. Increased Team Collaboration

Many firms that choose not to require their executives to use the CRM fail to reap its benefits. I know this from having managed the implementation of CRM software where the management team thought it was a good idea but would not learn, or use, the tool themselves.

6. Greater Staff Satisfaction

The more knowledge your employees have, the more empowered and engaged they are. Having an accurate and up-to-date CRM that everyone uses and has access to helps employees address client problems- the customer is happy with the service and your staff feels a sense of fulfillment.

7. Increased Revenue and Profitability

Once everyone learns and uses, the CRM productivity increases, sales cycles decrease and you will have the ability to provide additional products and services to clients- client satisfaction increases.

8. Cost Savings

While the start-up of CRM software may be expensive and time-consuming, the benefits over time far outweigh the costs. Members of the sales team are able to better schedule meetings with prospects in the same geographic area and client-service reps are able to resolve a client's concern. You now have a central client and prospect database that everyone can access rather than everyone keeping a separate spreadsheet or contact database on their computer.

9. Less Client Attrition

When a client is engaged with only one member of a professional services firm, the risk of attrition is 40%, whereas when five or more partners are involved in a client relationship, the risk of attrition falls to less than 5%.

SAMPLE FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS OF CRM IN MEDICAL TOURISM 

• Patient Data Management - ability to manage all patient demographics, inquiry reports, communications, etc. and managing them in one place
• Case Follow-Ups - ability to follow cases in a systematic way over a period of time
• Templates Management - manage templates for a more professional and faster response to the customers
• Communications Management - all discussions via online chat, email, phone calls are being managed from one area which makes service support easy to do
• Notifications on follow-up- having a dashboard to have a clear visual reminder of who you need to follow up today
• Opportunity management or funnel management - managing patient leads by qualifying them through hot, warm, cold statuses to determine how and where you need to focus.
• Customer Segmentation by Country /Treatments- data sorting helps provide more targeted solutions and opportunities.

WHY IS CRM A CRITICAL TOOL IN MEDICAL TOURISM?

• Conversion Rate - customers who are following structured processes have a higher conversion rate.
• Customer Satisfaction - by having a systematic process of mapping patient journey, customer satisfaction becomes the product of it.
• Transparency / Ethics- providing clear, accurate and honest information to your patients increases your credibility and their confidence in your practice
• Competitive Advantage - as not many people are using this, it becomes your advantage and differentiator as you are able to raise the level of support you are able to provide - efficiency of your practice will result in a better conversion rate and ultimately, more revenue.

HOW CAN YOU SET YOURSELF APART FROM OTHERS?

Considering the growing competition in medical tourism, every opportunity to get yourself out there matters to establish your practice at the top of this industry. Gaining a competitive advantage takes commitment, integrity, industry knowledge and awareness.

Quality Patient Engagement

Exceptional customer service and knowledge of your patients is the most sustainable form of advantage one can have.

• Offer personalized and hands-on patient support- Understanding and paying close attention to your patient needs have always been considered significant in making genuine connections with them.
• Attends to inquiries in a timely and effective manner- Patients appreciate getting attended to right away. Research showed that the medical providers who were reaching out promptly obtained higher chances of getting the patient engaged and eventually put their focus only on them

Patient Education

In order for patients to come to you, they need to know what you do and how you can help them. Creating and publishing educational materials that patients could read and learn from is your way of meeting them and presenting your solutions.

CONCLUSION

Medical Tourism is considered to be a great improvement of the healthcare system and is expected to continue its stronghold in the coming years. As a medical provider who desires to be a major player in the market, we need a tool like CRM to build, support and nurture our customer relationships by offering efficient service, accessible reach, and reliable communication. Bear in mind that these elements will pave the way to gain your patient’s trust and eventually higher conversion rate.

PlacidWay is a U.S-based global medical tourism marketplace with 1000s of renowned medical and wellness centers from over 45 countries and in over 250 cities worldwide. PlacidWay’s global presence includes patient access from all continents including the Americas, Europe, Middle East, CIS, Africa, and Asia.  PlacidWay offers a Medical Tourism platform that includes CRM at NO COST to its medical providers. 

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