Does your software make life easier for healthcare workers?

While speaking with a potential client I noticed that well-intentioned developer teams often forget about the goal of what they’re building. We at Vitamin do things differently, and I’d like to share the mindset behind our method.

I’ve seen failed projects, frustrated users, and wasted resources due to unnecessary features. Instead of reducing the time health workers spend in front of computers (which is vital for busy physicians, nurses, and pharmacists), the emphasis shifts towards high-tech bells and whistles. That’s the opposite of the KPI we should aim for —  minimizing software usage time.

Here’s the thing: healthcare isn’t your typical industry. It’s not about getting people to use software more but making sure it works seamlessly when they do.

The UI should display only the most relevant information, as determined by the professionals, while the rest can remain ‘under the hood.’ By involving doctors and pharmacists in decision-making, we align software with their real-world needs. As they juggle lab work, surgeries, check-ins, and paperwork, that’s rarely an added screen, form, or feature.

Unlike industries that strive to increase user engagement, healthcare software should minimize the intrusion of technology into the workflow, allowing healthcare professionals to concentrate on patient care. Think outcomes over ornamentation for better results every time.

Insights into Reliability: The Vitamin Software Approach

I’ve spent my entire career in the software industry, and eight leading Vitamin Software. Over the course of my experiences, I’ve come to understand that business people require reliable software development – and dedicated myself to delivering it. Today, I’d like to share a bit about the ways my company embodies this understanding.

Reliability begins with effective communication and comprehension of customer needs. Read between the lines, think on your feet, and resonate with the business’s pain points to grasp the customer desires.

Showing up, no matter the challenges, is another crucial aspect of reliability. Regardless of the obstacles – hell or high water – delivering on promises requires dedication and a strong work ethic. Doing the job consistently and effectively is the only way you and your clients can trust in your promises.

Quality is the final piece of the puzzle. A reliable system is one where everything works as intended, with no room for ambiguity. Accountability comes into play when things go awry. You can’t always be perfect, but you can identify where a problem occurred and work toward doing better.

At Vitamin Software, four values define how we work, communicate, and grow. They are:

  • Humility. We ego-check ourselves and each other to ensure we have a clear, unbiased perspective on the challenges before us.

  • Accountability. We’re able to answer for our past and future actions, keeping in mind what can go wrong and taking responsibility for what did go wrong.

  • Solutions-orientation. We don’t refuse tasks because they seem hard. If we can’t find a solution, we improvise, reverse-engineer, and create one.

  • A sense of urgency. Reliability demands that you don’t stall. Moving swiftly ensures we get things right before opportunities pass by.

Our commitment to these values reflects in our work — building robust, reliable healthcare software that stands the test of time.

Resources for Project Management: Best Books, Podcasts, and Publications for Healthcare PMs

What’s the last resource for project management that you read or listened to? And how long ago was it?

As we become entrenched in the daily grind, we tend to overfocus on the operational aspects of our work. Think back to your early days — you were always on the lookout for the next game-changing book, news source, or best podcast for project management. Not only did it make your job more fun, but it helped you reach the level you’re on today.

Why stop there?

We talked with Vitamin Software PMs and dug up the best books, podcasts, and news for healthcare project management. But first, a word on why you should check them out.

Investing in Yourself: Why Self-Improvement Matters for PMs

We can’t overstate the value of continuous self-improvement for Project Managers. As research notes, dedicating 15 minutes a day to reflect on your role significantly enhances performance. It’s especially important for PMs in healthcare, where the ability to adapt helps you match the industry’s ongoing transformations.

As a healthcare Project Manager, you stand between the company’s business and engineering teams and balance their (sometimes differing) needs. Learning increases your effectiveness, boosting your contributions to the business and making your daily tasks easier. Otherwise, you end up stuck with old approaches that don’t fit novel situations.

Resources for project management offer best practices, challenge existing habits, and introduce new concepts tailored to healthcare. Even when you know something, they solidify your skill and make it actionable.

Essential Resources for Healthcare PMs

We’ve done the necessary legwork and found the best resources for project management. Find our suggestions below, and use them as a starting point to identify more must-reads.

Pro Tip: If you’re a newbie, start with the Project Management Institute’s free courses and the Projectified Podcast. If you need a paid resource from the list, have your company fund it — after all, your growth is their growth.

Books for Healthcare Project Management

We might disregard books for project management in the 21st century, as this slower-to-publish format may not keep up with the industry. However, they often share the foundational principles of PM-ing in a systematic manner. It pays to give them a read, especially if you feel out-of-touch or stuck in a rut with your craft.

There are hundreds of titles out there, but these ones take the cake:

  • David Shirley’s second edition of Project Management for Healthcare — this book dissects the process of healthcare project management and highlights skills necessary for success. The latest edition tackles the issue of protecting online data and discusses the Agile methodology, which (while not our favorite) can adapt to healthcare projects.

  • Managing Multiple Projects by Elizabeth Harrin — healthcare project management is rarely a matter of leading a single assignment. We often have to juggle multiple ones with different requirements, which can quickly devolve into mistakes and burnout. This practical guide includes case studies, checklists, and templates to make such situations more manageable.

  • Project Management for Humans by Brett Harned — the premise of this book for project management is that it’s more about people than tools and technologies. It overviews everything a PM should know on the technical side and layers that with ways to deal with people and find workflows that work for everybody.

  • The Blueprint by Douglas Conant — the business mogul condenses his leadership strategy into six practical steps to make a meaningful difference in your organization. These principles offer a good way of thinking about big and small projects alike.

Pro Tip: Beyond classical books for project management, ebooks published by relevant online sources can be excellent to read as well. Vitamin’s PMs found Project Smart’s 7 Deadly Sins of Project Management and Wrike’s Guide on PM Methodologies valuable.

News Publications for Healthcare Project Management

A part of your work in healthcare project management is staying up-to-date with the trends in this industry. Beyond showing you the new technologies and regulations, reading news points to networking opportunities and end-users’ needs.

Besides your usual news and thought leaders on LinkedIn, have the following in your bookmark bar:

  • Healthcare Dive — in-depth insights into the influential healthcare news and trends. The website’s chock-full of useful texts, and the newsletter offers an overview of the burning topics to keep top of mind.

  • Healthcare IT News — the best source of healthcare news in the US and around the world. It’s a part of HIMSS Media, the business unit of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

  • TechTarget Network — news analyses, in-depth features, vendor comparisons, and tutorials. Check it out if you plan to cooperate with third parties and seek software solutions for your healthcare organization.

  • Health IT Analytics — use cases on data analytics, like AI and ML, for healthcare. Valuable for population management, precision medicine, and rules of governance topics.

  • Medscape — something more medicine-specific for those developing novel technologies for medical use. It’s a hub of medical news about drugs and diseases, with professional perspectives on relevant topics.

  • Mind the Product — a community of people who deal with product releases, with daily product content and resources. You’ll also find a Slack group, workshops, and in-person meetups to deepen your craft.

ProTip: Google relevant companies, like Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Fast Company, with the tag ‘project management’ to see their latest resources on related topics.

Podcasts for Healthcare Project Management

What if you’re an auditory learner or lack the time to sit down and read a book? Podcasts are the way to go. We’d suggest these for healthcare project managers:

  • HIMSSCast — the best podcast for project management in US healthcare. It’s run by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s editorial team, featuring guests from all parts of the industry joining to share their insights. The case studies and topic explorations are super-informative.

  • There’s a Better Way — one-on-one conversations with the most innovative healthcare industry leaders. You get advice from real-world stories about tackling real-life challenges, which can be helpful no matter your status or size.

  • The Product Podcast — a great resource for project management, whether you’re a beginner or an expert. The best of the best come here to talk about their experiences in all things product-related: think Google, Facebook, Apple, and other giants.

  • Lenny’s Podcast — Lenny’s among the top growth marketers in the US, and many swear by his podcast. He conducts interviews with world-class experts and product leaders, sharing actionable advice on building, launching, and growing your projects. If you’re not already on his bandwagon, subscribe asap.

  • Manage This — the best podcast for project management by project managers. The hosts cover topics like timeline estimations, tips for meetings, and burnout. They also invite folks from across industries, offering tried-and-tested insights in an entertaining format.

Bonus: Vitamin’s Breakfast Club for Project Managers

Sometimes, all the books and podcasts in the world can’t replace the benefits of having a community to help you answer questions and resolve dilemmas. That’s why we launched something we believe is the ultimate resource for project management in healthcare: The Project Manager Breakfast Club.

This community is a space for collaboration and shared learning. We meet weekly to discuss the challenges faced by our PMs and yourselves. Then, we have a brainstorming session at the end of each meeting, helping each other resolve anything currently bugging you or slowing you down.

 

Accounting for integrations in healthcare SaaS project estimates

The best thing you can do to deliver a project on time is getting partnership discussions rolling during the estimation phase. Contact the necessary third parties early on and have them provide API documentation outlining what you can and cannot do. Devise your plan with these documents in hand, and precision will naturally follow.

 

It pays to study these third parties and learn their requirements inside and out, too. This knowledge ensures your future SaaS solution can effectively exchange information with other healthcare systems, avoiding discrepancies, disruptions, and potential legal risks for your business.

Let me share quick tips regarding the main players you may integrate with.

If your software will touch patient data, it’s necessary to achieve interoperability with EHRs. We recently got certified to work with hospitals using Epic; AthenaHealth is another major industry name. Each health plan has its quirks, so adapt to them for smooth data exchange. Integrating with clearinghouses like Change Healthcare allows billing and claims processing, so don’t skip this step. And if you’re handling drug manufacturing, PBMs require a meticulous plan to avoid delays.

A precise estimate can’t happen if you don’t account for third parties. So, remind your team of this fact and keep it in mind for every solution you devise — it’ll make your life much easier. Schedule a consultation if you need additional advice on handling partnerships in healthcare software development.

Project Manager POV: How to Say No to an Impossible Deadline in Healthcare SaaS

Do you know that saying no to impossible deadlines is among the best career moves you can make to maintain your authority in healthcare project management?

A crucial part of how the Vitamin team built its integrity and client relationships is by refusing tasks we deem impossible to deliver successfully in time. Would you like to do the same? Keep reading for our tried-and-tested advice.

Why Do People Struggle to Refuse Impossible Deadlines?

The inclination to accept impossible requests in work environments comes from a desire to contribute and a fear of hindering progress. In our hustle culture, being a ‘good-doer’ or a ‘team member’ often means achieving the seemingly impossible. Otherwise, you’re seen as incapable or unwilling to help the company, which can lead to losing future opportunities. Or at least, that’s how it feels in many scenarios.

There are drawbacks to this line of thinking, even beyond bowing to a harmful work culture.

Not saying no to unreasonable deadlines raises the likelihood of negative outcomes, as you’ve probably already experienced. After all, performance comes first in healthcare SaaS, and you can’t nail regulatory compliance, seamless interoperability, or watertight safety on an impossible schedule. The consequences fall on the Project Manager, and they will reflect on your career.

What Makes a Deadline Impossible?

You’ve received a project request, and the end date is making your stomach churn. How do you tell if it’s actually impossible or just hard?

If applicable, use your past healthcare project management experience while gauging the request. You know your team inside and out; you’ve already led the members through countless projects. Have they been successful with tight timelines and similar tech stacks before? It might be an indication that this one’s also possible. 

As a rule, if your team needs to work double shifts to make the project happen within a deadline, it’s impossible. Of course, external dependencies and cooperation with third-party vendors also count toward the final assessment. You can’t magic components or capabilities into existence.

Ultimately, it pays to listen to your gut and back yourself up with data. And if necessary, to refuse the project with the existing requests.

5 Strategies to Refuse Impossible Deadlines

You’re a buffer between the CEO and developers, having to balance requests and realism. In this context, saying no is a calculated move to preserve the integrity of your position, project, and company.

Here are five ways to skillfully articulate a much-needed refusal or renegotiation.

1. Don’t Beat Around the Bush

Say no and explain your reasons immediately. Being up-front eliminates annoyance and the impression you’re leading on the board members. If possible, refuse in person, not over a call or email. Keep it straightforward:

I find the proposed project deadline impossible to meet without sacrificing the standards of the requested deliverables. I’d be happy to do a bit of planning and come back to you with a few alternative dates.

Pro tip: Whenever you have the opportunity, give an alternative solution to avoid coming across as a nay-sayer.

2. Express Appreciation

Getting a project assigned to you is a positive, and you should treat it as such. Thank the superior for the opportunity, even if you have to decline it. The trick is to show appreciation without people-pleasing and slipping into acceptance.

I appreciate your trust in my skills and understand the importance of this project. However, considering my team’s current workload and commitments, taking on an additional project might compromise the quality of our deliverables.

3. Explain Your Reasoning

The particulars of your refusal may not make a massive difference — but they could. Be honest about the reasons the project deadline doesn’t work. Discuss which values you’re seeking to uphold and how they relate to the time constraints.

After a careful evaluation, I’m concerned that accelerating the project timeline may harm the security/quality/reliability of our healthcare SaaS solution. Rushing the process could introduce errors that we cannot afford.

Pro tip: Show domain authority, delivering data, processes, and numbers to prove your point. A good Project Manager is always ready to report on where their team stands.

4. Counter With an Alternate Deadline

If a deadline isn’t urgent, rejection isn’t your sole option. Instead, offer a more realistic project deadline.

To guarantee we can provide a reliable product, I suggest a more realistic deadline would be [provide a specific date]. This adjustment allows us the time for thorough testing and ensures we give our full attention to every detail.

5. Suggest Other Alternatives

What if later deadlines aren’t possible? The conversation doesn’t have to end. Follow up with alternative options to show you’re doing everything in your power to make the request possible. Suggest a tighter scope, a higher budget, or relocating parts of your team to the new project.

The constraints of this project are too much for our developer team. We wouldn’t be able to meet all the requirements, and that’s not an option. Here’s what we can do — [alternate options]. I’d suggest [option that’s best for the company]. What are your thoughts?

Pro tip: Hiring a partner to help with a looming deadline is another option that could support your healthcare project management efforts. It’s also often the situation where Vitamin Software steps in.

Saying No for Success: A Vitamin Software Success Story

Vitamin recently developed a patient-pharmacist interaction platform for a US healthcare SaaS vendor. They approached us with a tight deadline and a small budget, neither of which would let us deliver the quality we’re known for. But we didn’t refuse outright — instead, we analyzed their needs and counter-offered with a lean, effective alternative.

We began by performing a Vitamin Sanity Check, analyzing the client’s proposed solution and whether it was the optimal way to move forward. In this case, we combined our insights into a data-driven report to the CEO, detailing the need to reduce the project scope if they wanted to meet the launch date. We removed all unnecessary user stories and kept the most impactful ones in the app.

We acted as consultants, prioritizing client success within the constraints they set. The client met their target launch date and saved $500,000, proving our method works.

Key Takeaways for Project Managers

In an ideal world, Project Managers would always have enough time to devise stress-free project timelines. While that’s not always the reality, you don’t have to say yes to impossible ones. Refusing unrealistic deadlines builds credibility and reassures your superiors that, once you accept a project, your ‘yes’ is to be trusted.

Keep these key takeaways top of mind the next time you encounter a situation where refusing a deadline is necessary:

  • Rather than frequently saying no, make realistic planning your MO. Communicate challenges to the board regularly to avoid surprises.

  • Refusals are smoother when you express transparency, honesty, appreciation, and proactivity. Take this approach in every conversation, in healthcare project management and otherwise.

  • Set clear expectations from the beginning of the project regarding timelines, milestones, and potential roadblocks.

Are you already in the middle of a project? Discover the red flags in development timelines on our blog and use the tactics from this guide to renegotiate the deadline.

How Vitamin Saved $500K+ for SaaS Health Care Client by Optimizing Budget and Performance

Intending to launch an innovative two-faced app revolutionizing patient-pharmacist interactions, our client grappled with budget constraints, delayed timelines, and an intricate web of user stories at different stages. They recognized the need for efficiency and sought the Vitamin Team’s expertise to navigate these complexities. 

The Challenge of Prioritizing Features Within the Platform 

Before partnering with us, our client faced a critical juncture. Hindered by budget constraints and internal challenges, they needed to prioritize and define the scope of 100 user stories. The previous lack of regular project health checks led to the stories being blocked, essential information needed, and the looming launch date intensified the pressure. 

Digital Platform Servicing Pharmacies across the US

Our client, a prominent player in digital pharmacy solutions, aimed to create a transformative app. With a focus on enhancing pharmacist-patient relationships, the app is intended to streamline pharmacy operations, boost patient engagement, data collection and management, and facilitate essential services like vaccinations.

Why the Client Chose Vitamin Software

Our client chose us for our proven track record in delivering predictability in costs and timelines. Having worked together on a previous project, they valued our ability to provide accurate estimates, ensuring a smoother development process.

How Vitamin Software Responded 

In these situations, the first thing we do is a Sanity Check. That means comprehensively analyzing each user story's impact on patient outcomes, revenue, compliance, and overall design. Recognizing the urgency, we shifted from mere design updates to a strategic approach, focusing on prioritization, detail unblocking, and cost analysis. The final product of the Sanity Check was an executive report explicitly made for the CEO to empower him and his team to prioritize their budget and functionalities. Our commitment to data-driven decision-making resonated with the client, culminating in a detailed report that met the CEO's expectations.

The Results

After a year of collaboration, the results speak for themselves. By focusing on the most critical 10-20 stories, we empowered our client to meet their launch deadline, saving them over $500,000 in delivering those stories without counting the additional stress that would be put on the company if the functionality wasn’t achieved in time for the release. The two-faced app, designed for pharmacists and patients, is now tracking to facilitate seamless interactions, allowing appointments, medication refills, and crucial notifications about medication side effects and allergies. The CEO, product managers, and head of product development expressed immense satisfaction with the project's outcome.

Need Help Determining if Your Project Utilization is Cost-Effective?

Are you grappling with budget constraints and the critical need for a seamless product release in healthcare software development? Unlock the potential of our expertise to streamline your project budgeting and ensure a timely and successful digital transformation. Contact our team today to explore how we can empower your journey toward an efficient and patient-centric healthcare solution.

How to Improve Client Engagement With Your Healthcare SaaS Product

Healthcare executives, take note: client satisfaction and engagement are goals worth prioritizing (by up to 65% likelihood of sales).

Getting new clients is more expensive and resource-intensive than working with existing ones. While it pays to pay the high CAC to grow net new sales, your company will fare better if it backs these expenses with the revenue they can extract from (and value they can deliver to) clients already in your network. Today, we discuss ways to maximize the utility of resources at your disposal to power growth and maintain stability in your company.

We at Vitamin are veterans in regulated industries, with ample experience in maintaining relationships with healthcare SaaS vendors and operators. Discover our principles for maintaining connections with major healthcare clients, like digital pharmacies, top US hospitals, and government service providers.

Step 1: Assessing the Situation

Let’s begin by discussing three checks to assess the client relationship. They help you turn the gut feeling that something is off into actionable ideas to improve client engagement.

Are You Doing Regular NPS Checks?

As most Client Success Managers know, the average NPS in the SaaS industry is 36. A lower figure is a red flag.

The calculation can fall to the wayside due to more pressing tasks, and then what? In addition to this number quantifying success and pinpointing at-risk clients, it’s a great tool to spot market growth opportunities and get on the competitive wagon.

Let’s be honest — are you consistently implementing the NPS process? And if so, does your team turn metrics into actionable items or just let it sleep on the pile of annual reports?

Client Success Managers can ensure that NPS is more than irrelevant busywork, and that it actually helps your organization grow. The best way to do that is by seeing the number as an objective tool that helps you catch obstacles in the client relationship before they cause trouble. In some cases, it can even point to market openings you can capture before your competitors.

Establish a regular schedule for conducting NPS surveys to access current and historical data. From our experience, quarterly checks are the sweet spot for bigger healthcare enterprise entities that generate at least $50 million of revenue a year. Display the results within your team’s workspace as a constant reminder that client satisfaction comes first. Create an actionable loop so that the delivery and engineering team can actually use the information to delight your clients.

How Can You Surpass Competition?

As healthcare is slow to digitize, developing in step with the latest technologies is a good way to maintain a competitive edge. The trick’s in getting conservative stakeholders on-board with your riskier projects.

Let’s face it — not all projects will be successful. But those that are could bring a competitive advantage to your company. That’s why you should analyze ideas on a smaller scale first, figuring out what works before throwing the whole weight of your reputation behind it. If the internal team lacks the time or tech knowledge to do it, hiring external partners could be the way to go. That’s where we at Vitamin may enter the picture.

In healthcare Saas, the most useful projects are those that improve customer experience, reduce costs, or speed up operations. For instance, predictive medicine that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence is the next big thing for all three reasons. Also, anything that improves security and compliance is a bonus.

How Do You Convince Your Board to Allocate Resources to Testing New Ideas?

We’re noticing a trend of healthcare vendors and providers becoming more sophisticated users with high expectations. As a result, quality software translates into client retention and growth. Slow performance, unresponsive design, inadequate compliance, and poor SaaS security will be less tolerated in 2024 and beyond.

How can a Client Success Manager approach the board with a new idea or upgrade suggestion that hasn’t been tested before in healthcare?

The first step is to collect data and quantify the cost of poor software experience. Estimate potential revenue loss, support costs, and new customer acquisition expenses.

Second, educate the board on the financial and technical impact of your suggested solution. You could devise a plan beforehand or propose several viable options, letting them decide on the course they want to take. Have a ballpark of the cost and demonstrate the financial gains that may come from investing in quality.

In a nutshell, you want to facilitate the board’s decision-making process for an easy approval. Never ask them to take massive risks head-on, and don’t demand funds to be relocated from existing, money-making products.

Step 2: Re-Engaging Customers

Once you have the reasons for low engagement, it’s time to move on to solutions. Use these ways to re-engage and re-delight your old client base:

  • Personalize the communication. Modern buyers are skeptical about marketing and sales, only responding to relevant messages. Join forces with your marketing team on customer relationship management to tailor your communications. Analyze and utilize the data to craft your check-ins to each client.

  • Suggest new features or enhancements. Analyze the prior engagement with your client and craft new offerings that build onto them. Share success stories of companies benefitting from similar features. For example, Pfizer uses AWS to boost their computing capacities — why wouldn’t other biopharma companies follow suit?

  • Talk about their needs. Re-engagement requires a pitch, and it shouldn’t be about your company or the latest product. Instead, have it focused on their issues. Position yourself as a consultant instead of a pushy vendor seeking to make a new sale. To illustrate, our sales team spends hours researching prospective clients before reaching out. And for the most precious accounts our CEO personally crafts offers that are about collaboration and supporting their efforts — and his approach consistently yields success.

  • Incentivize engagement with perks. It may sound like a waste of funds, but it works, as loyalty programs are an effective retention tool. Use exclusive access, discounts, membership tiers, and personalized recognition as rewards for ongoing commitment. If you have a subscription-based platform, gamification is also worth exploring. Insurance companies like Aviva and United Healthcare use this strategy for their complex, highly regulated field, offering a case study for healthcare SaaS implementation.

Many companies lack a feedback loop between their Sales, Marketing, and CSS teams, which hinders their effort to improve client engagement.

Take this tip from marketing and apply it across the board — personalizing the re-engagement journey makes it more successful. A CRM tool like HubSpot makes all the difference by offering insights and targeting relevant audience segments. Companies like VitraMed already use it to align teams and reach their goals faster.

For an in-depth look at how HubSpot CRM helps healthcare CSS, explore their healthcare case studies.

Even HIPAA-compliant companies use HubSpot to manage client relationships. It’s a sophisticated tool with fantastic insights, reducing the workload of your CSS team. Although not regulated, it integrates with data privacy vaults to keep your client data private.

I’ve noticed a big trend of health tech and insurance companies switching to HubSpot. The platform makes it much easier to manage marketing, sales, and client relationships in healthcare.

— Ema Odorović, Director of Marketing at Vitamin Software

Expert Tip: SalesForce is a good alternative to HubSpot, especially their discounted option for NGOs.

Step 3: Strengthening the Relationship

Are you selling your product or helping clients resolve an issue? The highest-performing companies know their clients’ needs and pain points inside-and-out and never come off as salesy, which is critical in developing relationships in healthcare environments. 

Building client relationships requires trust and dedication from both sides. Find ways to reliably make healthcare SaaS clients’ lives easier, and they won’t have the need to go anywhere else.

How do you do that? By honestly caring about them. Just analyzing their data will get you some information, but not enough to consistently improve client engagement. In the era of overstimulation, we all respond quite well to authentic human care. The best part — you can use technology to make this easier.

Getting Higher Quality Data Faster with AI and ML

As modern tech consumers are sophisticated and have high expectations, companies must zero in on meeting their clients’ needs. Instead of comparing yourself with the competition, be the answer to the questions they have now and hurdles they might face in the future.

Client-centric data lets you tailor messaging and identify times when you can upsell, cross-sell, or gain referrals while delivering value. And that requires technology (or many hours of manual labor).

The combination of AI and ML can organize large amounts of data into a dashboard. It lets you analyze the client’s journey from lead generation to post-purchase, seeing what worked. Then, an expert CSS leverages it for proactive suggestions, discussions, or offers.

If you’re not already using chatbots to filter out queries, begin right now. That way, you’re always available for common queries, as clients expect no less. Customer success bots like the one by Totango go further, tracking people’s behaviors and supporting your tasks. They reduce legwork and let the CSS focus on what matters — complex human interactions.

Another way to leverage AI is to identify and re-engage at-risk clients. This gives you ample time for course-correction. Whether the next step is a virtual tour of your development process or a personalized thank-you note, catching trouble early is key to avoiding it.

Re-engage, Retain, Grow

Tech-empowered companies are about innovation and growth, and the Client Success Manager leads much of it. Even though it sounds odd, a reduction in client engagement rates can actually become your superpower — it illuminates the fields where you can gain the biggest benefits from improvement.

Introducing high quality upgrades should improve client engagement, but untested features without a proper process create friction and harm the end user experience. Get a proof of efficiency before taking it large-scale. Need help check the timeline or viability of your idea? Book a call with our consulting team and save valuable time and energy for client interactions.

Vitamin Software is your trusted technical partner for regulated industries. Leverage our expertise to boost your business and engage your clients.

New Features or Polish: What Moves the Needle?

Let’s be honest — regulated fields like healthcare aren’t a breeding ground for innovation. It’s a risk-averse industry that needs to move toward a tech-empowered future since that’s the best way to improve operations and patient outcomes. It’s our job as executives, especially ones like me who have a background in engineering, to get things moving.

Did this ever happen to you? You’re talking to a Product Manager who’s seeking to increase the price of their product. They propose changing the list tool to make it more comprehensive, which is a clear example of polish in healthcare software. You’re torn between accepting their proposal and pointing out there are better things to focus on to achieve their goal.

That’s a real story from one of my recent meetings.

An eager staffing company would jump on the shiny feature, no questions asked. However, our mission at Vitamin is to be a reliable partner in achieving our clients’ business goals, so I suggested a better use of the funds — creating automated notifications for patients. Polish is important, but sustained, aggressive growth comes from innovative features. Otherwise, you have a great-looking interface but no competitive edge.

So, when do you start something new, and when do you refine what’s already there? Polish ensures quality, and innovation fuels growth. You can’t have one without the other, but you can prioritize for the best results. Vitamin can step in if your internal workforce lacks the capacity or know-how to think outside the box.

Remember, both new functionalities and polish have a place in a successful SaaS project. I’m just pointing out that teams often operate out of habit and take the path of least resistance. Challenge them to think, grow, and refine based on your goals, not only what seems the easiest or most exciting.

PS If you feel like sharing, email me with how you manage the balance between features and polish in your company.