Improved Customer Experience through a Holistic Engagement Model

During a PharmaVOICE Think Tank session, Joshua Prabhakar and Jo Ann Saitta discuss how creating a holistic engagement model for a recent rare disease launch during COVID-19 was an imperative strategy to successfully deliver a successful customer experience. Their discussion focuses on the essential elements of a holistic engagement model: operate in an omnichannel world; recognize the importance of customized content and messages; be agile; use data for decision-making; and measure both return on investment (ROI) and patient experience.

As VP and Head of Franchise at Sobi North America, Joshua leads the commercial organization for a key franchise for the company and is responsible for leading teams accountable for strategy, sales, healthcare provider (HCP) and consumer marketing. Joshua leads cross-functional commercial teams to deliver against brand performance targets and is responsible for establishing and developing brand performance metrics. He recently collaborated with colleagues across sales, market access, patient services and medical to launch one of Sobi’s rare disease drugs.

Launching a Rare Disease Drug During a Pandemic

The need to improve the customer experience through a holistic engagement model has been accelerated by COVID-19. Launching any drug, let alone one for a rare disease, during this time has posed unprecedented challenges for marketers to overcome.

Increased pressure on marketers to rely primarily on digital experiences forced us to think about how to achieve relevant customer experiences in a hybrid (live/non-personal) world. Complicating it further was the fact that Sobi was launching a rare disease drug, requiring us to accelerate the identification of difficult-to-reach patients and physicians who could treat those patients digitally.

Achieving a holistic customer engagement for Sobi was dependent on three key factors:

1.    Recognizing customers engaged differently with digital content;

2.    Ensuring our messages were crisp and clear through digital mechanisms; and

3.    Making sure our channels – both digital and live – worked together and that we pivot when needed.

Operating in an agile way allowed us to take small adaptable approaches. This proved successful for Sobi in a fully integrated and hybrid brand launch. Using a content-first thinking approach, we could evolve and deliver relevant messages to Sobi’s customers and re-organize for speed.

Using Digital to Address Key Challenges

Leveraging digital and omnichannel approaches provided several advantages for Sobi’s rare disease drug launch. First, it allowed us to cast a broader net to capture patients. We all know that personal promotion – the most expensive channel – typically is first in a marketer’s approach. With digital, however, costs are very different, and we can do more with less investment. Second, it allowed us to be more readily available for patients searching for information about their disease. We were able to speak to patients more effectively through digital. Third, digital and data provided a smarter way for patient finding and accelerated the conversation between patients and HCPs. Through the use of de-identified medical claims data, we could understand patients and the geographies they were in and accelerate communications between them and HCP’s. With the use of compliant de-identified data, digital communications could alert HCPs to patients who possibly have the rare disease in question and accelerate a diagnosis more quickly.

Learning from Other Industries and Aspiring to be Omnichannel

In health care, we can learn from and aspire to be like many beloved brands, including Disney, Peloton and Netflix. They set the example for what customers want from their brands. Customers want a relationship with the brand, and they want to be part of the brand community. From other industries, we have learned from omnichannel that we need to be customized, creative and intuitive, connected and community-centered in our communications.

For the rare disease drug launch for Sobi, it was imperative that our communications be highly relevant and customized and that we build a community of followers for the brand. Our digital and omnichannel efforts were catalyzed by COVID-19. They were no longer a “nice to do” but a “need to do.”

Evolving Measurement – the Patient Experience

As we seek to measure ROI in our marketing efforts, we need to understand impact across channels, both individually and collectively. This will afford us a clear picture of value for investment and enable us to have more intelligent conversations about channel performance or marketing mix optimization. The “cool stuff” is really about the data, analysis and interpretation, which provides marketers with the tools to make better decisions. Providing real-time visualized access to omnichannel performance data at a segment or customer level enables marketers to better understand the true impact of their investments and make better decisions.

Evolving beyond traditional ROI requires focusing on the value of the patient experience. This involves understanding how creating a frictionless journey for patients to receive relevant information and care can result in better health outcomes and equity, as well as have a positive impact on business performance.

Omnichannel in Health Care – a Holistic and Compliant Content Experience

Omnichannel in health care involves creating a holistic cohesive experience, where relevant content is activated in hybrid communications. Content-first means we understand the customer we’re trying to communicate with, whether a physician or patient. We understand where people are and what they can consume at that moment. For example, what a physician wants to consume during the workday is different from what she wants to consume when home at night. When we put ourselves in the patient’s shoes, we understand that this information is highly sensitive, and we have a responsibility to ascertain its use both today and in the future. Taking the finance industry as an example, also a highly regulated industry, we should think about how we can provide a similar experience to a bank.

Audiences Are Important for a Holistic Engagement Model

We need to be mindful of developing contact and context for three audiences when we think about creating a frictionless experience for patients – the patients themselves, HCPs and payers. We need to understand at a macro and micro level the information these audiences require to improve the patient experience. We need to develop an audience strategy that is diverse and inclusive and specifically develop content and messaging that engages underserved minority populations for whom we seek to improve health equity.

In summary, a holistic engagement model is essential to provide a modern customer experience in health care. For healthcare brands, this means optimizing the use of digital, developing creative and intuitive content, customizing messages and using data to quickly pivot to meet a customer’s contextual needs.

Want to know more? Watch the full session video below.