Our Head of Marketing Ada Deloughry on why healthcare is quietly becoming one of the strongest member benefits for building loyalty in the premium space.
Over the past year, I’ve watched healthcare climb the ranks of premium membership benefits. UK banks are building it into their Premier accounts. Gym chains and insurers are adding it to their top tiers. It now sits comfortably alongside travel, insurance and lifestyle perks, and it is often the one working hardest.
What interests me is why. And I think the answer to that is loyalty.
Most premium perks are occasional by nature. Airport lounge access, annual travel insurance, the concierge line, a members' discount: these are valued in principle but reached for once or twice a year, if that. They look good at sign-up but fall off the radar.
Healthcare is the other way round. People will always need a GP, a physiotherapist or a counsellor to talk to far more often than they need a lounge. A benefit people reach for through the year is one they remember when the renewal notice arrives, because by then it's already earned its keep.
Here is the thing most benefit reviews miss. Loyalty does not come from how many benefits you offer. It comes from how many get used. And on that, healthcare is hard to beat.
There is an emotional layer too. When a service helps someone get their child seen at nine in the evening, or gives a worried person a real clinician to talk to, that hits very differently from 2% cashback. Health is the thing people care about most, for themselves and their families, so help at the right moment builds a warmth towards the brand that a saving on a purchase rarely will.
The services that work best are the everyday ones, like a GP, a physio or counsellor. Practical help that fits into a normal week, reachable from a phone, with no waiting room and no cost to the member at the point of need. It can sit within an existing tier as the thing that sets the account apart, or become a paid upgrade in its own right, turning a valued benefit into a new line of revenue as well.
At HealthHero, we are seeing this first-hand. We provide digital healthcare to several UK gym chains and insurers, built into their member offers, and what stands out is how much members actually use it. They get virtual GP appointments, mental health support, physiotherapy and nutrition advice, all reachable from a phone in minutes and answered by real clinicians rather than chatbots.
Part of why it works for the organisations offering it is that it asks so little of them. The service runs on our side through one app and one login, so there are no new systems to build or maintain, and it comes with the reach and regulatory compliance members expect. HealthHero is Europe's largest digital clinic, supporting more than 35 million people and delivering over 4 million consultations a year. It is rated Good and Outstanding by the CQC.
The premium space is crowded, and a lot of accounts are starting to look like one another. My take is that the membership programmes that hold people over the next few years will be the ones whose benefits members genuinely use. The ones that get used in someone's real day-to-day rather than only in the welcome pack. Healthcare is turning out to be one of the clearest examples of that.
The test for any membership team is simple. Of everything you offer, what do members actually use? If healthcare is not part of that answer yet, it is definitely worth a look.
Here’s an overview of the services we bring to membership programmes. My team and I are always happy to talk it through with anyone thinking this through for their own programme.