How to maintain user engagement in a patient service

Your first steps have been sucessful: your users have signed up for your service, having been convinced through effective communication and a smooth, straightforward registration process. Now you are faced with what is perhaps the most difficult stage: keeping your users engaged (i.e., mobilized and interacting regularly) with your solution.

It is also at this stage that the most value is created. A sucizfoicessful solution is the one that meets needs, is used over time by its users and has an impact on their daily lives. But how can you ensure that your target audience uses your solution over a sufficiently long period of time to have the desired impact?

Right from the definition phase, it is important to bear in mind that one major challenge in launching your solution will be to retain your users over time. There are many tools and platforms which encounter great success when they are first made available to patients or healthcare professionals, but end up being little used over time.
Just as a patients’ journey will evolve as their illness progresses, a solution needs to be able to transform itself over time to best meet the needs, expectations, and progress of its users, to keep them engaged.

In this article, you will find a few guidelines to help you design an evolving and engaging solution. First and foremost, think about defining an engagement objective: when should the patient return to use the solution? Is there a key moment when it is essential for the patient to use it (e.g., for a PRO program, on the eve of a consultation)? This will help you build effective triggers.

Work on the user experience

Throughout the design of your solution, keep in mind that an engaged user is a user who benefits from a quality experience over time. Let’s discover how you can enhance your user experience.

1. Simplicity - "Back to basics". Optimize the user experience by making the user journey as simple and fluid as possible. It's not always necessary to seek innovation at all costs: go for the simplest and most reliable. These include clean visuals, well-written and prioritized content, and fluid, easy-to-read navigation.
   
   
2. Reward - This involves gamification: based on game features such as challenges and rewards, gamification keeps users engaged with the solution, for example by earning points for each time they log in.
   
   
3. Evolution - Make your solution evolve by proposing new content, new formats or new functionalities to enhance the user experience. However, do not lose sight of the very essence of your solution: we advise you to focus on providing new content on a regular basis, and to offer new functionalities on a more occasional basis, so as not to lose your users. In short, it is best to start simple and build up from there, while retaining the identity that convinced your users to sign up in the first place.
   
   
4. Personalization - Every individual is unique. It is important to remember that not all patients will react the same to the same things. Keep in mind that if every person is unique, so is every patient. The more you can offer them content and an individualized path adapted to their expectations, needs and daily life, the greater the value of your solution. It is by talking to your patient-user as a person that you will maximize your chances of keeping them engaged with your service. To maintain engagement, you need to address the person and adapt your messages.
   
   
5. Multichannel - By using multiple channels within a single solution, you vary and multiply the opportunities for your patients to interact with it. You also ensure that you reach a wider target: some people will prefer to use a chatbot, others will appreciate text message support.
   
   
6. Push and pull - Here again, it's all about variety! Inspired by marketing and the study of consumer behavior, the division between Push and Pull is simple. The "push" strategy consists of regularly sending content, information or reminders to the patient, via notifications or SMS for example. The "pull" strategy is based on prompting the patient to act on his or her own within the solution, for example by offering a calendar to write down medical appointments.

Be daring and able to evaluate the impact of what you’re proposing

Once the solution has been deployed, continue to adapt by listening to user feedback. Keep the following points in mind:

1. Don't be afraid to test things. There's no magic formula: carry out A/B testing (comparing two versions of your solution to identify which performs better) to check that your proposals meet the needs and expectations of your target profiles.
   
   
2. Make sure you have the figures you need to differentiate between what works and what does not. Why not add likes under your articles to gauge their interest?
   
   
3. Ask for feedback from patients, healthcare professionals or any other profile who comes into contact with your solution, so that you can adopt a continuous improvement approach based on real-life feedback. You can do this using a variety of tools: satisfaction questionnaires, dedicated e-mails, etc.

In short, engagement is the lifeblood of any digital healthcare solution. If it is the most important issue in terms of return on investment, it is also the most complex to achieve. The good news is that there are many techniques and methods to help you optimize engagement!

As you will often hear us say, the first step is to anticipate this issue and put engagement at the heart of your design from day one. As experts in patient engagement, this is the first piece of advice you will receive from Observia, for all of your solutions!

Finally, keep in mind that users are your best advisors: listen to their feedback, their questions and their feelings... And who knows, maybe they will become your solution's best ambassadors when time comes!

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