An international McKinsey report on the pharma industry delivered a startling conclusion: it said that no less than 81% of Health Care Professionals (HCP) is unsatisfied with the way the industry engages with them. Here is what multichannel managers in pharma say that the industry can do about it.
Information overload
The main reason for the dissatisfaction? The unpersonal approach combined with a message that is far too generic. On top of that, they find far too little information online, despite the fact that 70% of HCP’s consider themselves digital natives. They expect to find information online, but they don’t.
Representatives from the industry say that the outcome of the report comes as ‘no surprise’, after asking them how they view these results. One of them says: ‘Much of the information is perceived as “rubbish” or spam, because it isn’t relevant to them at that very moment. We live in a time and age wherein people are overloaded with information. When they feel obliged to read something and it turns out to be irrelevant, they can feel misunderstood.’
Let's personalize
There is a lot to improve for the industry, the multichannel managers acknowledge. One says: ‘We are moving forward. A first step is to personalise our client approach. We are currently working hard to map client profiles on a detailed level. These profiles are much more refined than the traditional buyer personas.’
Webinars for medical education
A major hurdle to take is the set-up of the internal organisations, the representatives say. ‘It starts with leadership and I am pleased to see that management acknowledges client engagement as a strategic topic. However, we also need to activate our sales teams, adjust CRM tools and create valuable follow-ups.
This means that we need to diversify our communications even more, aligning with the wish for more digital information. One of the ways to do this is via webinars. Today, webinars are primarily used for medical education purposes, one of the reasons why HCP’s engage with pharma companies. Fundamentally, it is about a change in the ways of working, which is never easy, but we will get there.’
The answer is digital
The multichannel managers are optimistic about the future. ‘Today we are at a crossroad. With the opportunities digital and AI are bringing us, we must be able to significantly improve that HCP’s satisfaction rate – maybe even up to 50% . In 5 years, it will have improved even more. The tools offered by the digital space are going to help us achieve that we are going to serve health care professionals when they want it and how they want it. Webinars can play a very important part in this improved customer satisfaction. They will probably also evolve to further personalization. Changing the internal organisations will be the first step of this journey.’