Developing Mindful Business Strategies in Medical Tourism and Wellness Industry by DR PREM JAGYASI

Will medical tourism die? Will wellness tourism collapse? The prolonging of the pandemic has given rise to these obvious questions. A majority of experts believe the Covid-19 impact will last till 2022. It would not be wise to put marketing activities on hold for that long. Neither can you go too slowly else it will erode your brand. Hard times do not call for stalling essential activities but one has to do it focusing on viability.

The medical and wellness tourism market will not only survive but thrive:

The demand for healthcare and wellness is at an all-time high. Patients are having a tough time getting the required care and support in chronic disease management, cancer treatments, organ transplantation, and other critical conditions. Common sufferings are very much there, and people are eager to travel at the first opportunity.

It would be wise to accept that such pandemic-like crises will be a part of our lives. The world would see different forms of health emergencies in the future. Stopping marketing means going out of the customers’ sight. Billion-dollar business awaits medical and wellness tourism that will pick up as travel restrictions get eased worldwide. It is the time when stakeholders need to take a viable approach to market activities. In the muted market, you have the golden opportunity to make your presence felt.

Crises will come and go. The key to successful marketing in hard times is to identify viable strategies. Use your intuition and expertise to generate newer demands or create innovative solutions that would successfully meet the indispensable requirements of your customers.

Mindful business is the future of Medical and wellness tourism

True, the Covid-19 pandemic has left us devastated, but at the same time it has given us an opportunity to build mindful business for enhanced sustainability. Few years before, we have seen crazy spending in marketing by hospitals and medical tourism companies, associations, governments, tourism boards without any fixed returns in the sight. This approach has to change forever.

Mindful business – the cornerstone of all approaches

The time has come to approach business strategies differently for sustainability and efficiency. Before learning tips to build sustainable medical and wellness tourism marketing, we need to take the mindful approach as it sets the base of everything.

It is all about being aware

What kind of business you are into? What are the market trends? Who are your customers? What are their needs? What are they actually looking for? How well do you understand their needs? What are you going to contribute?  It is also about being aware of what impact your business will have in the future.

You need to have very specific and clear-cut answers to these questions. Unless you take the mindful approach, you will just scratch the surface, and it will not support your medical tourism and wellness tourism business sustainability. Understand, these two markets have become extremely volatile and dynamic since it is largely dependent on global travel.

There is a need to create a better service flow in global healthcare, wellness, and tourism through meaningful collaborations where every stakeholder has a bit to play. An organized mechanism will help the distressed patient get the best solution. Here mindful business approach comes into play.

What do Mindful Medical Tourism Business strategies look like? Check the following:

Build insights into your offerings

Keenly study the changing market. Are your offerings relevant? What are the emerging trends? Do some addition and elimination in your offerings. Keep a close watch on regular dealings.

Know Your Customer Market

You may not have the same customer market given the persisting restrictions. Be mindful to explore new markets without losing sight of the existing ones.

Identify the patient’s pain points

Have an eye for detail to rightly identify the patient’s pain points that others do not. Map a hassle-free patient journey with your insights. Never fail to show your care for patients.

Be mindful of your contribution

How will your business help in solving the patient’s problems? Do your offerings match their needs? Think deep about the ways you can add more convenience to patients in all respects.

Maintain transparency and quality-driven practices

Be more aware of your practices – how to improve them? Delve deep to remove all cloudy factors that could build distrust.

Shoulder the responsibility of patient’s well-being

Be a keen observant of patient’s well-being factors and create solutions accordingly. Pay more attention to their unsaid needs that may not be related to treatments.

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Take your competitors as partners

The biggest benefit of mindfulness is to spot opportunities in threats. Devise ways to forge strategic partnerships with competitors, a win-win situation for both.

Focus on lean practices

More mindful you are better you are at checking resource wastage. Be it in regular operations, marketing, or any other activity, be mindful about efficiency and viability. Is every activity in your business going right?

Promote mindful leadership

Mindfulness trickles down from the top. Leaders set precedence in mindful business that shows a positive reflection on organization culture, policies, and earnings.

Mindfulness in business helps you get a broader view as you realize different perspectives. This sets the sustainable foundation to withstand any storm.

Create lean marketing strategies – simple, efficient and result-oriented ensuring some ROI

Given the poor conversion rates in challenging times, traditional marketing strategies will not work well for your business. The need is for viable and lean marketing strategies that will prevent overspending and at the same time ensure a certain ROI.

Overspending in marketing may lead to increased pricing of medical tourism packages and related healthcare services, which ultimately gets passed on to the patients creating an unnecessary burden. With the lean approach, you could get a better reach to customers and have an edge over others. This will prevent wastage of resources and make your business sustainable.

Tips to build sustainable medical and wellness tourism marketing approach

Think of different approaches to reach out to your customers. What attributes will attract your customers in such difficult times? How to communicate with them?  What you need to do extra to bring customers to you? Here are some useful tips.

In tough times, empathy matters

Let your brand speak of empathy by delivering the content that cares. People value care more than anything else. Offer services that show your empathy. It could be allowing rescheduling of services without any charge or offering some services at a much lower rate.

With this attitude, you display your empathy that you understand your customers’ difficulties and are willing to help them free of cost. This would go a long way in enhancing your brand image – a brand that cares.

Leverage on low-cost paid Ads

You may feel apprehensive in going for paid Ad campaigns to check your expenses but in crisis, these can give unexpected results.  When most of the huge marketing spend gets cut down, low-cost paid Ads give the best returns.

By paying just about 25% of the normal rates in Ads, you can get an incredible boost in CTRs (click-through rates), impressions and user connection rates (where users mainly connect with websites). With one-fourth of your usual spending, you ensure bigger returns.

Grow your networking and B2B engagement

Regardless of hi-tech solutions that you use for your marketing, people to people interaction still matters most. Interpersonal networking should be on the top of your to-do list. Direct face-to-face interaction is no doubt a great option but various online platforms can fetch you more advantage because its reach has no limit.

Register your business in authentic and reputed platforms to enhance your engagement with colleagues, stakeholders, business leaders and customers. Join discussion forums, events and conventions online for knowledge and information-sharing. You not only get in touch with potential customers but also extend your reach for greater B2B partnerships.

Work on experience marketing to build awareness

Offer something to make your customers reach out to you. It could be a free consultation or any service that will not cost you much but could be of help to your customers and enhance your brand image. Invite influencers and experts to visit your facility, website or even social media profile.

Ask them post reviews or to do some activities based on mutual cooperation and understanding.  The more you engage in these activities more you build awareness. People have become net dependent for anything and this gives you the opportunity to grab their attention.

 

In this video, Dr. Prem Jagyasi talks about Developing Mindful, Viable, and Sustainable business strategies for medical tourism, wellness tourism, global healthcare, and wellness resorts.

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