If you’ve ever received an email survey after making a purchase or taking a trip, called customer service with a problem, or downloaded a mobile app from a company to get better service, deals, or information, you’ve been the beneficiary of Customer Relationship Management, or CRM.
CRM began as simple contact management and sales force automation – an application for sales people to follow their contacts and manage their sales process. But as the business of selling shifted to creating happy, successful customers, companies needed more than just a sales tool. Today, not only have the components of CRM grown, but the CRM customer base has expanded.
In this episode of The Cerner Podcast, we’re joined by Dr. Josh Newman, the chief medical officer at Salesforce. Salesforce is a cloud-computing and CRM company headquartered in San Francisco. He discusses the intersection of health care and CRM.
Dr. Newman answers the following questions:
- First, let’s start with the CRM. CRM encompasses a suite of applications and services that support customers from acquisition through service and loyalty. Can you walk through how CRM works for our listeners?
- While CRM has obvious implications for patient engagement, health systems have used CRM for a long time to support many programs outside of patient relationships. What are some examples of CRM usage in health care?
- Discuss how CRM systems show their value both for patients and the business of health care. What outcomes can hospital and health care leadership expect from a successfully implemented CRM?
- While the CRM has a lot to offer in terms of patient engagement, there’s also the potential for CRMs to deliver consumer insights and data to hospital and health system leadership. Let’s dig into that: What ways can CRM data be valuable for clinicians, and what are some examples of this?
- We’ve always thought about CRM as something for marketing and customer loyalty. Why is this something that’s important in health care right now?
- The rise of CRMs in the health care industry are reflective of the shift toward value-based care and a focus on the patient. How can the CRM support both value-based care and bundled payments?
- The global health care CRM market could grow to a $17.8 billion market by 2025. Can you unpack this a little bit for us? Why do you think CRM in health care is poised to experience such explosive growth? What does that say about both the health care enterprise and consumers?
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