Relay Health is an innovative company that has taken healthcare to the next level of accessibility by providing online patient services for everyone. This platform allows any patient to communicate with their physician regarding routine medical conditions from the comfort of their own home without having to make a trip to see the physician in person. Online medical consultations are ideal for rural areas, those with inflexible and/or rigorous work schedules or even individuals who may have transportation difficulties getting to and from their general care providers. Although online medicine has been around for some time, its popularity and growth have been slow. After reviewing Relay Health’s web page along with some …show more content…
The four aspects needed to create a differential advantage are a product, market, cost and trust. One of Relay Health’s issues appears to be that physicians are reluctant to utilize this service. Focusing on physician participation would, in turn, conceivably increase consumer utilization. There needs to be more of an aggressive outreach by Relay Health to alleviate any preconceived concerns or fears the physicians may have developed regarding online consultations. Sophrona already has a differential advantage by specializing in ophthalmology. This is a very streamline customer database and even though it is a differential advantage, it has also limited them from reaching the general health care sector. Relay Health needs to find an advantage that does not limit them as Sophronas does, as it is opening up its services now to compete with general medicine. Relay Health’s web page is harder to navigate than its competitor American Well. When first arriving at Relay Health’s page the viewer is unsure about what the service actually is. The page needed less information on the homepage and made user-friendly. Potential customers to Relay Health’s website would not have a clear understanding as to what product or service is actually being promoted due to its vagueness and ambiguity. When I navigated the more simplistic website of American Well, I knew exactly what the site was for and what services …show more content…
Consider each alternative for Relay Health. Which one did American Well employ? Which alternatives might be available to Relay Health? How might they be implemented? American Well employed market penetration by offering an existing service by attracting new users or converting non-users. Relay Health could easily employ the same market penetration growth strategy as American Well by simplifying its web user interface or by following the simplistic format of American Well. The business of online medicine has already been cultivated and implemented; the issue now is gaining a larger user database. The more people who utilize this type of system will obviously garner it more recognition and popularity. Another recommendation is for Relay Health to target rigorously the rural market where there is a true need for expanded healthcare providers. However, the busy urban/suburban family should also not be forgotten. Interrupting the hectic lives of the working class for medical care can be much less of a burden than it has in the past with no loss of income due to missed work and no extra homework with missed school. Online appointments and/or consultations could prove to be more efficient for both the provider and the customer. In many cases, it could be less expensive as well. Several insurance providers such as Blue Cross and Cigna are now covering the costs of online medical consultations and conceivably more will