Why Health Tech Campaigns (and Marketing) Ignore The Caregiver At Their Own Peril—And What To Do About It

The healthcare decision-making process is complex, and it should be. There are a lot of stakeholders to consider, a lot of interoperability things to consider, and more. 

One stakeholder that often gets ignored as it relates to healthcare software is the caregiver/clinician. They are the true end users of any EHR or software platform their company purchases, whether they like it or not. And often, it can be a contributing factor—or the factor that leads someone—to turnover. 

Clinicians spend most of their non-direct care time living in technology systems that often aren’t built with them in mind. What’s more, they’re often ignored in being represented on websites, marketing, and campaigns. That can also be a symptom of the larger problem, too. 

Why is this happening?

In a recent Wellsky webinar, one of the key stakeholders shared: “If it’s not easy, caregivers aren’t going to use it.” It doesn’t matter how innovative, earth-shattering, or special the platform might be, if the caregiver experience isn’t optimized and created for them, it will not be used. Or, at least, not in the way it was intended. 

Take Electronic Visit Verification (EVV), for example. It’s the way for Medicaid to ensure that the caregiver arrives at the right client’s house, at the right time, and performs tasks in line with the care plan. 

EVV systems were created for business owners and leaders to pull reports and data, and ensure visits are completed for billing and claims purposes, etc. 

There’s nothing wrong with that, but business owners and leaders are the financial decision-makers (if it’s not a state-sponsored solution). The end users were not involved in the process: clients and caregivers share similar privacy and user experience concerns. 

Those are the pieces of feedback you’ll often see on App Store reviews (for Android and Apple) for these platforms. 

• “It logs me out every time.”
• “I can’t clock in even when I’m inside the client’s house.” 
• “I did everything right and my caregiver still didn’t get paid on time so I paid them out of my own wallet.”

These are anonymized versions of the several, recurring patterns I notice from EVV software platforms. They can single-handedly strengthen or tarnish your brand’s reputation.

The caregiver’s voice should be loud.

As a marketer, you might be thinking: “Well, these aren’t *real* reviews because we count the ones that come from the business owner or key stakeholder that we have a relationship with.” 

Think again! Business owners may be the ones held accountable for EVV utilization and compliance. However, it’s also their responsibility to provide resources, education, and accountability to caregivers. It comes down to their experience. And therefore, an experience you're accountable for as a technology company.

As they say, you're only as good as your weakest link. In SaaS, however, that means your product is only as good as its least educated/trained user. 

If the app glitches, it docks a few minutes off of a caregiver's paycheck if they're able to clock in and do the rest of their visit normally. 

If the clock-in radius won’t allow them to clock in, even if they’re in the middle of the client’s house, they’re worried about getting their client cared for and trying to make their own ends meet. 

Caregiving doesn’t pay much. Most of the people who work in this space aren’t in it for that reason, but they deserve every cent they make. And technology shouldn’t act as a barrier to their success. It should enable that. 

Create campaigns that address pain points for everyone.

Most campaigns geared toward healthcare provider decision-makers talk about ROI, ease of use for administrators, how cool the reports are, and appealing to one or more of the following: financial stakeholder, clinical stakeholder, and administrative stakeholder.

For some providers, that could all be one person. Or two. It really depends on the business. 

Bearing that in mind, though, it’s important not to overlook the caregiver/clinician experience. Think about a couple of these value propositions:

• Ease of use for caregivers → Shorter ramp-up and uptake period: This means that caregivers will get excited about it, use it as intended, and make it a normal part of their workday routine. This also means less nudging and hassles from administrators to get caregivers to use it properly. 
• Direct to caregiver support → Administrators don’t have to get in the middle: Offering support directly to users keeps accountability on the technology company to make sure that their solutions work properly for their most important stakeholders. Administrators likely aren’t superusers, they might not live in the platform like caregivers do. And administrators might even receive more training…
• If caregivers are on board → shorter buying cycle: The hardest part about picking a new platform isn’t the platform. It’s fear of change and the unknown. If caregivers are already sending signals that their current platform is outdated or no longer serving its purpose, this can pave the way for a new platform to come in with ease. 

Examples of caregiver SaaS marketing done right.

August Health: The caregiver is literally and figuratively at the center of everything they do. It’s centrally located on the page, in the center of their logo, and the focal point of their core value proposition: the EHR platform caregivers love. 

CareSmartz360: Their website navigation has a Who We Help section that outlines benefits and use cases by a person’s role in a home care agency—including the caregiver! Not to mention, they also include the Client and Family. 

Leaning on caregivers as a value proposition isn’t just going to shorten your buying cycle, it’ll improve your bottom line in the near term. 

Need help crafting a campaign that resonates with target audiences that have different sets of users and end users? Get in touch with me today.