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5 min

7 types of Healthcare Market Research that a company could conduct

All you need to know about the 7 types of healthcare market research that a business could conduct

GrapeData
Aug 12, 2022
Healthcare
B2B market research
B2C market research

Types of Healthcare market research 

Let’s look at different kinds of healthcare market research that a company could run. 

1. Market research to measure satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is the measure of how well your customers perceive your service. It’s an essential metric because it helps you understand how well you are doing and how much more you can improve.

Understanding customer satisfaction is important. You need to know which parts of your business are working well and which ones need improvement so that you can adjust accordingly.

Let’s look at how improving customer satisfaction helps in healthcare. 

If a lot of people are unhappy with something, then there’s probably something wrong that needs fixing. For example, if many customers say they have trouble getting through on the phone or waiting too long for an appointment with their doctor, this could indicate a staffing issue; perhaps there aren't enough employees available at certain times. 

On the other hand, if most people say they've had wonderful experiences with their healthcare providers overall but would like better pricing options or shorter wait times between visits — two things that often come up in surveys — then those might be good areas to focus on improving next time around!

2. Healthcare market research that centres on customer requirements

Customer requirements, or customer feedback, are a major consideration in any market research project. Customer satisfaction and loyalty are key indicators of success in the healthcare industry. 

If you can gain insights from your customers that help you understand their problems and needs, this will be invaluable to your product development process. Customer expectations should be considered at every stage of the design process—from initial concept through to final product delivery. This will ensure that you have an end product that meets those expectations. 

While customer response data is important when it comes to market research, it’s not always easy to find out what customers think about products and services in specific industries.

3. Competitive intelligence in healthcare market research

In the healthcare market, it's important to know what your competitors are doing. This is called competitive intelligence, or CI. This type of intelligence can help you:

  • Know where you stand in the healthcare industry
  • Understand what customers want (such as patients, end users of medical products, etc.)
  • Market products more effectively

Competitive intelligence helps you understand your competitors' strengths and weaknesses so that you can better target them in your marketing strategy. You'll also need to understand their customers so that you can learn how they are reaching out to them and where they are getting their leads from.

Learn more about competitive intelligence in B2B surveys for due diligence in our recent blog post.

4. Healthcare market research that focuses on marketing campaign management

If you are a business owner or marketing director, having access to these reports helps you determine the best allocation of your budget for different marketing strategies. The most important factor when choosing where to allocate your money is how effectively each campaign reaches its target audience. 

If a campaign costs $3,000 but only reaches 10 people who would buy from you anyway, then it’s not worth spending more money on that strategy. On the other hand, if a new campaign costs $1,500 but has an ROI of over 200%, then it might be worth investing in additional advertising efforts because they have such a large ROI.

If you want to understand ROI in-depth, you can read this article by Investopedia.

5. Acquisition-focused healthcare market research 

You surveyed your current customers and found that they are unsatisfied with your product or service, but you still want to grow your business. Where do you go?

How can you find new market segments to invest in? One method is by analysing the existing data to identify market gaps. For example, if more than 70% of patients use only one method of pain management then there is room for a company that offers alternative therapies like physical therapy. 

This type of analysis highlights opportunities for growth. This is done by providing insights into how different customer groups behave and what they want from a healthcare provider. It's helpful here if some patients in the survey had multiple answers. This is because it allows us to see where there is overlap among groups (such as 20% who used both medication and physical therapy).

Shane barker explores nine customer acquisition strategies in its blog post. Use the link attached to know more about customer acquisition.

6. Healthcare providers' satisfaction market research

Let’s say that you want to measure customer satisfaction with a healthcare provider. In this case, the healthcare provider is an insurance company. In order to understand customers' needs, you need to know their satisfaction with the services offered by the insurance companies they use. This metric can be broken down into two parts:

  • Customer satisfaction with the quality of service received from their provider (i.e., health insurance company).
  • Customer satisfaction with the value they receive for their premium payments and out-of-pocket expenses.

Healthcare market research is useful to measure this type of satisfaction.

7. Research that helps healthcare suppliers evaluate potential business partners

Say that you are a healthcare supplier wanting to evaluate potential partners. It is important to understand your competitors as well as potential business partners. You want to know what their strengths and weaknesses are, how they operate, and what their products and services are. Moreover, you want to know who their customers are and how you might work with them.

It's also important for you to understand the landscape of healthcare so that you can make informed decisions about where best to focus your marketing efforts.

Healthcare market research measures the gap between what the customer expects and what the provider is offering

Let’s have a look at one of the reasons why companies conduct healthcare market research. For instance, consider that you are a healthcare provider. It's not enough to understand your customers' needs and wants; you must know what they expect when they visit your healthcare institutions. Understanding the gap between what your customer expects and what the provider is providing will help you improve brand perception, increase loyalty, and reduce churn.

Challenges that arise from this gap include a lack of communication between businesses and patients, which can result in negative experiences for all parties involved. However, these issues can be overcome by improving patient satisfaction.

Customers expect to be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their age or condition. They expect their health care provider to listen to them and answer questions in a way that makes sense. Additionally, they expect their needs to be met by providing quality care in a timely manner.

Thus, healthcare market research is one of the ways to reduce this gap. 

Understanding your customer's needs is the best way to provide them with what they want 

Use our healthcare market research guide to understand your customers better and see how you can improve your business! If you’d still like to learn more, contact us at sales@grape-data.com to see how we can help!

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