A sharpened focus on CX

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A sharpened focus on CX

By Eric Redline, VP of omnichannel strategy and implementation, Ashfield Engage.

“Customer Experience” (CX) has been in the industry vernacular for years now, but as we look at 2022, we see the industry working harder to sharpen its focus on CX. We see it becoming more pragmatic in tactical ways. What do we mean by that? The industry has been forced to think about CX in a fundamentally different way as a result of the pandemic and has used new technologies to drive engagement, but the fact remains, there is still much to be done.

We believe this embrace of technology will continue no matter what a new normal will look like. The industry has seen what these new technologies can deliver, and now they are looking to bring the people and processes together to effect real change. A key difference will be moving beyond just using omnichannel technology to actually connecting the threads between chat bots, websites, portals, to deliver a richer level of personalization. We will be looking to capture not just what is going on, but the sentiments, emotions and satisfaction that these engagements engender. Those elements have been the missing pieces thus far, and that is what we will start to see happening in 2022.

Some of these missing pieces have been addressed through customer research, but this approach has thus far fallen short of capturing and utilizing customer insights in a consistent and continuous manner, and certainly not in real time. This is where the various AI platforms come into play. With the power of conversational AI, you can flip customer conversations through an analytical platform and search more on tone, tenor, feelings and emotions. In so doing we can better understand how the patient or HCP is actually feeling. That makes up a significant piece of this omnichannel and CX puzzle – getting to the emotions behind the conversation. Today the components are still highly siloed within most organizations. Companies that collect and parse the data and have the tools and technologies to deliver on those data-fueled insights are on the right path, but they still need to build synergy around the groups involved. Putting metrics and KPIs around the CX and floating the term “patient centricity” has been going on for over 15 years, but the industry still isn’t operating in a completely patient centric manner. Pharma still tends to be very brand focused given the pressure brand leadership is under to deliver results for their specific product.

The Treatment Experience Blueprint offered by Nuvera Life Science Consulting, An Ashfield Engage Company, is a powerful tool in becoming truly patient centric. It helps pharma companies best align the various cross-functional teams within an organization around a consistent understanding, focus, and development of strategic and tactical plans to put the patient first. As a result, the collective outcomes inform real patient engagement with the organization and at a therapeutic area level rather than just the individual brand.

On the other hand, awareness of the many patient service programs and services pharma offers is an ongoing challenge. Nuvera conducts a study known as the PURE report, which is an independent industry benchmark of HCP satisfaction, utilization and evolving needs across patient support programs in different therapeutic areas. Year after year patient service program awareness is always scored low across 492 surveyed healthcare providers. Of the seven PURE Report indices, the ranking of CX attributes for a program can help reveal areas of opportunity to improve HCP and patient experience.

Again, despite efforts to connect the dots, the industry is not there yet, and support programs and therapies are not being adopted as they should be. As a result, we are seeing a cottage industry of start-ups evolving, where companies like Ashfield Engage are harnessing these start-ups’ technologies and integrating them into wider solutions that fulfill the holistic view of the treatment experience that Nuvera provides. AdhereTech with its smart pill bottle sending medication reminders, or Noom with its approach to behavior change, are such examples of innovative approaches to patient support. Such innovations and partnerships will continue in order to make the overall treatment journey more palatable and to ensure that patients are getting the care they need when they need it.

Pharma also is continuing to change how to improve the CX through the HCP. Outreach to the HCP and the entire office team is evolving to provide engagement through the care continuum. If the office is not aware there is a patient support program, then once again you are asking the patient to find you. Patient support programs are also starting to provide a feedback loop to the HCP, so that they understand the treatment challenges. Having this electronic feedback is providing the HCP with vital information to impact change.

To this end, there will need to be an emphasis on dynamic content. The same creatives cannot be constantly repurposed to different channels. People react and respond differently to each channel, and content should be created to speak to that specific channel and audience. We will see more of a focus on storytelling, hopefully the long email with dense content will be deployed less often. Content should be broken down into more manageable bites and personalized based on the needs of the recipient. To be successful in the future, we need to create a sustainable, long-term journey between pharma, the HCP and the patient. We need to talk directly to a customer with personalized messaging based on data from prior content engagements. The marketing team and sales rep will need to have a better understanding of these dynamics and push out content and messages accordingly, taking advantage of the new technology platforms to engage customers rather than alienate them.

Partnerships with outsourced providers will continue in 2022 as the industry struggles with the agility, flexibility and depth of expertise to bring about many of these changes and technological improvements in the timely manner. Outsourced providers are able to do things more quickly, pilot and bring best practices back because their experience covers a broader spectrum of therapeutic areas, use cases, and technology platforms. Outsourced providers also tend to look at the industry through a more holistic lens, understanding how patients feel across the board and not specific to one brand or therapy area. Patients are often managing multiple therapies and increasingly complex treatment journeys which can feel overwhelming and isolating. Our industry needs to continually re-evaluate how the patient engages with their content and recognize their brand may be only a small part of the overall process. Once this view is more broadly adopted, we can begin to truly deliver a personalized customer experience. An outsourced partner has the infrastructure to deploy AI in real time and then parse that data on both a micro and trend level to fuel these future customer engagements. For start-up pharma companies and new treatment areas, this ability to hit the ground running with a partner is invaluable.