Understanding how to encourage digital services take-up

The Problem/Challenge/Opportunity

The NHS are on a drive to encourage more people to utilise digital services. The core reasons for doing so go beyond cost savings but will ultimately provide a basis to help collect more data that can be shared effectively to help provide more preventative care. The core of our research was to ascertain how to achieve this with groups that are less digital-native or those that have a reluctance to do so or are more isolated by location. 

The Approach

In trying to speak to a number of elderly and more rural audiences who we could not interview via a web call, we had to explore different methods to gather the insights we needed. We infiltrated community centres, nursing homes, libraries; anywhere where we could access our audience. We then used a number of methods including phone calls, surveys, and diary packs to gather the insights we needed.

What we witnessed 

One of the most interesting parts of this study is that we were able to find some segments that the NHS had not considered to be a priority. Our initial literature review and a wider quantitative survey helped with this. For instance, we identified that men between 35 to 55 who were involved in trades were a core cohort that would be more difficult to encourage to use digital services.

The Results

The key finding was that many of the audiences actually wanted to access digital service, and beyond this they wanted to be able to use tech and the Internet in their daily lives. They just did not know how. The company which partnered with us for this specific project later partnered with Barclays who donated 1000 tablets. An initiative was also set up to go into a number of communities to teach individuals how to use them to access services and to more widely enjoy the Internet. 

All the best

Lee @ Runway Consulting