Improving the Pharmaceutical Customer Experience with Customer Centricity

Today, pharmaceutical customers, otherwise known as patients, deserve and demand a positive experience. By taking a customer-centric approach with the goal of solving problems with positive changes, actions, and company improvements, this becomes possible.

For years, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies focused primarily on giving patients and doctors access to information about newer and better drugs. However, traditional players in the pharmaceutical industry now need to keep pace with the digital transformation. That shift in the market combined with multimillion-dollar lawsuits, stricter government regulations, and reduced personal time with doctors made it become essential that pharmaceutical companies start focusing more on patients and less on products.

People who make up the customer base for the pharmaceutical industry have growing patient concerns. Considering the stress that doctors face from a high-risk job, ongoing rule and regulation changes, long hours at work, and patient responsibility, pharmaceutical companies have a unique opportunity to help reduce those stressors. By creating trusted partnerships, these companies and doctors can discuss concerns, followed by devising a plan for serving patients more efficiently.

On the other hand, patients have a multifaceted experience. Not only do they interact with their doctors but also their insurance providers and the actual prescriptions. By delivering stellar services and improving communication, pharmaceutical companies can help doctors at each connecting point, thereby giving patients a better experience.

What Does the Future Hold?

While better connections across various healthcare and pharmaceutical companies now exist, not everyone focuses on the same thing. For instance, some people want to improve patient education, while others prefer to bridge the gap between doctors and sales reps. Regardless, everyone agrees that taking a customer-centric as opposed to product-centric approach is the best way to achieve goals.

With that mindset, the pharmaceutical industry is going through a transformation. Companies are improving the services delivered, and sales reps are getting the face-to-face time with doctors they need. The shift is so dramatic that some of the most prominent pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Merck, are creating departments dedicated to patient services complete with concierge-type assistance.

Ultimately, pharmaceutical companies are striving to deliver the right services and products through the appropriate channels and at the optimum time.

Feedback from Patients

Driven by forces in the market, pharmaceutical companies recognize the need to adopt and incorporate technologies that will enhance patient engagement. In turn, that will improve data transparency and create products that are deemed more relevant. By surveying patient feedback at critical junctures throughout the treatment journey and using known processes, the data will help pharmaceutical companies determine in real time the precise services that deliver the most value to patients.

Eventually, that information will allow stakeholders to create a superior and enjoyable patient experience on a consistent basis. Not only will ongoing customer relationships become more sustainable but also more profitable.

Instead of just information and awareness from healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, patients want customized solutions. In a fiercely competitive market, it is vital for the pharmaceutical industry to adopt a customer-centric attitude and take the appropriate steps toward change. By collaborating with the healthcare industry, pharmaceutical companies will not just survive but thrive.