Pharmaceutical Market Europe • October 2021 • 24
THOUGHT LEADER
Optimising HCP experiences throughout the customer journey
By Fonny Schenck
Spoiler alert: field and non-field teams must work closer together if pharma’s to survive a radical shift in customers’ buying behaviours. The functions have often had an adversarial relationship, operating in silos and competing for ROI. It’s time to call a truce. If we want to give customers the omnichannel experiences they expect, collaboration between all customer-facing teams is essential.
Today’s healthcare professionals (HCPs) do things differently. Their journeys don’t start with reps, they begin online – the domain of marketing. They remain there for a while – researching – and most are two-thirds through the journey before they contemplate talking to sales. COVID-19 just accelerated the trend. Customers are demanding new ways of engaging. Fundamental change is required, specifically:
1. A new go-to-market model. The old sales-centric model must be enriched with stronger operational roles for marketing and medical to maximise interactions earlier in the customer journey. HCPs want relevant/personalised content and services on demand. That means moving from a (predominantly) push model to a balanced pull/push approach. Simply ‘raising the digital volume/noise’ isn’t the answer.
2. Stronger cross-functional collaboration to enable joined-up understanding of customers’ omnichannel journeys. This requires focused upskilling and organisational agility. Adding value at every interaction means marketing, medical and sales must work together – around the customer – with office-based teams fulfilling HCP needs at the top/middle of the funnel and nurturing leads for field teams to convert.
Pharma avoids terminology like ‘funnel’, but make no mistake, the funnel exists. It’s only by understanding how customers move through it that we can personalise experiences. This will drive better omnichannel planning, execution and impact. Right content, right channel, right time.
3. A 360º view of the customer. For collaboration to be effective, full visibility of HCPs’ behaviours is crucial – it’s fundamental to designing high-value experiences. Two-thirds of CX leaders think a 360º view is essential – but according to the Across Health 2021 Maturometer, just 34% of pharma agrees. This, alongside omnichannel satisfaction levels at an all-time low in pharma (11%), shows there’s much to do.
There’s no escaping it: we must sign up for omnichannel excellence for future success. The old adage – ‘sales is from Mars, marketing is from Venus’ – must make way for a truly customer-led approach.
NHS garden in full bloom at RHS Chelsea Flower Show
The sun was shining for September’s RHS Chelsea Flower show press day. One garden in particular, the ‘Finding Our Way: An NHS Tribute Garden’, bloomed especially brightly and got lots of attention.
The garden celebrates the tireless work of NHS staff, as well as commemorating all key worker efforts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Designed by Naomi Ferrett-Cohen for the University of Oxford and the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH), the garden came to fruition following conversations between Naomi and Professor John Frater, an Infectious Diseases consultant at the University of Oxford and OUH, following their collaboration on a previous garden in 2018.
The garden was awarded a silver medal in the Sanctuary Gardens category, where a special guest was in attendance – renowned chef Raymond Blanc OBE.
Raymond spent a month at the John Radcliffe Hospital fighting COVID-19 after being admitted in December 2020. He recently held a party at his restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons for some of the NHS staff to say thank you for the care they gave him.
Gilead Sciences was also proud to sponsor the event.
Michael Elliott, vice president medical affairs at Gilead Sciences, said: “Gilead is proud to be sponsoring this NHS Tribute Garden because we want to recognise the incredible efforts of the thousands of people who fought, and who continue to fight, the COVID-19 pandemic on the behalf of everybody in the UK. The garden pays tribute to the tens of thousands of NHS staff who have worked relentlessly to provide care and support for those in need, and also celebrates the universities and research groups who have led the world in the development of treatments and vaccines – showcasing why the UK’s unique partnership between hospitals and our universities is so valuable.”