Not many people would pay for a ticket to a concert where their seat was positioned behind a pillar and directly below the auditorium’s grumbling air-conditioning vent. The white noise and restricted vision would be enough to render the whole transaction worthless and futile.
Digital advances offer an opportunity to put healthcare professionals (HCPs) in the best seat in the house, with the content of their choice, but too often the experience has been off-key because of omnichannel confusion and overload.
However, orchestrating omnichannel engagement is creating amplified impact across a range of touchpoints, thanks to intelligence-driven data management and system design that is enhancing customer experience.
Connecting with precision and efficiency is now critical, as almost 70% of HCPs are digital natives with high levels of tech dependency and expectation, while 57% of HCPs prefer omnichannel engagement with pharma.
“Omnichannel has existed as a concept in industry for a while but it is growing very quickly now and we are seeing the V2 and V3 versions developing and I’m working with big pharma clients who are invested in getting omnichannel rolled out and working smoothly,” says Audrey Gent, Client Strategy Director at Kanga Healthcare, a full service digital agency that works with pharmaceutical and healthcare companies to embed transformative CX (Customer Experience) practice across the organisation.
“We have the tools and digital capability to make omnichannel work and the potential is exciting.”
Hitting the sweet notes of an individual HCP’s clinical needs, engagement preferences and attention windows is becoming more achievable with advanced analytics, yet the temptation to jump on every digital opportunity can result in pharma almost “pecking HCPs” to distraction, observes Audrey. There is no need to overload them as omnichannel now has the capacity for engagements to be selective and meaningful, she says.
Optimising omnichannel results still has its challenges, with a need to upskill teams, invest in data generation, analysis and application, along with a C-suite driven commitment to remove silos that restrict the full use of assets, whether that’s data, staff expertise or historical corporate knowledge.
“It is not just getting close to customers, looking at their CX and trying to tailor your content in the right channel at the right time for them – it’s a much bigger learning curve, managing data, looking at that data and using it to iterate and understand how to improve,” adds Audrey. “So, there are a lot of challenges around the upskilling of what are predominantly product managers who haven’t necessarily got a marketing background.
“You should aspire to be more omnichannel because there is a lot more connectivity than there has ever been, and it is achievable within budgetary confines, no matter the size of your organisation. Those that do it well are the ones that do the change management piece very well.”
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