Challenges:

Bonfils Blood Centers of Colorado was looking to increase blood donations to meet the growing demand for blood products throughout the region and across the country. Lapsed and non-donors were identified as primary audiences for investigation and an online blood donor portal was identified as a potential vehicle for outreach for future donors.

Process/Methods:

It was equally important for us to learn about why people do and do not donate blood. This goal drove our research process. Because of the medical and potentially personal nature of our inquiry, we opted for individual interviews over focus groups. We also expanded our research to include interviews with frequent and infrequent donors in addition to lapsed and non-donors. We interviewed 6-8 members of each of these audiences in a variety of settings selected by the participants to create a unique experience model of the blood donation process. The subtle differences we observed in the experience models of frequent and infrequent donors made us identify converting infrequent donors to frequent donors as the best opportunity to increase overall donations.

Results:

Our experience model of the blood donation process from the frequent donor perspective created a functional roadmap for development of the donor portal. Automating functions like reminders offered the chance to gain 1-2 more donations per year from infrequent donors, thereby converting them to frequent donors. This enhanced functionality would also serve to bring back lapsed donors. Our recommendations for non-donors was to create enhanced and easy to find messaging about safety and eligibility, the primary concerns non-donors expressed about donating blood.