Omnichannel: from theory to successful implementation

Within the life sciences, discussions persist about how we need to take a more omnichannel approach towards healthcare professional (HCP) engagement, but what does that mean in reality?

‘Omnichannel harmony’, as defined in IQVIA’s June 2024 white paper, as ‘empowered people equipped with data-driven insights, personalised content with seamless orchestration across channels, individualised HCP profiling and measured HCP experience’ remains one of the most compelling customer engagement strategies today given its potential to boost brand loyalty. The paper states that when life sciences organisations effectively orchestrate three elements – strategy and change management, channels and content, and customers and insights – they will achieve omnichannel harmony that will lead to stronger HCP relationships and better patient outcomes.

An omnichannel strategy emphasises the importance of offering a specific customer experience by integrating across channels to deliver a consistent brand experience. A recent IQVIA poll showed that over 90% of life sciences organisations remain at either single or multichannel engagement with only 3% stating they had achieved omnichannel harmony to deliver personalised communications and content to HCPs at the right time and through their preferred channel.

Achieving omnichannel harmony continues to challenge medical, marketing and commercial teams alike. It is becoming an essential factor not only in the successful integration of medicines into clinical practice but also in fostering the longevity of future customer engagement.

So, how can brands accelerate their omnichannel experiences to deliver a greater and more positive customer experience for their customers?

Using robust and integrated customer data should form the bedrock of any omnichannel strategy. This can help to accelerate the understanding of customer preferences, personas and how and when they consume relevant medical, scientific or promotional content.
However, even the best data and cutting-edge technology cannot deliver a winning omnichannel strategy on its own. Ensuring that companies have the best customer-facing professionals who have the expertise, competencies and mindset to do the job is equally critical to achieving successful omnichannel HCP engagement.

Despite advances in digital channels, it remains clear that HCPs globally continue to value personalised, in-person interactions with life sciences organisations more than digital interactions.

So how can companies develop a winning omnichannel strategy?

A winning strategy requires the integration of four key components:

1. Advanced technology
2. Robust data and analytics
3. Skilled customer-facing teams
4. Alignment across marketing, digital, medical and commercial sales functions.

Collaboration with experienced external partners can help build and strengthen IT infrastructures and ensure robust insights about the evolving preferences of customers.  The use of contract sales organisations (CSOs) can bolster field-based capabilities for greater HCP engagement, enabling effective and efficient use of high-quality data, specialist knowledge, resources and expertise at-scale to fast-track omnichannel proficiency.

Finding talent that can deliver across these capabilities, and to recruit in-house, can often be a challenge. The need to prepare customer-facing teams to embrace this new omnichannel future is driving a significant rise in the need for more specialised roles for HCP engagement. Traditionally, CSO outsourcing has been viewed as a shorter-term solution, often used to address shortages in talent, gaps in infrastructure or temporary fluctuations in workflow. However, with rising complexities and increasing demand to meet evolving HCP expectations, many life sciences companies are now reconsidering the longer-term advantages of these CSO partnerships. This reconsideration enables an agile, flexible sales approach that provides all the capabilities to ‘hit the ground running’, capitalising on short-, medium- and long-term engagement opportunities.

While an omnichannel strategy is often created by marketing with a brand focus, its implementation requires alignment across medical, commercial and sales functions.  Internal alignment to share knowledge, insights and optimal approaches to customers – both within and across brands and functions within an organisation – is equally critical to ensure a harmonised approach towards engagement. Omnichannel capabilities of customer-facing teams are not always considered a priority in terms of CSO outsourcing. Ensuring a highly skilled salesforce with experience, knowledge and reach remain key to omnichannel success.

References are available on request.