Understanding HCP (Healthcare Professional) channel preference is crucial for medtech and pharma companies because it directly impacts their ability to engage effectively with these vital stakeholders, deliver value, and ultimately, drive business success and improve patient care.
Here's why HCP channel preference is so important:
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Responding to Evolving Engagement Models: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly accelerated a shift in how HCPs want to interact with biopharma and medtech companies. HCPs now expect long-term changes in engagement, with many preferring virtual interactions. For instance, a notable shift has occurred from in-person sales rep interactions (preferred by 79% before 2020, but only 49% in 2021 and beyond) to email (preferred by 54% and 65% respectively) and video calls (increasing more than fivefold to 38%). For ordering medical products, digital and remote models are now preferred for researching information, negotiating deals, and placing orders, with supplier websites, mobile apps, and e-procurement portals seeing a 20-fold increase in preference. Companies need to evolve their engagement models to meet these changing customer requirements.
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Enabling Personalised Customer Engagement: HCPs display a wide range of channel, content, and interaction frequency preferences. Personalised customer engagement is a key driver of success. Understanding these preferences allows companies to deliver the "right content, right channel, and right timing of delivery," which is critical for optimising outreach and engagement. HCPs expect companies to deliver personalised interactions and get frustrated when this doesn't happen. They value relevant recommendations, timely communication, and for brands to "know them no matter where they interact".
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Avoiding Information Overload and "Spamming": Doctors are already overwhelmed by the volume of digital material from the biopharma industry, often complaining they have insufficient time to read it. Almost 8 in 10 HCPs are seeing a greater volume of information from pharma companies than pre-COVID-19, and 77% agree the volume of digital communications is too great. Ignoring channel preferences can lead to "channel saturation," where sending too many communications results in diminishing or even negative impact on HCP engagement, potentially causing "digital fatigue". Almost 65% of HCPs feel at least one pharma company has "spammed" them with digital content.
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Gaining Access and Influence: When pharma companies demonstrate a better understanding of HCP needs and provide more meaningful engagements, they are recognised and rewarded with more time and attention. For example, 88% of HCPs who experience highly positive interactions are more likely to open emails, listen to messages, make more time for future meetings, and meet with different people from that company. This highlights that the quality of HCP engagement matters more than just coverage.
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Optimising Resource Allocation and Driving Efficiency: Understanding channel preferences helps companies identify where to invest effort and how to optimise that investment. By leveraging data-driven insights, companies can determine the optimal level of interaction per HCP segment, avoiding unproductive over-investment in certain channels or segments. This enables companies to reach the right customers, through the right channel, and with the right frequency, ultimately improving digital engagement.
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Informing Omnichannel Strategy: HCP channel preference is a foundational element for building a successful omnichannel engagement model. This involves integrating online and offline journeys to provide a seamless experience. Without understanding individual HCP preferences, achieving this seamless coordination across diverse channels (like self-service portals, webinars, emails, and sales rep visits) is impossible.
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Leveraging Data and AI for Insights: Effective understanding of HCP channel preferences relies heavily on customer data and analytics foundations. This involves pooling and analysing data, using machine learning algorithms to identify behaviour patterns and customer propensity, and feeding this information into dashboards. AI-powered analytics can help identify "next best opportunities" and "next best actions," providing sales teams with recommendations on content, channels, and timing. Generative AI can further enhance this by creating personalised content, assisting with medical review, and enabling customer-enablement co-pilots for reps.
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Continuous Adaptation: Customer preferences are dynamic and change over time. Therefore, understanding HCP channel preference isn't a one-time exercise but requires a continuous learning and improvement mechanism, with regular review frameworks and potential automation of data collection and analysis to reclassify HCPs into segments based on their recent behaviour.
In essence, understanding HCP channel preference is no longer a luxury but a strategic imperative for medtech and pharma companies to thrive in the evolving healthcare landscape, ensuring effective engagement, improved relationships, and ultimately, better patient outcomes.