Digital technology is transforming customer engagement

Pharma has embraced the digital revolution with open arms—clearly it offers exciting new opportunities for customer engagement. But initial enthusiasm resulted in some instances of HCPs and others being bombarded with requests to interact. Since then, a quieter evolution has taken place, and pharma has developed more sophisticated approaches which are delivering far more effective results. So what lessons have been learned along the way? Are new technologies such as AI being used effectively yet? And what is pharma still getting wrong?

We asked these questions and more of 8 senior pharma experts with significant experience in customer engagement and digital transformation. We find out exactly what they think about the current issues.

This report details all their key insights including:

• What, how and to whom: Read about how digital strategies are being used right now across pharma to successfully engage patients, HCPs and payers. How do yours compare?
• Internal versus external: What specific internal capabilities and roles are required for success? When should expertise be accessed through partnerships or outsourcing? What should you know about how digital engagement is impacting your existing customer base?
• Where to focus resources next: How might artificial intelligence be used to up the ante? Should you be developing mobile and sensor-based engagement strategies? What other new technologies should pharma be considering which are on the horizon now?
• Take control: How can digital transformation strategies be harnessed to direct online and offline conversations, build and grow relationships and gain stronger competitive advantage?

What to expect from this report

Digital engagement presents a huge challenge and enormous potential benefits too—but getting it right (and keeping pace) is difficult. This report gives you the latest thinking in this fast-moving area of pharma. Use it to find out if your team is covering all bases and see what else is in store. Are you doing enough to release insight from multiple streams of data; better identify and meet changing customer needs; build value-adding customer relationships or competitive advantage?

Digital Technologies: New Strategies for Customer Engagement enables you to take stock of your current position and progress before setting out your strategy for further digital transformation over the coming months and years.

What did we do?

• We identified 12 current issues regarding digital engagement with customers
• We explored these via secondary research plus 20 targeted questions put to 8 digital technology and customer engagement experts with up-to-date experience
• We used all of this to identify 80 unique new insights
• Insights are supported by 116 directly quoted comments and 113 source references

Example insight included in Digital Technologies: New Strategies for Customer Engagement 2019

"The internal infrastructure of pharma must adapt to prioritise customer engagement in a digital world. This can be seen in some companies with the proliferation of roles such as Chief Digital Officer, some of whom come from tech firms and others who are developed internally. However, some companies remain stuck—adopting digital methods because they have no choice, but not truly harnessing them from a customer-centric perspective and merely using them as a form of promotion. This is often the case with companies who do not have senior leadership buy-in, something which is likely to come as digital customer engagement proves its long-term value. Leaders tend to be focused on short- and medium-term key performance indicators, but digital customer engagement requires a long-term vision and strategy."

The expert panel for Digital Technologies: New Strategies for Customer Engagement

• Herbert Altmann is Head of Patient Access Performance & Digital Innovation RE at Novartis
• Florent Edouard is the SVP, Global Head of Commercial Excellence at Grünenthal Group
• Kai Gait is the Digital Transformation Leader at Boston Scientific and former Senior Global Digital Strategy Director at GSK
• Davidek Herron is the Head of Outbound Digital Channels, Europe & International Markets for Teva Pharmaceuticals, Netherlands
• Kasper Jerlang is Head of Global Digital Marketing and Engagement at LEO Pharma, Copenhagen
• Christopher Keenan is Head of Worldwide Medical Customer Engagement, Medical Capabilities at Bristol-Myers Squibb, US
• Hicham Naim is Head of Strategy and Business Operations at Takeda, Switzerland
• Danilo Pagano is the Vice President of Digital and Customer Engagement at Lundbeck, Denmark

Why buy now?

The driving force behind digital engagement has changed from 'quantity' to 'quality'. HCPs are responding well to more choice about how they engage. Experts refer to 'selective value generation' and this trend is delivering impressive results for those at the front of the field. But harnessing constantly developing technology correctly needs a long-term vision and resolve; it will also mean learning quickly and moving on from mistakes. Results are not instant—particularly when it comes to customer loyalty and trust—so pharma must have confidence in its approach and a wider vision in the long term if it's going to succeed in becoming more than just a drug manufacturer.