End-user experience – The only network metric that matters?

The traditional approach to network performance – and issue resolution – is being turned on its head. End-user experience scoring takes an outside-in approach that redefines performance around the experience of its users.

It's all too common for network engineers to spend more time hunting for the source of network performance issues than fixing them. The lack of performance metrics is not the issue. It's often a case of too many metrics obscuring the real root of the issue. In multi-cloud hybrid networking environments, problem validation, isolation, and resolution are getting harder. Yet, it's more important than ever for businesses to find a way of filtering the signal from the noise. As businesses and consumers alike embrace hyper-connectedness, the health of their digital services is increasingly a barometer of business performance. 

Complex KPIs are giving way to end-user experience 

Businesses have their set of go-to tools and metrics they use when a problem occurs. Faced with a multitude of performance indicators, this traditional inside-out approach to network performance is becoming inefficient for network teams and frustrating for end-users. For example, close to 60% of workers have technical issues that the service desk can't resolve. 

The tide is turning, with businesses increasingly recognizing the value of focusing performance metrics on the actual experience of users. Advanced tools can now dig deeper across the KPI clutter to zoom in on how users are experiencing digital interactions and provide a more comprehensive view of the state of the network. So-called end-user experience (EUE) scoring is a major shift away from complex infrastructure-centric indicators like latency or bandwidth, to name just two. By consolidating these and other metrics, businesses can get a holistic view of the health of their digital services through an easily understandable dashboard. 

End-user experience (EUE) scoring - a radical rethink

EUE scoring isn't just another metric. It turns the old troubleshooting model on its head. Instead of starting with the infrastructure and working outwards to resolve end-user issues, the EUE approach starts with the experience of its users, arguably the only metric that really matters. Rather than chasing red performance indicators, with a simple numeric EUE score, network teams can quickly understand if there's a problem impacting the business and how severe it is. 

When issues are detected, instead of wondering which users are impacted and why, multi-dimensional advanced analytics do the heavy lifting to eliminate the many operational variables and hone in on the root cause. This automated domain isolation is a game-changer for already-stretched network teams. Instead of lengthy consultations and war-room wrangling, isolating the root cause means that the appropriate experts tackle the issue earlier, improving resource utilization within the team and speeding up issue resolution. 

From prescriptive to predictive problem resolution

Faster troubleshooting might sound like a win-win for network teams and end users alike, but it's just the start. User-centric approaches to network management that leverage advanced analytics in real-time could anticipate and resolve problems before they occur. While self-optimizing networks may seem like a distant dream for stressed-out network engineers currently, user-centric metrics are already helping to alleviate capacity problems before they become critical in today's business environments. Similarly, having a holistic view of user experience can provide an invaluable first warning sign that an enterprise is under attack from a hack or a breach. 

By prioritizing the user’s perspective in network management, an EUE approach to network performances accelerates issue resolution, improves resource utilization, and even enables predictive problem resolution.

Observer Apex from VIAVI offers a comprehensive approach to end-user experience monitoring. By generating an end-user experience score for every data transaction, it provides a granular view of network performance. Harnessing machine-learning powered automated EUE scoring and offering customizable dashboards for global operational intelligence, Observer Apex not only monitors but helps IT teams elevate the digital experience for users. 

For more information, see our solutions.

Build Your 2021 Medical Practice Marketing Strategy With 10 Questions

Partner, Director of Strategy & Insights at RUNNER Agency.

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Now is the time to radically rethink how you market your medical practice. This year, the digital landscape grew by what seems like decades within a matter of a few months. Technology adoption accelerated rapidly across nearly every industry. For medical practices, we saw not only a rush to provide telehealth solutions, but also increased competition and spending in digital media channels.

Simply put, many of your patients have become more digitally savvy, and your competition probably has too. 

One of the keys to success in 2021 is a well-built digital marketing strategy. It can provide alignment with your team, clarity in your messaging and prioritization of your marketing tactics.

To help with your planning, here are 10 questions that can help you build the foundation of any digital marketing strategy.

1. What are our practice goals?

Think of your goals as your overall desires and consider your strategy for how to get what you want. Don't overthink your goals, and don't set too many, or you may not achieve any of them.

Example: "Get enough new patients to add another physician to the practice."

2. What are specific, measurable outcomes to reach those practice goals?

Your objectives should have measurable results. Objectives that are too lofty aren't really objectives; they're goals. 

Example: "Add 15 patients per month."

3. Who's our competition?

While this may seem like a straightforward question, telehealth has changed this dramatically. You may no longer be competing against only the physicians and practices in your area — telehealth competitors from other locations or national brands are now likely going after the same patients.

In addition, for some medical specialties, if you have expanded lines of service — like orthopedics and pain management — you're really competing in multiple categories.

4. How is our practice really different?

This is perhaps the most difficult question to answer. Many medical practices don't answer it at all, or they rely solely on physician credentials to differentiate themselves. While physician credentials are key, many patients said they would switch providers because of factors like safety and access (download required). 

Don't fall into the "better" trap when thinking about differentiation. Think about the treatments you offer, your patient experience and even the point of view you have on the category.

5. Who is our ideal patient?

Ensure that you have a clear picture of your ideal patients and build your marketing for them. Document it so you can create alignment across your teams and partners. Examples include the specific conditions your ideal patients have, the treatments they may need and what types of insurance they have.

This is particularly important to understand for your paid advertising efforts, as well as focusing your content creation efforts to impact SEO. You don't want to waste any of these efforts on the wrong patients.

6. What problems do we solve for them?

Your patients may stop paying attention if you stop talking about their problems. Yet many medical practices talk only about their own expertise or the services they provide.

Don't forget about the services you provide, but focus on the issues your patients are grappling with. Your practice has an opportunity to get more patients to choose you by empathizing with their problems. Spend some time reading through your practice reviews to get an understanding of the problems you're solving and how it makes patients feel. You may be surprised.

7. What are our key messages?

Take the time to outline your key messages. Some of the answers above — the problems you solve and what makes your practice different — should absolutely be a part of those messages. If your practice is self-pay, think about any offers you want to include in your marketing.

Most importantly, think about the call to action that's in your key messages. Are you trying to drive calls, online appointment scheduling or something else? 

8. What content should we create?

The content you create for your practice should be directly related to your ideal patient definition, as well as the problems you solve. All content for a medical practice will generally fall into a couple of categories — educational content such as research on conditions and treatments, and decision-making content such as information about your practice. Be sure to address both types.

Perhaps the most important decisions are the format of your content and how you distribute it. Don't get stuck on blog posts alone. Make sure you're distributing content to your practice and physician listings, for example. Leverage video content as much as possible — we've found that it's more noticeable and does a better job of showing empathy.

9. What platforms are we prioritizing?

Focus on doing a good job on one channel before you diversify. One of the biggest mistakes a medical practice can make is spreading their investment of time and advertising dollars across too many channels. The foundation for most medical practices should be pay-per-click search advertising and Facebook remarketing. Why? Because search engine advertising captures those actively seeking treatment, and remarketing ensures that you stay in front of those who are looking. Stay focused on nailing these channels before expanding.

10. How will we measure success?

Lastly, don't get distracted by vanity metrics like traffic or click-through rates. Focus on the six essential key performance indicators for medical practices that include new patient leads, cost per lead, conversion rates and cost per patient.

The Foundation Of Your Practice Marketing Strategy

In the new healthcare digital marketing landscape, you can't afford to continue winging it or buying cookie-cutter marketing solutions from partners that don't understand your business. 

Answering these 10 questions can provide you with the foundation of a digital marketing strategy that allows you to put together meaningful plans for 2021. They can help you position your practice, develop key messages and content, decide how to reach new patients and measure the impact of your efforts. Questioning the way you've always done things may be the key to getting the growth you deserve.

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