Consistent, positive customer experience is the best loyalty magnet

Recently, a doctor friend prescribed a specific insulin pen to a family member. Later, I checked with the doctor why he had recommended that specific brand and not its older, more established competitor.

The reason was the difference in customer experience.

Like a wedding, commitment matters more than the event

A fancy wedding cannot guarantee a happy married life. Just as a fancy launch cannot ensure enduring customer loyalty.

Often pharma companies get carried away by the clinical muscle of their brand or the company’s own sterling reputation. Instead they ought to pay more attention to the HCPs and their patients. What are their pain points? How will this brand address those? How can the company make their journey easier??

A?Mckinsey report?cited the example of a new therapy launch for rheumatoid arthritis that focused on “enhancing the patient’s experience and improving engagement and outcomes.” All the patient had to do was scan a barcode on the drug packaging to join a patient-support program. The company also created a companion app that “provided education, encouraged adherence,” making it easy to route treatment questions to a call and video center. They had a parallel engagement program for HCPs too. The result was a jump in compliance and success rates. And, of course, in revenues.

“As complexity increases in the pharma market and competition intensifies in areas such as oncology and immunology, optimizing the customer experience becomes even more important,” the report observed.

It is important to tap multiple data points to create a persona of not just the HCP (the primary customer) but also that of the patient (the customer’s customer). The experience must be tailored for this persona.

Know, design, deliver

The three components of a successful, customer-centric launch program are data, design and delivery. The company must gather all possible information about the therapeutic category, current competition and patient profiles. The communication must be designed to appeal to the specific needs of the HCPs not just at the macro level but also at the segmented level. Finally, the communication must be delivered to each HCP using the channel he or she prefers.

An educational video might work best for the patient, but the HCP may want a web-based snappy summary of the latest research reports and the option to speak to a medical expert for answers to specific questions.

This approach necessitates not only good knowledge of the medical side but also that of the right technology to capture, analyze and deliver the right information through the right channel.

Good customer experience delivers

Apparently, the diabetologist friend did not have happy memories about the time when the older pen was launched. “They made us doctors do half the work for them. We had to educate the customers and follow up to ensure that the patient followed our instructions correctly. Some of the patients faced problems because they found the pen difficult to use.”

How was it different with his preferred brand? “Do you know I came to know more about the new brand from my patients? The company launched a campaign across multiple media to educate patients about the importance of following the regimen and the correct use of their device. They also roped in chemists. I did not have to spend any time in educating the patients. Nor did a single patient develop any problems. The company shared my concern for the patient and for me that mattered a lot.’

?Maybe every insulin pen is the same. Just like every brand in the same category. For discerning HCPs, the difference often lies in their experience and that of their customers, the patients.

Dr Pratibha Karande heads the digital communication function at Ethosh Digital, which designs and develops pharma communications.