CXM: where do you stand today?

CXM, a new term for some, a well-known abbreviation for others.

Since a number of years Customer and Patient Experience Management are hot topics in the life sciences industry. Originally and very often, driven from?teams in sales, marketing or customer services. Perceived as another attempt?to drive up sales through improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.?However, now the industry understands there is much more to this: customer experience?management generates a new world of opportunities for more valuable customer interactions. A "must do" implementation in a complex landscape with many actors?leading to one primary customer: the patient.?

"Patient First" mandates

Most life science companies have a "patient first" mandate in their mission statement. Quite explicitly. From large pharmaceuticals to small pharmacies. In order to follow up on their brand?promises,?they are now investing in improved customer experience across their eco system towards the patient. In the current landscape,?customers and patients are simply expecting more from their providers and brands. Much more than just products and services. And they are vocal about it. Improved experiences before, during and after the use.

Higher expectations

Transformation is happening at global scale in all life science segments. Traditional pharma, biopharmaceuticals, vaccines, cell therapies,?medical devices, all of them are starting to act. And with them, they involve the entire end-to-end business process including distributors, hospitals, retirement homes, and even the small pharmacies. All are investing in improved experiences for their customers. From pre-clinical, over supply chain?and?commercial to drug administration. Not only once, but?for the entire life of a patient and the?family. Customers want to experience a positive relationship when interacting during their journey. Implementing CX allows actors?to better interact to the benefit of their patients.

This is not about a new website

Let's kill this one. CXM is not simply about new digital technologies. It is not about a new website, a new CRM tool or setting up omni-channel solutions. It is definitely not about you. Think about buying a coffee. Buying an airplane ticket. Calling your broker. How easy is the interaction with these brands? And how do you feel when interacting with them? What is the experience left behind with you personally, before, during and after the business interaction?

Translated to life sciences: are your customers (HCPs) and patients really happy with your products or services??Do they recommend your company, products and services to their colleagues??How easy is it for them to do business with you??Do they enjoy the process??Do you really meet all expectations??Do you offer valuable and differentiating experiences??Do your patients and HCPs appreciate your customer support more than from others? Are you really placing your customers and?patients first? How can you do this better?

Advancing technologies

And yes, technology is critical. The higher customer needs are complemented by?the immense acceleration of new digital technologies and?innovations. Technologies are used to augment, complement and transform current processes and interactions. Customers are actively participating along their journeys, moments of truth are?changing. To stay competitive, all actors must embrace these new options?when evaluating their customer journeys.?Focussing on products?is not enough to meet customer expectations. Patients do expect more to stay satisfied and loyal. At the same time, these new technologies are being used during early development phases and?allow?life science actors to accelerate time to market and lower their delivery costs. Use advancing technology for better experiences.

A complex landscape

Life science is a complex B2B,?B2C and B2P landscape with many actors?directly or indirectly interacting?with partners. Some actors might need patient interactions for product development purposes, while others might need the same interactions for?commercial purposes.?In addition, the life science industry has an extremely wide range of interacting therapeutic areas with?specific needs.?Better customer experience management accelerates product development, lowers costs, increases revenues and?results in improved healthcare for all of us. And the benefits are mutual: even for the small pharmacies and practices in our towns, customer experience?helps to build higher patient satisfaction and loyalty levels.

Options and priorities

Over the last few years, we see a strong growth of?tools and solutions acting in the CXM arena. Some examples of technology options and components to engage customers include social media management, marketing automation, CPQ, content management, chat services, customer profiling, cross-channel management, service recovery management, patient trial enrolment, digital advertising. The list of new break-way innovative technologies changing the application and administration routes of medicines is even longer. Endless opportunities.

From all of these, which one should you select for your company, your products, your services, your therapeutic area, your business division? Which are meeting the specific business and technical requirements of particular life science actors? Many questions that need to be answered to prioritise well. A well-defined CX strategy is a minimum.

Time to start now

Due to the end-to-end?complexity, the implementation process takes time. And we have a long way ahead of us. Some companies still need to start understanding what customer experience management is all about. They still question if?they really need to invest in it or not. However, successful CXM even requires fundamental changes from companies in many areas beyond the technology only: culture, leadership, product development are some examples. Silos need to be broken. Similar to other sectors, life sciences need to become much more customer-centric from early phases onwards. In fact, technology is the easy part of the entire story. A story that only accelerates. There is no way back and this hurts.

So, where do you stand today?

Where do you stand with respect to customer and patient experience management? How do you score versus competitors and partners in life sciences? What are your strengths and working areas? Which technology do you still lack? Join our list of life science participants and take a couple of minutes to jump start your CXM work now by clicking here.

This survey will assess your current CXM maturity status in 7 critical areas: strategy,?organisational adoption, technology, process and innovation, eco system integration, customer understanding, and ROI metrics. We aim to help in creating a mutual win-win for healthcare providers, customers and patients.

The objective is to deliver immediate added value to you and your team. The detailed questions will generate some deep reflections in each of these critical CX areas. Triggering the right discussions and?allowing you and your team to accelerate your CXM work. In this way, we don't loose time when we meet and explore how we can help.?Following completion, you are invited to book a review session to discuss results. We gladly will provide you with our best recommendations and compare to benchmarks in life sciences.

Simply because a well-adopted CXM strategy is a win-win strategy for all parties.

To run the assessment immediately, simply click here