May the Omnichannel be with you... or not.

On Star Wars day 2023 (May the 4th), a group of digital rebels got together online and in London to discuss what the actual F*ck, Omnichannel is. Thanks to twentyeightb (28b Ltd) for the invite to their live hybrid event yesterday. It was great to be there in person.

Following the event, do we have a better idea of what the F*ck Omnichannel is after the session? I'm not sure. Was there a general agreement that Omnichannel is an overused buzzword that has lost its meaning? Maybe. Do we know how Darth Vader actually eats in that mask? No.

However, there were some excellent points made about how we move the relationships between pharma/customers, commercial/medical, people/technology, meaningful customer metrics/traditional commercial metrics, forward. Here's a quick summary (paraphrased heavily and in no particular order):

• If Steve Jobs can get us excited about laptops and Elon Musk about batteries, surely we can get people excited about healthcare - arguably the most emotive industry of them all - Paul Simms
• With HCPs time so limited, we have a moral obligation to not waste the time of doctors. - James Harper, paraphrasing a quote from Paul Simms
• Pharma have bastardised omnichannel from consumer industries - and cherry picked it to death. Don’t forget what it actually was - a way to analyse and reduce customer friction so they can buy products faster and easier. Better customer experiences, equals more brand loyalty, which equals more purchases over time.
• It comes down to the numbers - all brand/marketing strategies and activities are used to measure success, which usually takes the form of penetration, engagement, etc. type metrics…. But, really we need to be measuring customer experience as well. However, what those metrics are and what good looks like, is TBC on the most part.
• Don’t just do what the customers say, otherwise they will just want faster horses (...instead of cars as Henry Ford so eloquently put it when developing the very first motor car). We need to ‘guide’ customers - listening without action or guidance is a waste.
• Are current incentive plans for reps driving the right behaviours? How do you encourage reps to change behaviours? Sometimes incentive plans need to be seen as a means to an end, if considered as part of a journey to actual customer centricity
• Field teams have so much knowledge - they could be amazing resources for co-creating marketing and medical content… it will mean reps are more likely to push the content if they have helped in the creation of it.
• Building trust is so important - 5 dysfunctions of a team really worked for a team at Amgen to drive towards higher performance and goals - start with the culture. - Chris Mann (I can second this - the book is excellent).
• The role of a brand manager is going to change over the next 5 years… In theory, there should just be no more digital excellence type roles as ‘digital’ should be baked into the brand marketing role - like social media is now just part of a marketing mix and not a standalone channel.
• Why are CRMs not a single source of truth for a customers journey with a company. The CRM needs to move from being a sales tool, to being something more cross-departmental - sales reps, medical reps, marketing, etc.
• With the predicted industry wide commercial budget cuts still looming, there will be more of a reliance on data, technologies, and marketing strategies/content to keep the levels of meaningful engagement with customers as high as possible.
• Technology is not the problem. Knowing what to do with the tech and the mindset around all the tech, channels and the overall purpose of the tools, to enable actual customer/business goals, are the biggest obstacles.
• Lack of trust between medical and commercial is stupid. Medical should be one of the most powerful parts of an organisation, and the relationship between the 2 departments is symbiotic. Medical have the HCP relationship, commercial need to move the business forward and make sure it is performing...to keep everyone employed!
• Have collaborative sessions where it isn’t commercial teams presenting to the rest of the group, but it’s coming together with a blank(ish) sheet to define something together. Frances Tulley
• Don’t forget the lived reality of doctors and people in healthcare. They are under resourced, sometimes under paid…. It’s not up to the reps to drive different behaviours around this. They need to work with their customers and truly consider the customers' circumstances. The value of understanding and helping cannot be understated.

• Practical advice from the panel - 1 piece of advice each:
• Chris - celebrate small successes. They add up and give confidence.
• Paul - content is more important than the channel. Gain trust. Trust your instincts.
• Frances - don’t lose sight of the end goal to benefit the healthcare system and the balance you need to strike between that and commercially for your own business
• Henry - there is no such thing as the perfect customer experience. Keep focused on the customer. Change is hard, but worth it
• James - get the collaboration of team going asap.

Thanks to the panel - James Harper , Frances Tulley , Paul Simms , Chris Mann and Henry Thompson-Ashby . Really excellent dialogue. - The Force is with you all.

Looking forward to continuing the conversation with all, to move our industry forward, together - as Yoda says - "Do or Do not, there is no Try".

Rob

#tangent90 #omnichannel #pharma #CX #pharmamarketing #pharmareps #medical