FreeAgent CRM is easing the administrative complexity inherent in the life sciences industry
Healthcare facilities come in many different forms, from small-town clinics providing essential services to patients in need, to giant laboratories researching cutting-edge medical solutions.
Despite these differences in size and scope, these organizations face many common obstacles, including:
- An ever-shifting regulatory landscape
- The security and operation of workspaces
- The maintenance of specialized tools and equipment
- The management of relationships with partners, vendors, patients, and other health organizations (GPOs, health systems)
As the complexity of operating in the healthcare space increases year over year, a number of modern work management tools are emerging to help mitigate it.
FreeAgent CRM is one of those tools.
In this article we will outline how FreeAgent can help companies in healthcare ease the administrative burden of facility and relationship management and provide real world examples of healthcare organization who have done just that.
Facility management
Operating a healthcare facility is challenging.
In large organizations like metropolitan hospitals or publicly funded labs, these responsibilities are managed by a dedicated team of healthcare facility management professionals.
In smaller clinics, medical offices, or independent labs however, resources are limited. A few (or even less) office administrators are tasked with making sure that everyone complies with safety protocols and follows security procedures. Even routine building maintenance may fall on their shoulders.
Fortunately, CRM automation tools can help these smaller teams manage healthcare spaces as effectively as their larger counterparts.
Relationship management
The relationship between primary care providers (PCPs) and medical specialists is important to supporting the needs of the most vulnerable. Managing and nurturing these relationships is a top priority for hospitals and clinics alike.
In the past, this work was done primarily by physician liaisons — people who promoted specialists and their services to hospital administrators.
In recent years, relationship management tools have allowed specialists and their teams to manage these relationships with less effort.
This hasn’t eliminated the need for physician liaisons or hospital administrators. Indeed, they’re usually the ones implementing and maintaining these new systems.
The same tools that support physician relationships can also support relationships between medical innovators, GPOs, and health systems.
We discuss many ways to use these tools in our article FreeAgent for Healthcare Part 1: Simplifying Sales in the Medical Device and Technology Market, but we’ll elaborate further on maintaining and improving these vital relationships here.
The right tools for the job
Knowing what tools you need is not always obvious. PCP relationships are complex and can differ in many ways from traditional client/provider relationships.
On top of that, many companies in the relationship management space favor broad stroke applications that don’t serve healthcare particularly well.
Similar challenges exist with facility management. Government healthcare regulations often require a higher level of oversight and compliance than with other industries, and these standards are difficult for out-of-the-box solutions to facilitate.
Patient information is another sensitive element. Healthcare facilities, physicians, and the tools they use must all handle patient records according to specific standards. HIPAA complaince is mandatory.
These factors and more can make the search for a facility and relationship management platform daunting. Fortunately, we can help simplify this process by outlining some of the must-have tools you need to get started, and showing you exactly how those tools can impact your business.
We’ll show you the differences between these tools and help you find the right solution for you. You’ll also see real examples of healthcare companies using FreeAgent CRM to improve their operations.
Data analytics and reporting
Your success rests on operational visibility. Letting data guide you helps you identify what to improve, how to align different teams, and how to demonstrate success.
To narrow your search for the right tool, add specificity and accessibility to your CRM selection checklist.
When we talk about data, specificity is key. While software tools used to analyze sales can be modified to track other metrics, they often do a poor job for complex industries like healthcare.
That’s because the healthcare industry covers different types of businesses. The needs of a college research lab differ from those of an elderly care clinic. That means the tools used to track data need to be customizable, allowing for an unlimited range of fields and form options.
Accessibility is also important. You should to be able to access results quickly and visualize them clearly using your chosen tool. This drives greater team adoption.
The tracking and reporting tools provided by FreeAgent CRM are easy-to-use, visually stunning, and completely user-customizable.
You can track data, analyze it, and generate reports to support most healthcare roles or functions.
“Visibility went from 0 to 100 using FreeAgent. Now we log in and everything is there.”
– Calmen Tihansky, Business Development | ImaginAb
Read the full ImaginAb + FreeAgent Customer Story:
ImaginAb multiplies sales activities / per day with FreeAgent CRM
“With FreeAgent, each sales rep can manage more customer accounts and opportunities, and manage them well. We have much higher sales-driving activities than was possible before. Rep onboarding is a whole 30 days quicker due to FreeAgent. Our sales leader has seen huge improvements and been able to drive much more efficiency in the sales process.”
Legacy Community Health increases visibility, improves collaboration, and demonstrates efficacy
Legacy Community Health works tirelessly to advocate for the needs of Houston’s marginalized and underserved communities. Yet, there are only so many hours in a day — and when you can’t work any harder, it’s time to work smarter.
While their team is highly skilled and motivated, a fragmented strategy and inconsistent data made operations difficult. LCH employed FreeAgent to get a central view of their processes and streamline business operations.
Since the team could see their results in real-time, getting buy-in from staff and investors was easy. Onboarding new team members also became easier.
They could also gamify business results to create friendly competition. Suddenly, team members were checking in with each other daily, setting goals, and sharing their successes.
“My goal was to be able to share what my team was doing for the organization and demonstrate that value to the board.”
– Orlando Lozano, Director of Business Development | Legacy Community Health
Read the full Legacy Community Health + FreeAgent Customer Story:
Legacy Community Health Sees Productivity Soar with 3x Customer Follow Ups, 2x Faster Employee Onboarding
“FreeAgent allows us to focus on what we do best; providing quality healthcare in our communities in every way, every day.”
Automation and workflow
Automation can help you and your team keep up with easily overlooked tasks.
For example, notifications and task alerts can help you avoid the consequences of unreviewed test results, unsent emails, and unordered supplies or equipment.
With these tools you can codify operational processes, improve doctor-patient communication, and simplify training and onboarding.
Workflow technology offers even greater capabilities. Instead of a single notification or alert set to a single trigger, workflows can be detailed and intricate, creating a roadmap that entire processes can follow.
This is ideal for managing lengthy approval cycles that pass through different hands and require contextual next steps.
Workflow tools can streamline complex operations, reduce hold-ups, and eliminate bottlenecks.
When looking at automation and workflow tools, consider ease-of-use first. No matter how good a tool is, if no one knows how to use it (or no one wants to), it may as well stay on the shelf.
FreeAgent CRM offers top-of-field automation and workflow tools in a sleek, modern, and intuitive platform that works the way you need it to.
These tools are user-configurable, which means you can make adjustments quickly and easily without calling in third-party developers or implementation firms.
Stratus Medical uses FreeAgent’s automation technology to manage customer relationships and improve operational efficiency
With lengthy and arduous clinical trials, quick results are imperative. This is what prompted Stratus Medical to adopt a relationship management system.
Stratus Medical used automations to reduce their cycle-time significantly, assess their sales processes, and identify where congestion was occurring. Before that, they discovered their team was spending a lot of time managing account data manually.
By employing automations to change the status of an account based on specific parameters, Stratus Medical reduced errors. As accounts moved from one phase to the next, alerts were triggered automatically, speeding up hand-offs.
“FreeAgent allows us to maximize the effect of our most valuable resource: our people. Our staff is empowered to serve customers efficiently.”
– Will Pankey, Director of Sales, US | Stratus Medical
Read the full Stratus Medical + FreeAgent Customer Story:
Faster cycle times and exponential q/q sales-growth at Stratus Medical
Since putting FreeAgent into place, Stratus Medical has been able to improve customer interactions and decrease sales cycle times, leading to consistent exponential q/q growth for the last 5 quarters.
We're ready to help
Enterprise software tools are becoming essential in healthcare, but the complexity of this industry makes tool selection and adoption more complicated. For any tool you choose, adaptability and customization are essential.
FreeAgent understands the challenges faced by the healthcare industry and provides a set of modern, intuitive, and customizable tools that are HIPAA-compliant.
Our CRM helps you streamline, codify, and simplify your workday. By easing the administrative burden in healthcare, FreeAgent helps you focus on what matters most — providing high-quality care for America’s most vulnerable.
