The Importance of Big Data Analytics in the Health and Fitness Industry
The 360 degree view of your customer. This is the ultimate use of big data, getting to know your customer better than they know themselves.
When customers generate information through their actions, what a business learns is not slanted by what people want you to think, it is based on actual behaviour. For a fitness company if you were to survey people on how much they exercise a week, are they going to tick:
Rarely ___
Sometimes__
Daily___
Answers given can sometimes reflect what makes them look better, not what they actually do. Or, how about on a health insurance questionnaire or in the doctor's office when people are asked about lifestyle? It is much easier to say I am a healthy, ‘Happy Pear’ loving, non drinker who loves running and yoga. However, when you look at their Garmin Watch training history it paints a much different picture.
How can this data be used? From a simplistic point of view an operator of a gym can compare market survey answers with attendance and note differences. From there a gym can offer incentives to return, keeping people engaged and coming back.
The purpose of Big data is that if a company is capturing the right data it can create new ways to engage with its customers. Then tailor experiences so that it feels personal to the customer and ultimately retain and attract more customers and increase revenue.
In looking at Big Data analytics on a broader scale I decided to look at the Irish Life Steps Challenge. It is being run in conjunction with GAA clubs across Ireland with the purpose of getting people to move more and improve their health. A great start to 2022, you improve your health, move more and possibly help your local GAA club win a prize. Seems like a win-win.
How does it benefit a large Health Insurance Company to be involved? It starts by looking at the information participants give and the value it has to them. The information they collect can help them tailor products and services as they store information from all its participants in the challenge to create a Health Score. This is created by tracking exercise, eating habits, sleep patterns and entering information such as age, gender and weight. So they have accurate and detailed aggregate data that can be analysed. https://mylife.irishlife.ie/healthscoreprivacy-notice
Irish Life can connect with current customers and give them rewards for engagement. They also engage with non-members by allowing them to download the App and use the features on it. A great way to attract new customers as they engage more with the App they increase the likelihood of getting a policy with them. A healthy customer is also a more profitable customer for a health insurance company.
In the future for customers the question remains, is there the possibility of being asked to ‘prove it’ when you tick the ‘I am active' box?
For health insurance providers a 360 degree view of your customer is definitely a profitable view.
by Helen Mc Fadden
Definitely agree with you saying that people generally bend the truth a bit to look better when it comes to health and fitness - don't really understand why to be honest because if you're huffing and puffing after a flight of stairs no matter what you say on paper will help that - I'm guilty of that myself haha. But look, a lot can be said about the fitness buzz but that's a whole other story. Personalisation is a great hook for people to buy a product - it's seen across the board in so many industries. Companies realised that there is no such thing is a one fits all product and quickly learned to capitalise on it.
ReplyDeleteSuch an informative blog, Helen. Really interesting point about the fact customers generating the information cannot really lie, it's pretty much black and white. The Irish Life Steps Challenge is such a clever idea and worth its weight in gold for all the valuable information they are gaining on all facets of society - customers and possible customers, different age cohorts, etc. It would be fascinating to know how all of this data is then used to formulate various health packages moving forward. As discussed in previous blogs, there definitely is a benefit for the consumer also, if a package is more tailored to their needs surely that's a good thing. But yes, I thoroughly agree with your point that a healthy customer is a more profitable customer for a health insurer.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post, Helen! I absolutely agree with point Ciara mentioned too - that the information collected is a source of truth, it's not an assumption and isn't made up for financial gain. It's real, confirmed behaviours. I think this is such an important point to note because it highlights that to ignore the big data that can be collected would be to ignore easily accessible information that can be used to make the right decisions for your small business. It’s definitely a 360 degree view of your consumer that you can’t get from anywhere else - right from the source!
ReplyDeleteInteresting points Helen! The GAA collaboration with Irish Life proved very beneficial from a data collection prospective. We as consumers want everything personalised but in turn companies are collecting data forming a 360 profile of us, their consumer. It is definitely a give and take relationship. Knowing your customers and being able to tailor your business to their needs and wants is key to a successful business.
ReplyDeleteA very interesting point about the data being stored from wearable technology, they really do know us better than we know ourselves. Stats are definitely more accurate from these technologies than the health surveys we regularly fill out, as you mentioned most of the time people will consider themselves to be healthy when in fact their smartwatch tells different. Irish Life Steps Challenge is a great example of Big Data being collected. Partnering with the GAA was a clever way of getting people more active while gathering their health information, getting to know their target audience, and attracting new customers in the process.
ReplyDelete