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What Is Customer Segmentation?

Customer segmentation involves taking a broad group of target customers and segregating them into smaller groups. Customer segmenting is often achieved by grouping customers with a common need, desire or application for specific goods or services together.

Why Segment Your Customers?

Although general brand messaging can be effective, it won’t give you the same results that a targeted one can. This is due to the fact that the messaging resonates and tends to become more effective if it is specifically crafted for a smaller group having the same needs and desires.

Let’s take the example of the healthcare industry which includes patients, nurses, and physicians. You can simply take a general message, make some minor changes and say that you’re using a segmented approach. Segmentation is done in order to create different, specific messages for each customer segment that will drive product adaptation.     

In the shopping world, women and men react differently to messaging. The same applies to healthcare as well. First-time buyers will react differently to messages compared to repeat buyers. This means that patients who have been recently diagnosed will react very differently to a message than those who have been managing a disease for more than 5 years.

In short, customer segmentation is done to create smaller groups with similar requirements so that you can target unique, customized content and deliver it in a specific way that will generate the best possible results from that specific segment.

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Segments In The Healthcare Industry

Although we have already mentioned physicians, nurses and patients as being three distinct segments serviced by healthcare companies, healthcare consumers can easily be segmented into many other groups.

In a recent survey, six segments of healthcare consumers in the USA were identified. These are:

1. Shop while saving: These consumers actively want to save money and comprise 4% of healthcare consumers. They will easily switch products and services if they can find a better deal.
2. Out and about: This group actively looks for alternative healthcare options and comprises 9% of healthcare consumers. They also prefer to customize the services they want to use.
3. Sick but savvy: This group comprises 14% of the healthcare population in the U.S.A and consumes significant healthcare products and services due to their conditions. They also make treatment decisions by communicating and partnering with their physicians.
4. Onboard and online: This group spends a lot of time online to learn more about health and comprise 17% of healthcare consumers. Although they are satisfied with their healthcare, they’re always on the lookout for new technologies and alternatives.
5. Compliant and content: This group tends to comply with and follow care plans and comprise 22% of the U.S. healthcare population. They are happy with their insurance plans, hospital, and physicians.
6. Cautious but casual: This group makes up 34% of U.S. healthcare consumers, is cost-conscious, has no immediate need to consume healthcare services and is not engaged in their own health.

Why Healthcare App Developers Need Better Customer Segmentation

Customer segmentation is not easy, and if it is not done properly, healthcare app developers will not be able to build the required functionality into the app.

App developers need to cater to the following features based on patient segments:

1. Create tailor-made segments to enhance patient engagement based on geographical and behavioral data for specific segments.
2. Using appropriate channels, deliver captivating notifications at the right time.
3. Design surveys in different formats that will obtain feedback instantly.
4. Complete the engagement cycle by using incentivizing features that allow rules and parameters to be customized based on segment characteristics.
5. Deliver content and devise strategies based on patient’s geographical locations.
6. Check engagement scores for different segments by benchmarking performance against that of the industry, while obtaining deep audience insights based on multiple performance criteria.
7. To encourage adaptation, integrate gamification into the app for different segments and increase loyalty by using tools like rewards, levels, badges, and tokens.
8. Implement A/B testing for specific customer segments by using different content, images, and calls to action to test actions and triggers.
9. Integrate referrals into the app to boost their growth.
10. Provide analytical features per customer segment allowing deep insight from data with the facility to dive into details.

Summary

A healthcare business should provide detailed and proper segmentation of their customers in order to service them in the best possible way. A big part of customer experiences consists of secure healthcare communications, often delivered through in-app messaging platforms for healthcare.

By providing healthcare app developers with proper customer segmentation tools, you’ll enable them to build in all the features that will drive your business to new heights.

How SmartKarrot Helps In Customer Segmentation

The SmartKarrot app helps you create a personalized experience for your customers. With its Smart Segmentation feature, you can easily improve your campaign results with a customizable, intuitive and in-depth segmentation of your customers.

The simple SDK/API integration combined with an easy-to-use visual interface can help you segment your customers based on a number of parameters – user attributes, device attributes or even app events. You can even combine multiple parameters together to segregate your audience.

Finally, SmartKarrot also gives you the option to create dynamic audience groups based on real-time data as well as aesthetic groups based on past data. It’s a simple and effective solution to all your segmentation needs.

WRITTEN BYRitesh Kaul

Ritesh has over 20 years of experience collaborating with customers and adding value to their organizations. In his prior role as head of healthcare practice for a high growth US healthcare tech organization, he built a centralized knowledge house to drive customer-centric delivery.

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