Innovation through customer experience: Lessons from MedTech

In 2025, Swiss industry faces a double blow: a strong franc that erodes export margins, and U.S. tariffs that destabilize entire business models. MedTech companies, employing 72,000 people in Switzerland, are particularly exposed.

According to SwissMedTech, the U.S. accounted for 23% of exports in 2023, behind the EU (50%). Yet in the U.S., fixed reimbursement frameworks prevent companies from passing cost increases on to end prices. Financial or regulatory levers alone will not suffice. Confronted with intensifying global competition—especially from Asia—MedTech companies can no longer rely solely on technological excellence. They must demonstrate value that is perceived, felt, and hard to substitute to protect their margin.

This is where customer experience becomes a critical strategic lever.

From product to experience: A paradigm shift

Traditionally, Swiss MedTech innovation has focused on technical performance. But under pricing pressure and facing low-cost alternatives, even the most advanced products must now prove that they deliver a superior, tangible, and memorable experience.

This shift is not about optimizing the existing. It is a reconceptualization of value creation: justifying premium pricing, building intangible differentiators that are hard to copy, and erecting new barriers against low-cost alternatives. When economic survival is at stake, every customer interaction must become a moment of lasting differentiation.

What Swiss MedTech Can Learn from CX champions

Customer experience goes far beyond after-sales service. It is built across the entire journey: product discovery, integration into hospital practices, and everyday use by patients. This holistic approach transforms technology into a catalyst for sustainable relational ecosystems.

A key enabler: data. Experiential innovation is rooted in concrete use cases. Consider this analogy: would you prefer a pressure cooker that cooks five minutes faster, or one that sends a smartphone alert when your meal is ready? Translated to healthcare, this means that diabetes or cardiac monitoring must be designed as a seamless, engaging user experience—not merely as a technical performance.

Quiz: Assess your response capacity to the double shock of US tariffs and the strong franc.

5 high-impact customer experience levers for MedTech

1. Digital clinical onboarding: immersive training (VR/AR) to accelerate adoption.
2. Seamless integration into hospital workflows: plug & play, APIs, interoperability.
3. Smart support: medical chatbots + proactive human service + patient portals.
4. Enhanced patient experience: dashboards, self-management, gamification, alerts, and real-time monitoring.
5. Clinical personalization: interfaces tailored by specialty, data-driven UX.

What results can be achieved?

According to a Frost & Sullivan study (2023), MedTech companies that embed a customer experience strategy see:

• +22% in customer retention,
• +18% adoption rate at 12 months,
• +15% margins on premium product lines.

These results prove that experiential intelligence creates a stronger barrier to entry than technology alone. It builds more resilient value ecosystems, capable of withstanding geopolitical turbulence and low-cost Asian competition.

Where to begin? A four-step method

At Ad Valoris, we help innovative companies like MedTech identify differentiating experience levers through a structured approach:

A four-step method

1. Map user journeys by segment (professionals, patients, institutions).
2. Identify friction points and delight moments.
3. Measure the business impact of key moments.
4. Co-create experiential solutions (UX, processes, tools, interfaces).

3 key takeaways :

1. Customer experience as a strategic lever in the face of economic pressures
   Under the dual constraint of a strong Swiss franc and US tariffs, Swiss MedTech companies can no longer rely solely on technological excellence: they must create perceived, differentiating value through customer experience.
2. From product innovation to experiential innovation
   Shifting from a logic centered on technical performance to a holistic approach focused on experience (patients, caregivers, institutions) enables companies to justify premium pricing, increase loyalty, and make their offers less substitutable against low-cost alternatives.
3. Methods and levers to transform the experience
   MedTech companies that invest in seamless, personalized journeys (digital onboarding, interoperability, smart support, patient monitoring, clinical personalization) achieve measurable gains in adoption, loyalty, and margins. The process begins with a structured 4-step audit: mapping, friction analysis, business scoring, and collaborative design.