Customer success in healthcare

Hey Health Techies!

This week as I was reviewing job postings to include on the job board, I saw quite a few openings for Customer Success Managers. CSMs play an integral part of a balanced team in technology companies, ensuring that after the sale is closed, new and veteran customers get the most out of a product. It’s a role about relationship building, patient outcomes, and expectation management.

With so many openings for it currently, it felt like a great time to chat about this role, why it’s important for health tech startups, and why clinicians are so well-suited to excel in it.

So first, what does a Customer Success Manager do?

👩🏻‍🏫 Onboarding and Training: Guiding new customers through the initial setup or implementation of a new tool or product, providing training on product features, and ensuring they understand how to use the product to meet their needs and objectives.

🤗 Relationship Management: Building and maintaining strong, long-term relationships with customers, serving as their main point of contact, and ensuring their satisfaction with the product or service.

🤔 Proactive Support and Problem Solving: Regularly checking in with customers to anticipate their needs, address any issues or concerns, and provide solutions to ensure their continued success and satisfaction.

📊 Performance Tracking and Reporting: Monitoring customer usage and performance metrics to identify trends, areas for improvement, and opportunities for additional value. Providing regular reports and insights to both the customer and internal teams.

🗣️ Customer Advocacy and Feedback: Acting as the voice of the customer within the company by providing feedback to product development, sales, and marketing teams. Advocating for customer needs and ensuring their input is considered in future product updates and strategies.

Why are they so important in health tech?

Healthcare companies are being absolutely inundated with solutions these days. Point solution here, remote patient monitoring there — it’s hard to keep track.

And in the current environment, it’s all about reducing costs, return on investment, reducing clinician burnout, and showing improved patient outcomes. [Yes, I know that it should have always been about patient outcomes. For some this is unfortunately a new concept….but I digress.]

Why do clinicians thrive in this role?

Clinicians often struggle to see themselves outside of clinical roles, but many clinicians thrive in a role like this. Why?

🧠 Deep Understanding of Clinical Workflows: Clinicians have firsthand experience with the day-to-day operations and challenges in healthcare settings. This knowledge allows them to better understand the needs and pain points of their customers, including the challenges of adopting a new technology and determining its long-term viability and success.

🤝 Credibility and Trust: Clinicians bring a level of credibility and trust that is difficult to match. Healthcare providers are more likely to trust and value advice from someone who has shared their experiences and understands the clinical context.

🤔 Problem-Solving Abilities: Clinicians are adept at diagnosing problems and developing treatment plans. This problem-solving ability is valuable in a CSM role, where identifying customer issues and providing effective solutions is key.

👀 Focus on Patient Outcomes: Clinicians are inherently focused on improving patient outcomes. This focus translates well into a CSM role, where the ultimate goal is to ensure that customers are enabled to deliver the best possible care to their patients, ideally with their company’s product or solution as a key component of that care delivery.

❤️ Empathy and Compassion: Clinicians are trained to be empathetic and compassionate, qualities that are essential for building strong, trust-based relationships with customers. This helps in understanding and addressing customer concerns more swiftly and effectively.

I’d love to see more clinicians in this role, supporting healthcare admin teams in decision-making and reporting on clinical quality and patient outcomes. What do you think about the critical role that customer success managers play in healthcare?

📰 Weekly Wrap-up

• Amazon expands it’s medication subscription program to Medicare patients

• Executives from Done, an ADHD startup, were arrested for providing easy access to controlled substances for no legitimate medical purpose

• Telepsychiatry leader Talkiatry lands $130 million in Series C funding

👀 Don’t miss these open roles

• Triage Nurse - Thyme Care

• Customer Success Manager - Hinge Health

• Project Manager, Acute & Payer - PointClickCare

• and more!

Until next time,

Lauren