Dec 19, 2016 By Marta Lawrence

Preventure Adapts Technology to Help Make Healthy a Habit

in Marketing, Customer Journeys, Customer Story

Workplace well-being is a complex and constantly evolving field. Mark Correia, CEO of Preventure, should know. He has lead the Rhode Island-based health and well-being business for over a decade, presiding over what would become one of the fastest-growing companies in the industry.

True well-being, Correia said, has always been Preventure's goal. But achieving that goal takes more than just educating people about good health and tracking their progress. True well-being, he observed, is a unique combination of technology, assessments, interactions, and personalized approaches and strategies that ultimately change, not just track, behaviors.

Notice that technology is on Correia's short list. Several years ago, Preventure identified this as an area that demanded immediate attention. In short, Correia said, "Preventure needed to revamp its technology platform."

"We needed a solution that remained agile and adaptable for our clients' diverse and dispersed populations," he said. "Preventure needed a technology platform that could provide clients with greater self-service capabilities during and after initial onboarding, in order to increase employee engagement."

Mostly, Preventure needed a platform that was personally compelling. "Personalized content yields results," Correia said, citing a study that showed personalized content to be more than twice as likely to drive lifestyle behavior changes, compared to generic content.

So the company enlisted the help of Salesforce and Salesforce partner Silverline. Together, they created a revolutionary health and wellness engagement platform that would boost participation and results through personalization, community, gamification and contextualized messaging.

Meet Maxwell

The new platform, christened Maxwell - short for "Maximum Well-being" - leveraged community, sales and marketing, and app clouds. The result is a flexible, mobile and user-friendly solution that is intuitive and personalized for the user.

Powered by Salesforce, Maxwell creates a unique path for each participant, based on his or her most up-to-date information, including biometrics and health assessment responses. As participants enter more information into the portal, Maxwell recommends appropriate resources - webinars, workshops, or other behavior change programs - guiding them along on their own individual journey toward a healthier lifestyle.

Maxwell offers self-paced tools, encouraging daily interaction through personalized reminders and positive reinforcement. The messages are based on a participant's programs, recent activities, health risks and health goals. Each message makes sense on a personal level - the right message at the right time, with a call to action. The concept is that successful behavior change is based less on motivation, and more on habit.

And, because a client's group data is available in Sales Cloud, Preventure's customer service reps can quickly and easily determine whether a participant has successfully onboarded. They can also identify likely candidates for health coaching and encourage them to sign up.

Behavior change is further reinforced by an integrated social media platform that allows participants to widen their community circle by joining teams, sharing words of encouragement, and participating in company-wide challenges.

So, the new platform is habit-forming through gamification. It is personalized for each participant with information pushed from Salesforce. It provides a meaningful community and social layer.

"But perhaps most importantly, it's really fun," Correia said. "The social aspect builds commitment and community. The contextualized messages keep users engaged, with information relevant to them. And the competition of group and individualized challenges adds fun and buzz."

Maxwell made its initial debut in January 2016 and has steadily been deployed to Preventure's client base throughout the year. So far, the results have been impressive: three times more visits to Maxwell compared to the previous portal, much longer portal views on average, and greatly increased revisitation, including 10 visits per week or more per participant.

As Correia said, technology was the key. "The mission was - and still is - to inspire everyday healthy lifestyle choices to drive better health, and to that end the participant experience is paramount," he said.

With the help of Salesforce, Preventure's mission thus far has been a success.

More Health and Life Sciences Marketing Tactics

From the Salesforce Research team's discoveries in the "2016 State of Marketing" report comes "Leading the Customer Experience in Healthcare and Life Sciences Marketing." Get industry-specific insights from healthcare and life sciences marketing leaders, and discover the new priorities of healthcare marketers, including: