Health care leaders, including home-based care professionals, most often evaluate a new vendor partner for each project and initiative, rather than defaulting to the same vendor choice – and decisions on a vendor partner often come down to case studies and hard data.
That’s according to a survey of health care providers conducted by Home Health Care News. The survey found that providers make decisions about vendor partners in part through specific pieces of vendor-created content.
The survey garnered 905 responses, 14% of which were from the home-based care industry. Other respondents included professionals from the hospice, skilled nursing, behavioral health and senior housing industries, among others.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents (65%) said they evaluate new providers each time rather than relying on the same vendor across projects and initiatives, and a majority (54%) reported they begin engaging vendors directly during the consideration stage as they narrow down options.
The vendor-created content that most moves the needle for a decision-making provider, according to the survey, is case studies from similar organizations, with 64% of respondents saying these case studies have some of the greatest impact. Also impactful are on-demand product demos, ROI calculators and benchmarking tools and webinars with practitioner participation.
Providers’ preferred setting for vendor-created content varies based on situation. The majority of providers – 66% – said that they prefer both live and on-demand content, depending on the setting. Live content was preferred by 17% of respondents, and recorded content with transcripts by 9%.
Buying decisions are also influenced by ROI or cost savings. 72% of respondents said that ROI and cost savings were among the top three types of vendor-provided content most likely to impact a purchase decision. Live demonstrations or product trials and customer case studies with outcomes data also moved the needle, for 66% and 61% of respondents, respectively.
Providers still see room for vendors to better support providers during the decision-making process. For 60% of respondents, vendors could provide more data-driven insights specific to the organization’s needs. 55% of respondents said vendors could provide clearer comparisons between options, 53% said they could reduce the volume of generic emails and focus on personalization and 40% said vendors could increase opportunities for peer learning and collaboration. 25% said providers could improve coordination between marketing and sales teams, and 25% said vendors could simplify and shorten the buying process and approvals.
This story is based on research conducted by Home Health Care News’ parent company, WTWH Media. To request a copy of the research, please reach out to Tim Mullaney at [email protected].