The Health Pulse: Is 'The customer is always right' the key to commercial breakthroughs in pharma?

Mike Turner, customer intelligence guru at SAS, joins Greg for a chat about customer intelligence in life sciences. Pharma organizations don’t think of their customers in the same way that retailers do, but they do have customers, including the health care professionals (HCPs) who prescribe their medicinal products and clinical trial subjects. The adoption of customer intelligence programs in pharma accelerated dramatically at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic because organizations were forced to shift to digital engagement very quickly. Greg asks about key takeaways from other industries that are applicable to life sciences. Mike shares examples from the CPG (consumer packaged goods) industry where they are striving to build direct relationships with the people who use their products without disrupting the relationship between those customers and retailer networks that distribute them. The CPG industry also strives to understand their customers relationships with their products, including when, how and why they use them. The pharmaceutical life cycle is made of complex networks from discovery all the way through to patients receiving medications as part of treatment pathways. Analytical insights around the customers involved at various touch points along the way has the potential to transform engagement in the industry. Mike and Greg also discuss readiness within pharmaceutical companies to shift their sales and marketing programs toward a strategic view of customer insights and engagement and the challenges they may need to overcome. Finally, Mike shares his predictions for the next opportunities for breakthroughs in the application of customer intelligence in pharma, including the potential for Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to play a key role in the administration of therapies. All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.