Understanding Healthcare Professional (HCP) channel preference is critically important for medtech and pharmaceutical companies, as it underpins effective engagement, drives business success, and ultimately, contributes to improved patient care.
Here are the key benefits of understanding HCP channel preference:
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Adapting to Evolving Engagement Models: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly accelerated a fundamental shift in how HCPs want to interact with biopharma and medtech companies, moving away from a predominant reliance on in-person sales reps. Many HCPs now expect long-term changes, with virtual engagement channels like webinars, video calls, and telemedicine becoming firmly established. For example, physicians' preference for in-person sales rep interactions dropped from 79% before 2020 to 49% in 2021 and beyond, while email preference rose from 54% to 65%, and video calls increased more than fivefold to 38%. For ordering medical products, digital and remote models (like supplier websites, mobile apps, and e-procurement portals) are now preferred for researching, negotiating, and placing orders, marking a 20-fold increase in preference for these self-serve channels since 2019. Understanding these preferences allows companies to evolve their engagement models to meet these new customer requirements.
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Enabling Personalised Customer Engagement: HCPs exhibit a wide range of channel, content, and interaction frequency preferences across different specialties and geographic areas. Personalised customer engagement is a key driver of success in biopharma. By understanding these preferences, companies can deliver the "right content, right channel, and right timing of delivery," which is crucial for optimising outreach and engagement. HCPs expect personalised interactions and become frustrated when they don't receive them. This tailored approach is valued by HCPs, as it makes them feel special and improves their experience.
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Gaining Access and Influence: When pharma and medtech companies demonstrate a better understanding of HCP needs and provide more meaningful engagements, they are rewarded with more time and attention. HCPs who experience highly positive interactions are significantly 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 engagement matters more than just coverage.
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Optimising Resource Allocation and Driving Efficiency: Understanding channel preferences allows companies to identify where to invest effort and how to optimise that investment. By leveraging data and analytics, companies can determine the optimal level of interaction per HCP segment, avoiding unproductive over-investment. This can lead to increased efficiency in commercial operations. Agile go-to-market models, enabled by insights from understanding customer preferences, can help align sales reps to the right opportunities and provide insights that help close deals. Ring-fenced central budgets can also be used to kick-start omnichannel investments, scaling them up as impact is delivered to maximise returns on investment.
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Avoiding Information Overload and Digital Fatigue: HCPs often complain about being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of digital material from the industry, with insufficient time to read it. Almost 8 in 10 HCPs report 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 increasing communications results in diminishing or even negative impact on HCP engagement, potentially causing "digital fatigue". Around 65% of HCPs feel at least one pharma company has "spammed" them with digital content. Understanding preferences helps companies deliver value without overwhelming HCPs, identifying the saturation point where sending more communications becomes detrimental.
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Informing Omnichannel and Go-to-Market Strategy: HCP channel preference is a foundational element for building a successful omnichannel engagement model, which provides a seamless and integrated experience across all channels (digital, remote, and in-person). This involves integrating new capabilities like inside sales teams and equipping sales reps with virtual communication tools and digital content for hybrid interactions. Companies are shifting from traditional sales rep models to an omnichannel world where HCPs can access information as and when needed, augmenting rep relationships with new resources and tools coordinated across channels.
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Leveraging Data, Analytics, and AI for Deeper Insights: Effectively understanding HCP channel preferences relies on robust 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 simple dashboards. AI-powered analytics can help identify "next best opportunities" and "next best actions," recommending optimal content, channels, and timing for customer contacts. Generative AI can further enhance this by creating personalised content, assisting with medical and legal review, and enabling customer-enablement co-pilots for field representatives. Smart research assistants, powered by Gen AI, can provide sales reps with relevant materials and answers to complex customer queries, saving time.
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Enabling Continuous Adaptation: Customer preferences are dynamic and change over time. Therefore, understanding HCP channel preference requires a continuous learning and improvement mechanism. Companies need to stay agile in adapting personalised outreach over time, with regular review frameworks and potential automation of data collection and analysis to reclassify HCPs into segments based on their recent behaviour. This ensures that interactions remain personalised and aligned with evolving preferences.
In essence, understanding HCP channel preference is not merely a tactical advantage but a strategic imperative that allows medtech and pharma companies to build stronger relationships, deliver greater value, and remain competitive in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape.