Enjoyed part one of our Measurement Research? Have a read of part two below and our future-focussed update.
Prescient’s Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, Stephanie Hall explored ‘Measuring What Matters’ in pharma and biotech.
In part two of Steph’s research she looks specifically at the Customer Experience, the journey the customer goes on from adoption to engagement, and how we can effectively measure customer engagement and patient centricity.
Measuring what matters in 2024 and beyond
Stephanie is back with an exciting continuation of our ‘Measuring What Matters’ series, focusing on the next frontier in pharma and biotech: Customer Empowerment and Digital Engagement.
In this new 2024+ update, we delve deeper into how the evolving landscape of customer behaviour, driven by digital health tools and platforms, is reshaping the way we measure success in the industry. The era of passive patients and one-way communication is rapidly fading. Instead, we’re seeing an empowered customer base that actively participates in their healthcare journey, demands transparency, and seeks personalised experiences. But how can pharma and biotech companies effectively measure and respond to these shifting dynamics?
Our latest research uncovers key trends and strategies:
- Digital Health Integration: The adoption of digital health tools—such as wearable devices, mobile health apps, and telemedicine platforms—has skyrocketed. These tools not only provide valuable health insights to patients but also offer pharma companies real-time data to gauge customer engagement and treatment outcomes. Understanding how to measure and leverage this data is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge.
- Personalised Customer Journeys: Patients and healthcare providers now expect personalised experiences that go beyond the traditional “one-size-fits-all” approach. This means that customer engagement strategies must be tailored to individual needs and preferences. Companies that measure and act on these personalised interactions will see higher levels of customer loyalty and brand advocacy.
- The Role of AI and Predictive Analytics: Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept—it’s here and transforming how we understand customer behaviour. Predictive analytics can help identify patterns in customer interactions, allowing companies to anticipate needs and engage proactively. But to do this effectively, measuring the right data points is essential.
- Sustainability and Trust: With increasing awareness around sustainability and ethical practices, customers are now considering a company’s values as part of their engagement. How does your company’s commitment to environmental and social responsibility impact customer perception? Measuring trust and sustainability-related engagement metrics is becoming a key component of a comprehensive measurement strategy.
Our research shows that while the pharma and biotech sectors have made strides in embracing digital tools, there is still significant room for improvement in measuring customer empowerment and digital engagement. Those who lead in this space will not only meet regulatory and market demands but also foster stronger, more meaningful relationships with their customers.
Prescient’s industry research shows that the pharma / biotech industry is lagging behind other industries in customer satisfaction. But why does customer engagement matter in the healthcare industry? We are facing dramatic changes in pharma, from overall marketing expenses being cut, higher demands from regulators and payers, access to prescribing getting harder and patients becoming more empowered. This means that companies which proactively engage the customer, whoever that may be, will be able to navigate the rapidly changing environment.
Traditionally, the pharmaceutical sector has been a ‘push’ industry, one where marketers and sales reps ‘push’ their products onto customers, predominantly either physicians or patients. The spread of new digital platforms and the organisational models they permit, are promoting the emergence of a ‘pull’ industry – one where customers are empowered to understand their personal needs and seek out appropriate solutions and products accordingly. A customer’s relationship with a brand is experienced through prompt subscription deliveries, responsive customer service and high-quality medicines – moments of truth in which concrete services overlap with a customer’s overall opinion of a brand. Identifying exactly which moments shape customer engagement is important for formulating a workable strategy and knowing what to measure.
Customer-centric metrics and KPIs are the most valuable measures to track across key patient, payer and prescriber segments. Defining and delivering on customer experience can result in more loyal, vocal and active prescribers. Measuring how, when and where target customers engage with your brand and company is an essential part of marketing measurement. At present very few pharma / biotech teams are measuring customer engagement and experience or allocating budget to tracking these important metrics.
Why does customer engagement matter?
Healthcare is facing dramatic changes.
The patient cliff – beginning in 2010, the pharmaceutical industry faced one of the biggest waves of drug patient expirations in history.
Overall marketing expenses have been cut – sales forces around the world were reduced by the organisations prepared for the patent cliff, and focussed on specialty meds requiring fewer sales reps and different approaches.
Higher demand from regulators and payers – demanding better outcomes and proven value from every drug approved and reimbursed.
Access to prescribers is getting harder – with less than half of all HCPs willing to meet with pharma sales reps, and benchmark for customer experience being set outside of pharma by word-class customer experience brands.
Customers direct how they want to access information – a proliferation of online channels has out the power to the hands of customers. They now choose how, which channels and when they access information.
Patients are empowered – active and informed.
Redefining what customer means – from prescribers only to patients, prescribers, payers and providers – decision-making was not he domain of the physician, but increased patient empowerment blurs the line as to who owns the relationship with pharma companies.
Companies that proactively engage the customer, whoever that may be, will be able to navigate the challenging environment. The emerging business model is that accentuates consumer choice, explicit value versus price considerations, engagement and dialogue, and lifestyle care.
Tips to start measurement your customer engagement
1 – Know where your customer is in the journey before you start – so you know the shift you have achieved, and enabling you to create high-quality customer experiences through personalisation, segmentation and optimisation.
2 – Set clear objectives for your customer engagement programme and measure progress towards these objectives.
3 – Design how you want to measure from the start – build measurement into the implementation plans for experiences so you can rapidly develop understanding about what is working.
4 – Measure success from both your organisation’s perspective, and your customer’s – you won’t know if you have achieved a truly customer-centred experience unless you see it from their point of view.
5 – Build in a range of implementation, leading and impact metrics so you can track progress towards customer engagement, and course correct as needed.
6 – Measure the quality of the experience not just the outcome – you might use Net Promoter Score, Gallup’s engagement ratio, sentiment monitoring – it doesn’t matter how you do it, but you must understand how your customers rate their experiences, and how you are progressing towards your customer engagement goals.
7 – Measure the impact on sales – go back to sales data, segment it for your target customers and understand the impact – this will be more expensive in the short term, but you’ll waste huge amounts of money in the long run if you’re not sure what works and what doesn’t.
8 – Adopt a culture where learning for mistakes is expected, and marketing is expected to learn, iterate and continually improve.
9 – Consolidate your customer data to better understand who and what customers seek – know what data is available in your organisation – often there are multiple already available data sources that will help you now that you may not be aware of.
10 – Know how your organisation is investing in collecting and analysing Big Data so you can use this opportunity to design more comprehensive metrics, and know how to leverage this exciting opportunity.
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