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HCP Marketing and Personalization to Drive Engagement: CRM and Closed-Loop Marketing

Posted on by Akshat Pandey

Healthcare professional marketing, or HCP marketing, is all about engaging healthcare professionals like doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other key decision-makers. Think targeted content, personalized messaging, and digital engagement—all designed to inform and influence healthcare professionals about products, treatments, and services, and improve patient outcomes. 

Introduction

Let’s face it: the world of healthcare is evolving rapidly. And as digital interactions become the new norm, it presents both new challenges and new opportunities for pharmaceutical companies to reach and engage Healthcare Professionals (HCPs). 

Traditional, one-size-fits-all marketing tactics are becoming less and less effective. Not surprisingly, HCPs are opting for personalized, relevant content instead. 

This is where HCP Marketing comes in. 

HCP marketing is a key strategy for pharmaceutical companies to communicate their products’ benefits, clinical data, and value to HCPs.

This article explores how Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Closed-Loop Marketing (CLM) can help you build effective HCP engagement strategies and ultimately drive better marketing results.

Platforce’s CRM makes it easier to create effective marketing campaigns backed by real-time data. How? Read on. 

Understanding HCP Marketing through the Lenses of Engagement 

Think of HCP Marketing as any interaction, communication, or relationship a pharmaceutical company might have with a healthcare professional. HCP marketing involves engagement that  not only provides clinical information, but is also able to establish relationships with individual HCPs to understand their needs, and ultimately to help improve patient care. 

Personalization: The Heart of HCP Marketing

In HCP marketing, personalization involves tailoring your content to the unique needs, preferences, and challenges faced by individual HCPs in their daily practice. Personalization is integral to any HCP marketing strategy because it cuts through the noise. But not without internal alignment. That is, marketing and sales teams first need to improve their understanding of individual HCPs to develop a cohesive, omnichannel strategy. 

“Very good personalization comes from very good segmentation and very good understanding of the actual differences in drivers and motivations for decision making that customers have,” said Claudia Adreani, Managing Director at Belly Slide Consulting. “It’s ‘Do I really understand how each HCP is different?’”

When done well, personalization can create meaningful connections by addressing specific pain points and delivering information that is directly relevant to their area of expertise. In other words, it meets HCPs where they are. 

The Power of Personalization in HCP Marketing

As the healthcare landscape evolves, the industry faces a significant challenge in effectively engaging HCPs with their marketing efforts—a challenge compounded by the diverse needs of HCPs across different specialties, regions, and clinical interests.

Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all marketing strategies, bombarding HCPs with generic messages. Today, personalization is the name of the game. And it’s revolutionizing the way pharmaceutical companies communicate and connect with their target audience.

“It’s the same challenge as any industry,” Adreani said. “We’re bombarded everywhere, right? And for healthcare professionals, particularly now, after COVID, their time has reduced massively.”

“So if I’m going to give you my free time, you better tell me something that is actually relevant to me. And don’t waste time giving me stuff that I don’t really need.” 

HCPs play a pivotal role in patient care decisions and expect communications that are tailored to their unique requirements. This shift towards personalized marketing is driven by the understanding that HCPs aren’t just consumers of information; they are partners seeking relevant and valuable insights that can help make informed decisions that align with their medical practice.

Why is Personalization Important in Pharma and HCP Marketing? 

“When you look at the benefits that personalization brings to HCPs, it ultimately has to do with the benefits it brings to the patient and the way the HCP is able to use that messaging in their communication with the patient,” explained Adreani. 

“You’re making the HCPs life easier because you’re already giving them the tools to sell or prescribe the product to their patients.” 

The value proposition of personalized HCP marketing also includes:

  • Enhanced Engagement: Personalized content resonates with HCPs, capturing their attention and encouraging deeper engagement with the information provided.
  • Credibility and Trust: Tailored communication demonstrates an understanding of HCPs’ challenges and showcases the company’s commitment to addressing those challenges.
  • ROI Optimization: Marketing efforts become more efficient and effective as personalized content yields higher response rates and conversion rates.
  • Adapting to Evolving Needs: Personalization allows pharmaceutical companies to adapt their messaging and content based on the ever-changing landscape of healthcare.
  • Building Lasting Relationships: By consistently delivering relevant and valuable information, companies can forge lasting relationships with HCPs and position themselves as trusted partners.

CRM: A Tool for Personalized HCP Marketing

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are an essential tool for personalized HCP engagement. CRMs consolidate data from various touchpoints, like conferences, webinars, online interactions, and surveys. Together, this data paints a comprehensive picture of each HCP never before possible, enabling pharma marketing teams to understand HCPs’ preferences, prescribing patterns, communication needs, and more.

“It allows you to keep enriching that 360-view of your customer. That’s where I see the biggest value of the CRM” said Adreani. 

By analyzing this data, companies can segment HCPs into distinct groups based on things like specialty, region, or prescribing habits. These segments allow for tailored content that speaks directly to the unique needs and interests of each group.

For example, an oncologist will require different information compared to a general practitioner. And CRMs enable the delivery of relevant content to both.

Personalized Communications: How to Take HCP Engagement to the Next Level

In a field as specialized as healthcare, personalized communication matters. Generic marketing messages often fall flat. 

CRM systems, on the other hand, can empower healthcare marketers to tailor their communications in ways that resonate with individual HCPs. This can include:

Content Relevance: Delivering content aligned with an HCP’s specialty and interests.

Preferred Channels: Engaging HCPs through their preferred channels, like email, social media, or in-person meetings.

Timely Outreach: Sending messages at optimal times, respecting the busy schedules of HCPs.

Customized Offers: Presenting relevant promotions, educational resources, or product updates based on an HCP’s history and needs.

Tailored HCP Advertising with CRM

Integrating CRM data with advertising efforts can allow pharmaceutical companies to target HCPs more effectively. 

“These insights are going to allow you to segment customers or enrich your segmentation via what you’re capturing via the reps in the CRM,” Adreani added. 

That is, by using insights from CRM systems, companies can create highly targeted and interactive ad campaigns that resonate with specific HCP segments. This can lead to:

Higher Relevance: Ads aligned with an HCP’s specialty and patient demographics lead to higher engagement rates.

Increased Engagement: Personalized ads grab attention and build better interactions.

Efficient Spending: Targeted advertising reduces wasted spending on irrelevant audiences.

Case Study: CRM-Enabled Personalized HCP Marketing Strategy

So using CRM data can help pharmaceutical companies target HCPs more effectively. But what does a CRM-enabled personalized HCP marketing strategy look like in practice? Take this case study, for example. When traditional outreach didn’t produce the engagement they were hoping for, this pharmaceutical company turned to CRM data to create personalized content. See for yourself:

Challenge

When a pharmaceutical company wanted to improve its engagement through an HCP marketing strategy with oncologists and hematologists for a new cancer treatment, traditional outreach methods resulted in low response rates and limited engagement.

Solution

The company then implemented a CRM system to track interactions, preferences, and feedback from these specialists. Leveraging the CRM data, they created personalized content, including scientific articles, webinars, and updates on clinical trials. Through the CRM, they were able to identify preferred communication channels and optimal times for reaching out. And they saw the impact almost immediately. 

Results

Response Rate: The personalized approach resulted in a 30% increase in response rates compared to previous generic campaigns.

Engagement: HCPs engaged with the content more deeply, attending webinars and sharing relevant articles.

Relationship Building: The CRM-enabled strategy led to stronger relationships with HCPs, positioning the company as a trusted partner in oncology and hematology.

Closed-Loop Marketing: The Key to Personalized HCP Advertising

Closed-Loop Marketing (CLM) is an essential strategy for pharmaceutical companies seeking to enhance HCP engagement. CLM involves a continuous feedback loop that integrates data from various stages of the marketing cycle to optimize and personalize advertising efforts. With CLM, marketing teams can tailor outreach to HCPs by analyzing interactions, leading to more relevant conversations and stronger relationships for sales teams.  

So how does it work? Read on!

How CLM Works

  1. Data Collection: The process starts with collecting data from various touchpoints, including website interactions, email engagements, content downloads, and in-person interactions.
  2. Analysis and Insights: This data is then analyzed to gain insights into HCP behaviors, preferences, and interests. Advanced analytics tools help identify patterns and trends.
  3. Personalization: Armed with data-driven insights, companies can tailor their advertising messages, content, and outreach to align with each HCP’s profile and preferences.
  4. Delivery: Personalized content and ads are delivered through the preferred channels and at the optimal times for each HCP.
  5. Feedback Loop: Responses and engagements generated by these personalized efforts are captured, completing the loop and providing further data to refine future campaigns.

Closed-Loop Marketing (CLM) in Real-Time Refinement

Personalization goes beyond content creation. In fact, it extends into the dynamic realm of real-time interaction. This is where Closed-Loop Marketing (CLM) comes into play. 

CLM bridges the gap between marketing and sales teams, creating a feedback loop that ensures marketing efforts remain closely aligned with the realities faced by sales representatives in the field.

As sales representatives engage with HCPs, they gather valuable insights about their questions, concerns, and interests. This real-time feedback is relayed back to the marketing team, allowing them to adapt and refine their strategies accordingly. This iterative process ensures that the content produced remains not only personalized but also highly relevant, reflecting the actual needs of HCPs.

“If you’re a rep in front of a customer and you’re not quite sure yet where that customer sits, you should have the flexibility to flick around and kind of create the story,” Adreani explained. “But that may require different content. Marketing needs to be able to create a story that is a little bit more flexible.”

Driving Personalized Engagement with Data-Driven Insights

Data-driven insights are the foundation of successful personalized HCP advertising. Utilizing CRM systems and advanced analytics tools, companies can gain a deep understanding of HCPs:

Specialties: Targeting content and ads relevant to an HCP’s area of expertise.

Engagement History: Knowing which types of content and channels an HCP prefers.

Geographical Locations: Adapting messages based on regional healthcare needs.

Patient Demographics: Aligning advertising with specific patient populations.

These insights enable pharmaceutical and pharma companies to create more relevant, impactful, and resonant advertising campaigns that capture the attention of HCPs and drive engagement.

Case Study: Success in Personalized HCP Advertising with Closed-Loop Marketing

So what does this look like in practice? Take this case study, for example. 

Challenge

When a pharmaceutical company aimed to boost its engagement with cardiologists and endocrinologists for its new cardiovascular medication, traditional methods yielded limited results.  

The truth is, it was challenging to differentiate messages between the two specialties. And as a result, the company’s content didn’t resonate with either one. 

What did they do? 

Solution

In search of a solution, the company adopted a Closed-Loop Marketing approach, leveraging data from CRM systems and other engagement platforms for analytics. 

They crafted personalized content highlighting the medication’s benefits, tailored to each specialty’s unique perspective. And the delivery times were adjusted to coincide with optimal reading periods for cardiologists and endocrinologists.

Results

Specialty Relevance: Engagement rates increased by 40% as HCPs found the content more relevant to their daily practice.

Time Optimization: Delivering content at optimal times resulted in higher open and click-through rates.

Feedback Integration: Insights from HCP interactions were integrated into subsequent campaigns, leading to a cycle of continuous improvement

Benefits of Personalized HCP Engagement

healthcare engagement

Enhanced Engagement: Personalized content captures HCPs’ attention and resonates with their professional needs, fostering deeper engagement.

Trust and Credibility: Tailored communication demonstrates an understanding of HCPs’ challenges, building trust and credibility between pharmaceutical companies and HCPs.

Higher ROI: Personalized HCP engagement results in more effective marketing campaigns, leading to higher ROI on marketing investments.

Improved Advertising Effectiveness: HCP advertising becomes more impactful when the message directly addresses the HCPs’ concerns and aligns with their interests.

Overcoming Challenges: Privacy and Data Security

While personalization offers remarkable benefits, it also raises concerns about privacy and data security. 

To prevent these problems pharmaceutical companies must adhere to strict regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to ensure that sensitive HCP data is handled securely and ethically. It should even be mentioned in the agreement. 

Transparency about data collection, use, and opt-out options is paramount to maintaining the trust you’ve built with HCPs.

Conclusion:

Customer relationship management (CRM) and closed-loop marketing (CLM) have converged to usher in a transformative era of HCP engagement. Today, personalized interactions with HCPs are no longer a luxury. Rather, they are a necessity for building meaningful relationships and improving patient care. 

The journey toward personalization begins with data collection and analysis, which forms the bedrock of data-driven insights. Armed with these insights, companies can create innovative content that cuts through the noise and offers relevant messaging to specific specialties, patient demographics, and geographical regions. 

In the end, the marriage of CRM and CLM doesn’t just represent a new paradigm in HCP marketing; it signifies a commitment to delivering excellence in healthcare. By putting HCPs at the heart of tailored communications, companies are not only driving business growth but also contributing to better patient outcomes through informed decision-making and improved healthcare practices.

Platforce is the best CRM software for lead generation, order management, sales automation, and task management. Unlike other software, Platforce gives your company all it needs to optimize customer relations and boost customer experience. 

See for yourself! Demo Platforce’s CRM System and AI Assistant today. And follow us on our YouTube and LinkedIn channels. 

Platforce CRM’s Pharma Analytics for Customer Engagement & Growth

Posted on by Visarlini Velu

In today’s dynamic and highly competitive pharmaceutical industry, data has emerged as a game-changer. With the increasing availability of data and advancements in analytics technologies, pharmaceutical companies are harnessing the power of data-driven insights to drive efficiency, productivity, and innovation throughout the pharmaceutical manufacturing process. This is where Pharma Analytics comes into play.

What is Pharma Analytics?

Pharma analytics is the utilization and application of data analytics within the pharmaceutical industry. It empowers companies to unlock valuable insights, streamline operations, and make informed decisions that drive customer engagement and fuel business growth. 

By leveraging vast datasets encompassing scientific literature, clinical trial results, genetic information, patient data, and more pharmaceutical professionals can gain a lot.  

That being said, let’s look at

The Power Of Analytics.

1.1 Accelerate Research and Development

Pharma analytics plays a pivotal role in accelerating research and development (R&D) activities, which are critical for bringing new drugs and treatments to market. By analyzing vast datasets encompassing scientific literature, clinical trial results, genetic information, and patient data, companies can identify potential drug candidates with higher precision and efficiency. 

The ability to integrate and analyze disparate data sources enables researchers to make data-driven decisions, optimize clinical trial design, and identify patient populations that are most likely to benefit from specific treatments. 

This targeted approach 

  • minimizes costs
  • reduces time-to-market
  • increases the chances of successful product launches.

1.2 Enhance Supply Chain and Manufacturing Processes

Pharma analytics revolutionizes supply chain management and manufacturing processes within the pharmaceutical industry. 

By analyzing data related to procurement, inventory management, demand forecasting, and logistics, companies can optimize their supply chain operations. 

Real-time data insights enable proactive decision-making, ensuring adequate stock levels, minimizing stockouts, and optimizing distribution networks. 

Furthermore, analytics-driven predictive maintenance and quality control processes help identify potential equipment failures, reduce downtime, and ensure consistent product quality, ultimately leading to improved operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

1.3 Personalize Customer Engagement and Marketing Strategies

Pharma analytics enables companies to understand their customers on a deeper level and deliver tailored experiences. By analyzing patient demographics, preferences, treatment outcomes, and feedback, companies can create personalized marketing campaigns, develop targeted patient support programs, and design customized treatment plans.

Advanced analytics techniques such as predictive modeling and segmentation enable companies to identify patient segments, predict patient behavior, and personalize interactions at scale. This level of customer-centricity not only enhances patient engagement and satisfaction but also contributes to improved health outcomes.

1.4 Ensure Regulatory Compliance and Patient Safety

Pharma analytics plays a critical role in ensuring regulatory compliance and patient safety within the pharmaceutical industry. By analyzing data related to adverse event reporting, pharmacovigilance, and regulatory compliance, companies can detect and respond to potential safety issues more efficiently. Early identification of safety signals allows for timely interventions and mitigation strategies, reducing the risk of harm to patients and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. Additionally, analytics-driven compliance monitoring ensures adherence to regulatory standards, streamlines reporting processes, and minimizes the risk of penalties or legal consequences.

1.5 Make Data-Driven Decision 

Overall, the power of pharma analytics lies in its ability to drive data-driven decision-making across all facets of the pharmaceutical industry. By transforming raw data into meaningful insights, companies can make informed decisions, identify market trends, seize opportunities, mitigate risks, and optimize their operations. The integration of analytics into strategic planning, resource allocation, and marketing campaigns ensures that decisions are based on evidence and aligned with business goals, leading to improved outcomes, increased profitability, and sustained growth.

While the benefits of pharma analytics are significant, it is important to acknowledge that there are challenges that pharmaceutical companies may encounter when deciding to implement and make use of pharma analytics. Understanding and addressing these challenges is crucial for the successful adoption and utilization of analytics-driven strategies. 

Let’s explore some of the;

Common Challenges Faced by Pharma Companies in Adopting CRM Pharma Analytics.

1.1 Data Quality and Integration.

One of the major challenges is ensuring the quality and reliability of data. It’s no surprise that the pharmaceutical industry generates vast amounts of data from various sources, including clinical trials, electronic health records, sales data, and research studies. 

However, ensuring the accuracy, consistency, and completeness of data can be complex. On top of that, integrating data from different systems and sources to create a unified view is also challenging, requiring robust data integration processes and technologies.

1.2 Data Privacy and Security.

Pharmaceutical companies handle sensitive and confidential data, including patient information, intellectual property, and clinical trial results. 

Protecting this data from unauthorized access, breaches, or misuse is of paramount importance. Compliance with data privacy regulations, such as GDPR and HIPAA, adds an additional layer of complexity. 

Implementing robust data privacy and security measures, including encryption, access controls, and anonymization techniques, is essential to maintain trust and meet regulatory requirements.

1.3 Technical Infrastructure and Expertise.

Implementing pharma analytics requires a robust technical infrastructure, including data storage, processing capabilities, and analytical tools. Pharmaceutical companies may face challenges in upgrading or building the necessary infrastructure to handle large volumes of data and perform complex analytics tasks. Additionally, there is a need for skilled personnel with expertise in data analytics, data science, and statistical modeling to extract meaningful insights from the data. Recruiting, training, and retaining such talent can be a challenge.

1.4 Change Management and Cultural Shift.

Integrating analytics into the decision-making processes of a pharmaceutical company often requires a cultural shift and change management. This involves breaking down silos and fostering a data-driven mindset across departments and functions. Resistance to change, lack of understanding about the benefits of analytics, and insufficient training can hinder the successful adoption of analytics-driven strategies. Effective change management, clear communication, and training programs are crucial to overcome these challenges and promote a data-driven culture.

1.5 Cost and Return on Investment.

Implementing and maintaining a robust pharma analytics infrastructure can involve significant upfront and ongoing costs. Investments may be required in hardware, software licenses, analytics tools, data management systems, and talent acquisition. Calculating and demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) of pharma analytics initiatives can also be challenging, especially in the early stages. Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to measure the impact of analytics on business outcomes is essential to justify investments and secure ongoing support.

Addressing these challenges requires a strategic approach, careful planning, and collaboration between IT, data analytics teams, and business stakeholders. Overcoming these obstacles is crucial for pharmaceutical companies to fully leverage the power of pharma analytics and reap its benefits in driving customer engagement and business growth.

In the following sections, we will discuss potential solutions and best practices for addressing these challenges and how a CRM like Platforce can help in ensuring the successful implementation and utilization of analytics in the pharmaceutical industry.

Overcoming Challenges in Adopting CRM Pharma Analytics.

Adopting CRM pharma analytics can present several challenges for pharmaceutical companies. However, with proper planning, strategy, and the right tools, these challenges can be met heads on. Here’s precisely how.

  1. Ensure Data Quality and Integration.

    Data quality and integration are key challenges in fully utilizing pharma analytics. Pharmaceutical companies deal with vast amounts of data from multiple sources, including sales data, customer interactions, and patient information. Ensuring the accuracy, consistency, and completeness of this data is crucial for obtaining reliable insights. 

    Implementing data governance practices, establishing data quality standards, and leveraging data integration tools from the start can help address these challenges. Plus, regular data validation and cleansing processes should be implemented to maintain data integrity.

  2. Address Data Privacy and Security Concerns.

    Pharmaceutical companies handle sensitive patient information and must comply with data privacy regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA. Protecting patient privacy and ensuring data security is a no-brainer under these regulations. Implementing robust data privacy and security measures, including encryption, access controls, and anonymization techniques, is essential. Conducting regular security audits, educating employees on data privacy practices, and adopting secure data storage and transmission protocols can help mitigate these concerns greatly.

  3.  Build Technical Infrastructure.

    Fully utilizing analytics in pharma requires a robust technical infrastructure capable of handling large volumes of data and performing complex analytics tasks. This infrastructure includes data storage, processing capabilities, and analytical tools. 

    Pharmaceutical companies may face challenges in upgrading their existing infrastructure or building a new one. Partnering with experienced technology providers, cloud-based solutions like Platforce, and leveraging scalable analytics platforms can help address these challenges. By utilizing the cloud, companies can avoid significant upfront investments in infrastructure and benefit from the scalability and flexibility offered by cloud-based analytics solutions.

  4. Cultivate a Data-Driven Culture.

    Integrating CRM analytics into a pharmaceutical company’s decision-making processes requires a cultural shift and change management. Employees may resist adopting new technologies or be hesitant to rely on data-driven insights. To address this challenge, it is essential to provide training and education on the benefits of CRM analytics. Engage employees at all levels and foster a culture that values data-driven decision-making. Encourage cross-functional collaboration and highlight success stories that demonstrate the positive impact of CRM analytics on business outcomes.

  5. Demonstrate Return on Investment (ROI)

    Justifying the investment in CRM analytics and demonstrating its ROI can be challenging. Pharmaceutical companies need to establish key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with their business goals and track the impact of CRM analytics on these metrics. Conducting regular performance assessments, monitoring customer engagement, and measuring the success of marketing campaigns can help quantify the benefits of CRM analytics. Demonstrating tangible outcomes, such as increased customer satisfaction, improved sales, and enhanced marketing effectiveness, strengthens the case for continued investment in CRM analytics initiatives.

By addressing these challenges head-on, pharmaceutical companies can successfully unlock the full potential of their customer data. Furthermore, leveraging a comprehensive CRM like Platforce that can provide the necessary tools and functionalities tailored specifically for data analytics in the pharmaceutical industry, streamlines the implementation process and ensures a smooth transition.

Unpacking Platforce’s CRM Pharma Analytics

Platforce’s CRM Pharma Analytics is a powerful tool that empowers pharmaceutical companies to unlock actionable insights, anticipate customer needs, and enhance their marketing strategies. With a range of features designed specifically for the pharmaceutical industry, Platforce’s CRM Pharma Analytics offers a comprehensive solution for harnessing the power of data-driven decision-making.

 Let’s delve into the key features and benefits of Platforce’s CRM Pharma Analytics:

  1. Data Visualization

Platforce’s CRM Pharma Analytics provides robust data visualization capabilities that transform complex datasets into intuitive visual representations. Through interactive charts, graphs, and dashboards, pharmaceutical professionals can gain a comprehensive understanding of their customer data and identify meaningful patterns and trends. Visualizing data allows for quicker and easier interpretation, enabling users to extract actionable insights and make informed decisions.

Platforce's Analytic Dashboard
Platforce’s Analytic Dashboard With Relevant Insights
  1. Predictive Analytics

Platforce’s CRM Pharma Analytics leverages advanced predictive analytics algorithms to anticipate customer needs and behavior. By analyzing historical data, customer interactions, and market trends, the tool can predict future outcomes, such as customer preferences, medication adherence, and response to marketing campaigns. These predictive insights enable pharmaceutical companies to proactively tailor their strategies, personalize customer interactions, and optimize marketing efforts for improved engagement and higher conversion rates.

  1. Real-time Reporting

Platforce’s CRM Pharma Analytics provides real-time reporting capabilities, delivering up-to-date insights on key performance indicators (KPIs) and marketing metrics. This enables pharmaceutical professionals to monitor the effectiveness of their campaigns, track sales performance, and identify areas for improvement promptly. 

Plus, real-time reporting empowers agile decision-making, allowing companies to make data-driven adjustments and optimize their marketing strategies in real-time, resulting in more impactful and targeted customer engagement.

  1. Customer Segmentation and Targeting

Platforce’s CRM Pharma Analytics allows for effective customer segmentation and targeting. With advanced analytics techniques, such as clustering and segmentation algorithms, pharmaceutical companies can identify distinct customer groups based on 

  • Demographics
  • Behaviors
  • Treatment preferences
  • Other relevant criteria

This level of granular segmentation enables personalized communication and tailored marketing campaigns. By understanding the unique needs and preferences of different customer segments, pharmaceutical companies can enhance customer engagement, drive brand loyalty, and maximize the effectiveness of their marketing initiatives.

  1. Campaign Optimization

With Platforce’s CRM Pharma Analytics, companies can optimize their marketing campaigns by leveraging insights derived from customer data. The tool enables pharmaceutical professionals to evaluate campaign performance, measure return on investment (ROI), and identify the most effective channels and messages for different customer segments. By analyzing campaign data and performance metrics, companies can continuously refine their marketing strategies, allocate resources more effectively, and improve overall campaign effectiveness.

  1. Compliance and Regulatory Insights

Platforce’s CRM Pharma Analytics helps pharmaceutical companies ensure compliance with regulatory standards and guidelines. The tool provides insights into adherence to compliance requirements, such as tracking consent and permissions, managing data privacy, and maintaining regulatory documentation. By having a comprehensive view of compliance metrics and insights, companies can mitigate compliance risks and streamline their processes to meet regulatory obligations effectively.

Platforce’s CRM Pharma Analytics stands out as a comprehensive solution tailored specifically to the needs of the pharmaceutical industry. By leveraging the powerful combination of data visualization, predictive analytics, real-time reporting, customer segmentation, campaign optimization, and compliance insights, pharmaceutical companies can unlock the full potential of their customer data. With Platforce’s CRM Pharma Analytics, companies can make data-driven decisions, enhance customer engagement, optimize marketing strategies, and drive business growth in the dynamic and competitive pharmaceutical landscape.

Interested?

Platforce is the best CRM software for lead generation, order management, sales automation, and task management. Unlike other software, Platforce gives your company all it needs to optimize customer relations and boost customer experience. Try out the Platforce CRM system with a demo now. You can also stay updated on our Youtube and LinkedIn channels.

What to Know About Physician Referral Management Software 

Posted on by Japheth Oseghale

A referral is essential in health systems for proper diagnosis or to get a second medical opinion so patients receive timely and specialized care.

However, there have been significant changes in physician referral management solutions over the years- from manual paper-based systems to more sophisticated technological advancements, including software tools.

Using software for managing referrals offers many benefits in the health sector. It improves care coordination and communication among healthcare providers for better patient outcomes. It is important to understand how referral management software works to decide if it is suitable for your business. 

This article explores what physician referral management software is and its key features, the benefits physicians get from using it, factors to consider before choosing a software solution, and how to implement it seamlessly. 

Table of Contents

Understanding Physician Referral Management Software

Physician referral management system uses digital tools to process patient referrals. This software solution meets the shortcomings of traditional systems where primary care providers give patients paper referral notes to schedule appointments themselves. 

With this conventional referral process, patients may find it challenging to reach out to specialists because of the many calls they have to make. Even when patients successfully go for appointments, the referring provider may not be able to follow up and monitor the outcomes regarding the medical intervention the specialists made. 

This technological advancement has revolutionized health systems. Now, HCPs can refer patients to a specialist, send reminders to both parties and track progress. 

Key Features of Referral Management Solutions in Healthcare 

The referral management system uses an automated workflow that guides the physician in creating and sending referral messages through the appropriate communication channel. The software solution comes with the following functionalities to generate automated referrals easily.

Patient and Physician Databases

A physician referral management software has comprehensive records of patients and physicians. It stores a patient’s information, such as 

  1. lab results, 
  2. old and new drug prescriptions, and 
  3. contact information. 

This information is in a centralized database that healthcare professionals can access. The referral software solution also contains physicians’ data, including their 

  1. specialties, 
  2. medical credentials, 
  3. hospital affiliation and 
  4. records of the outcomes of past referrals. 

With this, one can easily match a patient with the most appropriate healthcare professionals to provide quality care. 

Appointment Scheduling

One of the most important features of physician referral management software is the scheduling of appointments. This software shows a physician’s working hours and when he will be available. Not only this, but he can also confirm availability for incoming referrals quickly in case of urgent appointments. 

Furthermore, referral software solutions come with reminder features to help patients and healthcare professionals remember their appointments and keep to time. In addition, it allows one to close the loop on all referred patients. The referring physician gets notes to know the outcome of the meeting.

Analytics and Reporting

Referral software in healthcare also has standard analytical tools to help you track your progress and performance. You do this by measuring success using key performance indicators, including  

  1. number of referrals, 
  2. referral visits, and 
  3. conversation rates. 

This will help gauge the effectiveness of the software. Furthermore, one would know areas going well and how to improve where one is lagging. This software can help you to know your top partners. It allows one to focus on more profitable specialists and pay them according to their efforts.

Integration with Electronic Health Records/Electronic Medical Records (EHR/EMR) System

Physician referral management software comes with EHR and EMR systems to streamline referrals. EHR contains accurate patient information in digital form that professionals use when making informed decisions in health systems. 

It is a file that contains everything about a patient, including:

  1. family history, 
  2. vital signs, 
  3. past medical and surgical history, and 
  4. allergies. 

Healthcare professionals can enter new information and update old ones while on the go. This integration improves communication, prevents life-threatening mistakes, and ensures data security. 

Benefits of Using Software to Manage Patient Referrals

freepik.com

Physician referral management systems offer solutions to many medical problems. It is an effective way to grow your business and generate revenue. The use of this software solution also provides benefits to a patient.

With it, patients have access to appropriate care from specialists promptly. The following are some of the benefits one stands to gain when using software for outbound patient referrals

  1. It saves time and reduces the cost of medical treatment: This tool reduces the long waiting time patients may encounter when using the manual process. Additionally, it reduces administrative costs, and staff can focus on other important business matters. 
  2. Automated referral management increases overall efficiency in healthcare organizations: Patients may misplace handwritten notes, and paper documentation may miss important details, leading to errors and health complications.
  3. Referral management software increases patient experience and satisfaction: Patients decide the time convenient for them before fixing appointments. Because they have a say, patients take charge of their health to improve outcomes.
  4. This software reduces referral leakage in a healthcare setting: Referral leakage occurs when patients seek medical help from other professionals outside the hospital when distance is a barrier. Referral management software prevents this by referring patients to the closest specialist. 
  5. Most importantly, physician referral management software prevents delay and ensures patient care continuum. 

Considerations for Choosing a Physician Referral Management Solution 

Not all software will align with your business needs. Carefully consider the following factors before getting a referral management system: 

User-friendly Interface

One must consider if the referral software is easy to use. The software must be self-explanatory to enhance physicians’ experience. Software with an intuitive interface simplifies outbound referrals and the process of bringing doctors with low digital literacy on board. 

Customization and Scalability 

The customization and scalability requirements of software will influence your choice. As a physician, you have a specific referral process. Hence, it is important to adjust and customize CRM systems to suit your needs. Also, factor in how well this automated solution will function as the number of users increases. Good software should handle an increased workload without sacrificing efficiency. 

Support and Training Options

Not all software providers make available comprehensive training and ongoing technical support. The software provider you use should offer online and onsite training for care providers. Additionally, the software must have 24/7 support features, including live chats, phone assistance, and swift email delivery. 

Security and HIPAA Compliance 

Prioritize data security and HIPAA compliance when getting referral management software. Ensure that the software solution perfectly encrypts patients’ data and is not vulnerable to attacks. Furthermore, HIPAA-compliant software stores and secures sensitive health information based on rules. 

A Step-by-step Guide for Implementing A Referral Management Solution

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Follow the steps below for a smooth referral software implementation:

Step 1: Assessment and Planning 

  1. Evaluate your existing referral solution and determine the problem you want to solve. 
  2. Using this, define the goals and objectives you want to achieve. Your goals will serve as a guide during and after the implementation process. 

Step 2: Selection and Installation 

  1. The next step is to select the software solution based on your requirements and preferences.
  2. After that, install and set up the referral management software by following the instructions in the manual or using a third-party software partner.

Step 3: Data Migration 

  1. After setting up, move patients’ and physicians’ data to the new software solution. Remember to create a backup to prevent total data loss in breach cases.
  2. At this point, integrate the software with existing systems, including EMR/EHR. 

Step 4: Testing and Quality Assurance 

  1. Now that the system is running, test it using a small group of physicians to check how well it works.
  2. If there are no complaints, train all potential receiving physicians to use the software.  

Step 5: User Feedback and Adjustments 

  1. Continuously monitor the system by gathering feedback from physicians regarding any issues they might have encountered to ensure the software runs smoothly. 
  2. Periodically evaluate how well the software is doing by comparing the outcome to your written objectives.
  3. Based on the outcome of your evaluation, make adjustments as needed and resolve defects.

Six Best Practices in Medical Referral Management 

The benefits patients, health providers, and payers of the healthcare system get from using software for outbound referrals are endless. However, they must optimize these benefits to get the most out of their time and financial investment. The following are some best practices one should consider when using physician referral management software:

  1. Ensure your staff and physicians get proper training on how to use the software solution 
  2. Double-check to ensure the patients’ data are accurate and complete to avoid mistakes
  3. Actively involve patients in the referral process and when making health decisions to increase their satisfaction.
  4. Close the loop after a referral by requesting updates about the medication interventions to promote the continuity of a patient’s care.
  5. Build quality and long-lasting relationships with the physicians and encourage them to reach out quickly if they encounter any problem. 
  6. Finally, work with a reliable referral management software provider like Platforce. Platforce CRM software makes the referral process easier and keeps you ahead of competitors.

Conclusion

Using revolutionizing software solutions is vital for business growth. With referral software tools, primary care physicians and specialists can communicate quickly after scheduling appointments to get patient health updates. 

The Platforce Pharma CRM has many sophisticated features to help meet your business goals and promote seamlessness in your marketing operations. With the help of our technical team, you can implement all our software solutions to increase your sales results. 

If you are new to using software to manage patient referrals, or you want to upgrade your software solution, Here’s how you can get started.

How CRM Transforms Marketing Medicines in the 2024 Pharma Landscape

Posted on by Japheth Oseghale

With the “ember” months fully in, the countdown to 2024 has officially begun. While many businesses are unconcerned about the crossover night, everyone has expectations for the coming years. 

The Marketing of Medicines remains at the top of Big Pharma’s hopes and expectations for the new year. Customer relationship management already gives big pharma a competitive advantage in marketing strategies. Pharma marketers wonder if CRM market developments will give better results in the new year. 

Nothing is set in stone yet. However, we will carefully evaluate the past, present, feasible future, and possible challenges of using CRM to improve pharma marketing. 

Table of Contents

What Makes CRM The Heartbeat Of Pharmaceutical Industry Marketing?

The marketing of medicines, just like the marketing of other products, implies customer relationship management as an essential component of any strategy, elevating its status among marketing efforts from optional to obligatory.

Pharma marketing CRM has a market with pharmaceutical companies like Aurea, Oracle, Inova Software, and Veeva Systems, leading the manufacturing of the pharmaceutical industry’s CRM tools. The market is worth $183 million in 2022, with experts’ projections of its 2028 value, accumulating a CAGR of 8.35%. 

Personalized Medicine Promotion with CRM

Pharmaceutical manufacturers are leveraging heavily on the ability of CRM to enhance personalization. They use this to tailor promotional messages and suggestions for medical professionals and patients. 

360-Degree Customer Insights: The Power of Data

With the knowledge of proven patient outcomes, pharma brands have revolutionized the pharmaceutical industry. They use key performance indicators to detect the pharma marketing strategy with the best possible outcome. Then, they equip their sales reps with information to develop the best pharmaceutical marketing campaigns. 

Omni-Channel Engagement and CRM Integration

CRMs make it possible to communicate across multiple platforms seamlessly. Multi-channel communication allows pharmaceutical companies to catch up with radically changing customers’ journeys. Omnichannel engagement is helping pharma companies build trust and solid relationships with their customers. 

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With technological advancement, emerging technologies, changes in target customers’ tastes, and environmental factors, the pharma CRM landscape is radically changing. However, the world has not witnessed the biggest changes yet, so there are more for pharmaceutical firms to look forward to. These include

Hyper-Personalization 

Pharmaceutical companies will increasingly leverage AI, machine learning, and big data analytics to tailor their marketing messages and product recommendations. This approach will foster hyper-personalization in the pharmaceutical industry, enhancing engagement and fostering stronger relationships. 

AI-Powered Predictive Analytics

AI and predictive analytics will be pivotal in market campaigns in 2024. CRM will use these tools to identify potential leads, optimize sales strategies, and predict market trends for developing a better marketing strategy. 

Data-Security And Privacy

CRM will place an important duty on data security and privacy due to increasing cybersecurity threats that can frustrate pharmaceutical marketing strategies. Pharmaceutical companies will employ robust measures to safeguard data and neutralize threats to their marketing efforts

Environmental Sustainability

The pharmaceutical industry will use CRM tools to track environmental practices among pharmaceutical companies. They will track and promote sustainability in operations and product marketing. 

Telehealth Integration

Telehealth is growing so the pharmaceutical industry is tapping into it. The continuous growth will make pharmaceutical companies integrate their CRM platforms with other platforms for telehealth. They will relate with medical professionals virtually and connect with consumers on social media platforms. 

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Market trends like digital marketing, data analysis, direct-to-consumer advertising, utilizing digital channels, and marketing funnel have made it easier for companies to leverage CRM. However, the pharma sector lags because of some constraints surrounding the rigid industry. 

Many constraints hold pharma firms back from adequately utilizing the new trends like their colleagues in other industries. So, it is imperative to learn how to properly harness new pharmaceutical marketing strategies within the boundaries of their regulations. 

Here are some ways to leverage trends for effective pharma marketing strategies. 

Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel pharma marketing helps ensure seamless communication across different platforms without disparity in tone or outlook. Please take advantage of this multiple-platform marketing to ensure your potential customers can find you anywhere they look, whether online or offline. 

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular and valuable way of using digital platforms for marketing. Create and share valuable content across digital platforms to draw the interest of your target audience. Content will promote your credibility within the pharma industry and imprint an impression that makes potential customers remember you easily. 

Healthcare Professionals’ Relationship Management

While the pharmaceutical industry focuses more on patients these days, you do not want to put the healthcare providers aside. Tracking their interaction and storing key information about them give you valuable insight into the healthcare system as a whole. 

Also, sending personalized messages, relevant clinical data, and information about your product can help them serve as a link between you and patients. 

Adherence and Outcomes Tracking

Collect and analyze data with CRM to track patients’ adherence and responses to your products and services. This information will be valuable to develop effective market strategies and great products by identifying trends and areas that need improvement. 

Patient Support Programmes

The pharmaceutical sector is fast becoming one of the consumer goods industries based on its customer-centric approach. The major target audience for pharma companies is patients, who will pay for their products and services. Therefore, you must use CRM for analyzing data, tracking patients’ progress, and offering targeted support. 

Compliance and Ethical Considerations in Pharma CRM

The pharmaceutical industry deals directly with the protection of human life and health. The industry is heavily regulated to ensure the safety, efficacy, and quality of drugs, as well as the privacy of people’s sensitive information. 

Many people have regarded the regulations as noose over time, hanging over the heads of pharmaceutical companies. The constant fear of regulations has slowed down growth in the pharmaceutical industry and prevented creativity and effectiveness. 

The question is, should stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry consider the regulations something that ties them down? Why not work with the wind instead of against it, as we will discuss soon?

  • Data Privacy: Comply with data privacy rules like HIPAA in the US and GDPR in Europe. Be transparent about data collection, use, and consent. Also, ensure you safeguard patients’ data.
  • Fair Balance And Truthfulness: Ensure all marketing information and messages contain a fair balance of information. These include including uses, risks, and potential side effects of any products or services. Also, consider the FDA-approved prescribing information to stay within the regulations.
  • Off-Label Promotion: Pharma companies must steer clear of off-label promotion. Do not promote or encourage anyone to promote medications for unapproved uses. 
  • Transparency: Have a transparent relationship with healthcare professionals. Disclose every financial relationship and incentive to healthcare professionals and desist from decision-influencing. 
  • Proper Training And Education: Pharmaceutical companies should train their employees in compliance and ethical standards. Provide constant ongoing education that keeps your employees refreshed. 

Challenges To Look Out For In Harnessing CRM’s Potential In The Future

The most beautiful roses have the deadliest thorns. It is a fallacy to expect the best things to be handed over on a silver platter. That includes achieving optimum pharma marketing with the emerging CRM trends.

Healthcare stakeholders must be aware of potential challenges they will face in optimizing the potential of emerging trends to provide value-based health care. A substantial knowledge will make it easy to develop an approach to counter problems as they emerge. 

  1. There are increasing regulations that can challenge personalized customer experience, which is a key pharmaceutical marketing strategy.
  2. Consolidating and integrating data across online and offline platforms may challenge developing effective marketing strategies.
  3. While traditional marketing strategies may not work today, cybersecurity threatens digital marketing strategies.
  4. Scaling CRM digital platforms to accommodate changes without compromising performance may be a challenge to having an effective marketing strategy. 
  5. It is essential to achieve seamless integration of all platforms, whether digital or offline, with CRM to achieve a holistic result. However, this may be challenging or cost-consuming. 
  6. While AI and automation may have been proven to help develop marketing strategies, AI and automation tools like chatboxes may lack the human touch that people want. 

Success Stories: Brands That Flourished with CRM Marketing Efforts

The synergy of pharmaceutical marketing and Customer Relations Management did not start today. Pharmaceutical firms and pharma marketers have spent decades investing resources into using CRM to market their products, especially since the pharma industry has become customer-centered. 

Continuous effort and resource investment by the pharma industry have yielded results, proving that using CRM for pharma marketing is a successful strategy. Countless pharmaceutical companies have successfully harnessed the power of CRM to market pharma products effectively. 

And their stories might just be what some pharma marketers need to make the big leap!

Johnson & Johnson 

For instance, Johnson and Johnson, a diversified healthcare company, is a household name across many countries today. The fame and acceptance are not entirely dependent on their products, albeit how good they are. 

Instead, they have used CRM to streamline communication between healthcare providers, distributors, and patients, resulting in cost-efficient distribution and effective marketing strategies. 

Pfizer

Similarly, analyzing data has helped Pfizer, one of the world’s leading pharma companies, take the bull by the horns. Tracking customers’ interactions, the company helped its sales teams understand healthcare professionals better, using tailored marketing consistent messaging to simplify marketing efforts. 

Their simplification has not watered down their marketing strategy. Instead, their simplified marketing strategy has led to better customer relationships, more revenue, and better product development. 

Roche

Also, Roche, a global diagnostics and pharmaceutical company, has focused on using data-driven information to deliver personalized marketing to their target audiences. Juggling both healthcare professionals and patients can be tough, and it could have taken longer to achieve their marketing objectives. 

However, Roche has stayed on top of their game, using targeted, relevant information obtained by gathering valuable insights with CRM tools. 

Summarily

As pharma companies look toward 2024, the realization is that Pharma CRMs remain a driving force in any effective pharma marketing. More than just transforming marketing strategies, these CRMs foster personalized marketing, maintain compliance, enhance data accuracy, and improve overall user experience to provide an unmatched experience for individual customers.

Big Pharma is on the cusp of major marketing changes, and our CRM takes the lead on marketing trends like hyper-personalization, AI-powered predictive analysis, and data security, you’d be amiss to not hop on this Pharma CRM bandwagon!

Learn more!

Maximizing Pharma Conferences in 2024 | Creative Strategies That Always Work

Posted on by Japheth Oseghale

Pharma conferences are more than just professional gatherings; it is a way for companies to network, create business opportunities, learn new information, and stay ahead in the industry. However, these pharmaceutical events require commitments and consume time and money.  Hence, one must actively participate to yield substantial results from investments.

As a regular participant or a first-timer, there are different strategies pharmaceutical and life science companies can use to get the full benefits of these conferences. It involves defining your goals before the conference and engaging other attendees using various means.

Additionally, it is essential to follow up on new contacts in person and remotely using Platforce CRM software to ensure long-term relationships after the conference. This article will explore creative strategies to help you leverage the potential of pharma conferences in the best manner and give tips on tracking the outcomes of your marketing efforts in the healthcare system. 

Table of Contents

How to Prepare for Pharmaceutical Sciences Conferences in 2024

Different pharmaceutical sciences fields, such as pharmacology, drug discovery, clinical research, and pharmaceutical marketing, organize conferences annually. It’s not every local and international conference a pharma industry should attend because not all will meet your needs. 

The first step to maximize pharma conferences is to attend events that share the same values as your professional, scientific organization. 

Before the d-day, it is essential to prepare adequately so everything goes smoothly. Have clear directions and set relevant objectives. Ask yourself some questions like:

  1. “Who do I want to network with?”
  2. “Which of my products or services do I want to market?” 
  3. “How will I sell myself to others?”

The answers to your question will help define what you want to achieve. 

Furthermore, ensure you plan financially, as attending this annual meeting can be costly. Make budgets for travel, accommodation, registration fees, and training of staff that will be present. The budget should also cover the cost of designing and printing promotional materials. 

Pharmaceutical industries should make provisions for promotional materials such as business cards, brochures, and poster presentations. These materials should be detailed and easy to understand. Most leading solution providers also create a digital portfolio and make in-depth presentations for their companies. It will give an insight into what they do and their expertise in the drug discovery world. 

How Can A Pharma Team Participate Actively During Conferences

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There are different means by which professionals can actively participate during a pharma conference. The following are some ways to maximize your experience and make your company stand out:

Speed Networking Sessions 

Some conferences organize speed networking as a way to expand professional contacts. Though speed networking may come in different formats, they have the same end goal. With speed networking, attendees connect with people with like minds quickly. 

Because of the limited time, it is important to prepare to make the most of speed networking. Before engaging, know what you want to say to avoid information overload. Greet other pharma professionals with a firm handshake, and introduce yourself and your company. You can start with ‘Hello, my name is ……., I work with ……. company, and I would like to connect with you’.  

Furthermore, ask questions to ensure the conversation is two-way. You can write down the questions beforehand to get enough information. Don’t forget to take notes and exchange business cards at the convention center. 

Not everyone meeting during an annual meeting will be a potential client or a great connector. Hence, make speed networking sessions as brief as possible and move to the next person. 

Engaging Social Media Strategies 

Social media can serve as a platform for you to engage your followers and leading researchers during and after the pharma summit. There is no doubt that Twitter and LinkedIn are the best social media platforms for marketing. However, as a global pharma company, you can try other platforms and expand beyond these two. 

When using social media platforms:

  1. Do not overshare and stick to valuable points.
  2. Use relevant hashtags and tag the organizers to broaden your brand’s visibility.
  3. You can also go live and share real-time updates to open discussion and engage your followers. 
  4. Reach out to as many attendees as possible, ask them to follow you and like your posts
  5. You may also take pictures with other attendees and retweet their posts. 

All these social media strategies will help the pharma industry connect to those with common interests. 

Gamification: Turning Learning to Fun

Companies often pay for spaces and stands to showcase their products and services during an annual meeting. Pharma professionals show interest by visiting your stand and checking out your display. Talking at length about your brand might bore them, which makes it important to include games, challenges, and quizzes to make learning more fun. 

You can group the participants and give them topics related to your company to brainstorm on. After that, ask questions and give rewards to winning teams. 

Leading pharmaceutical companies also play quick-fire questions. This game involves two parties: a sales rep and an attendee. The sales rep has a limited time, mostly one minute, to ask questions, and the attendee answers immediately and vice versa. 

You can ask questions like: 

  1. ‘What is your job title?’ 
  2. ‘What three words describe you?’ 
  3. ‘What are your usual work hours?’ 

Asking these questions will enable both parties to know each other better. 

Personalized Interactions: One-on-one Meetings

You can also create personalized content for your target audience to make them feel more valued. This is feasible when you can access the list of guests and all medical professionals. Here, you know those you want to meet and the exact message to pass across to sell yourself. 

To do this,

  1. Conduct thorough research based on the guests’ lists and identify your target audience.
  2. Gather data on your target audience to understand them better 
  3. Using this data, tailor content to suit each client’s needs 
  4. Reach out in advance and schedule meetings to discuss medical affairs.
  5. During the meetings, pitch yourself in the best way possible.
  6. Follow up and maintain the relationship. 

Attend Interactive Sessions 

Focus on interactive sessions in conferences where you can engage other medical professionals actively. Some conferences organize panel discussions where experts explore particular topics. Participate actively in panel discussions when topics related to your company are the subject of the matter. 

As pharmaceutical scientists, you should always ask questions during Q&A sessions. Also, give intelligent answers when keynote speakers throw questions to the audience. 

Furthermore, don’t shy away from round tables and group discussions. Organizers in a strategic conference may divide attendees into smaller and more intimate groups in the convention center. People get to know each other, brainstorm on topics, and ask questions.

In this scenario, you can nominate yourself as the group leader to be actively involved. As the group leader, you will report your group’s findings to the larger audience. This way, you can sell yourself and your brand. 

How Does A Pharmaceutical Company Stay Relevant After a Conference in 2024?

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A pharma company has only completed 50% of the task after successfully attending the pharma summit, as a lot still needs to be done. It is important to follow up on industry-critical conversations to build stronger and long-lasting relationships. Here’s how a biopharmaceutical industry can leverage connections

  1. Sort out the business cards and contacts you collected. 
  2. Prioritize those that are more relevant and valuable to your business.
  3. Send personalized messages explaining why you want to continue the conversation.
  4. Set up a meeting, which can be virtual or in person, for further conversation.
  5. During the meeting, tell them how your products and services can solve problems. Make your points concise. 
  6. Express gratitude for the time spent and store the customer info on your CRM software.
  7. Stay active on social media and keep attending relevant conferences. 

Tracking Outcomes of Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Companies Marketing Efforts

Attending pharmaceutical sciences conferences is expensive, and it is important to make the most of it. The following are some ways a healthcare industry can check how well it maximizes pharma conferences

Review your Goals

Review your networking goals and objectives. Check how far you achieved each goal after the conference. This will give an insight as to how well you performed. For goals that were not met, analyze the reason that could have been behind them and work on it towards the next conference. 

Personal Growth

Though the conference was mainly for marketing your brand, you should assess how it has driven your growth as an individual. Professional interactions can help sharpen your communication skills and increase your confidence. 

Return on Investment 

Measuring ROI using key performance indicators will give an insight into how profitable attending the pharma summit was. Compare your financial investments to the connections gained. It may also include business opportunities and collaborations. 

Referrals and Recommendations 

Referrals and recommendations tell you how well your new contacts are pleased with your services. This means that they understand what your pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry do and trust you to deliver. 

How A Pharmaceutical Company Can Maximize Virtual Conference Engagement in 2024

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Attending virtual meetings is similar to physical conferences, and the difference is just the platform. There is this common belief that this digital innovation may not be effective in networking and meeting people. This is false, as virtual events may have enhanced networking features such as chat boxes, instant messaging, and live activity feeds.

The following are some ways one can maximize virtual conference engagement for easy market access

  1. Like physical meetings, plan when attending virtual conferences and participate actively in relevant discussions.
  2. Make use of the conference app if available. Go through the profiles of attendees and reach out to like-minded healthcare professionals. However, you may not find enough information, as data privacy in healthcare is a major concern in health systems. 
  3. Share updates on social media and participate in interactive sessions. 
  4. Join group chats and discussions to get to know other participants better.
  5. Use CRM software to follow up with these professionals for a long-lasting relationship efficiently.

Final Thoughts

A pharma conference provides a medium where like-minded professionals can network, interact, and share ideas. Without proper planning, you may not have an amazing conference experience. 

Before attending any pharmaceutical science conference, for example; research and development or drug delivery and drug discovery, it is important for healthcare professionals to write the networking goals they want to achieve and have strategic plans to achieve them. Since many of these conferences involve sharing and exploring data, it’s a plus to have reliable data-cleaning software that would preserve the genuity of your results

Furthermore, proper engagement is not limited to physical interactions, as the pharma industry can also attend conferences virtually. With our CRM software, companies can retain connections with healthcare professionals easily for business development.

Stay ahead of your competitors by following our Youtube and LinkedIn channels.

Why Pharma CRM and Personalized Medicine are Enhancing Patient Care

Posted on by Japheth Oseghale

As the healthcare industry advances in complexity, design, and management, pharmaceutical and life science companies must adopt automated systems to streamline daily operations. 

For sales forecasting, automating tasks, expense reporting, marketing campaigns, and customer service, technologies like customer relationship management (CRM) help to keep track of how companies engage their customers. 

These systems are also central to nurturing ongoing contracts with healthcare professionals, sales reps, and other stakeholders. 

When a medical or life science organization has healthy working pharmaceutical CRM software, it ensures proper patient or customer monitoring, promotes business relationships, and ultimately helps to generate more revenue.

We’ve explored in great depth how pharmaceutical CRM software can help in the adoption of personalized medicine for better patient care. Here’s how it works.

Table of Contents

Understanding Personalized Medicine

Drug design and development used to be a one-size-fits-all model. However, with the discovery of how the presence or absence of certain genes affects drug metabolism, efforts have been made to factor in genetic markers during drug production and dispensing of medications. 

Personalized medicine is a modern practice involving genetic considerations while making therapy decisions for patients.

Personalized medicine does not mean the drug is developed for a single person. Rather, it means drug development and drug use design for specific genetic populations. This means that the treatment option is based on factors like sex, race, gene factors, and dosage regimen.

For example, a patient who’s a poor metabolizer has little or no CYP2D6 gene function, while an ultrafast metabolizer will metabolize drugs extensively and quickly. 

Knowing if a patient is a poor or ultrafast metabolizer will assist the physician in determining the right dose to prescribe and avoid side effects associated with metabolic problems. Personalized medicine is the future of precise prescription and optimal patient care.

The Role of Pharma CRM in Personalized Medicine

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Pharmaceutical CRM software allows medical representatives to manage current customers and improve their marketing strategies. This is critical to boosting sales reps’ performance in the pharma industry.

Pharma CRM also provides an avenue for doctors and other healthcare providers to record multiple data about a patient such as their demographic, medical history, genetic information, insurance payers, and drug use history. Using CRM software serves multiple roles in personalized medicine delivery. These roles include:

Pharma CRM: Accurate Data Collection and Analysis

When a hospital, pharmacy, or healthcare facility installs CRM software, it can easily record, monitor, and improve patient or customer interactions. Analyzing the data is useful to gain insights about the patient’s health performance over time, their habits, and other useful patterns.

The organization can interpret the insights to understand the state of their patients and develop personalized strategies for each patient’s therapy.

Pharma CRM: Enhanced Communication

Pharma CRM software provides multiple communication channels like email, SMS, phone calls, and other media for enhanced patient or customer interactions. Having a CRM solution that allows the medical or sales team to capture leads, monitor patients, and maintain constant communication is critical to the success of any healthcare organization. 

For example, a customized pharmaceutical CRM system can help pharmacists send reminders for patients to take their pills at the right time. This will assist the pharmacist in providing optimal pharmaceutical care for better health outcomes.

Another instance where having an efficient CRM system is important is in the prevention of missed appointments. The technical support team can program the CRM software to set up automatic reminders for patients’ future appointments. 

Pharma CRM: Gathering Patient Feedback

As the world evolves, technology offers new and improved ways to deliver swift, efficient, and convenient services. Healthcare providers can bank on a solid CRM solution to get valuable feedback from their patients. 

The feedback can help healthcare professionals (HCPs) understand how effective their patients’ therapy is and how it can be improved. They can easily get information about any adverse drug effects and possible gene-medication concerns.

Data Collection and Analysis with Pharma CRM Software: Platforce

Healthcare customer relationship management software collects different patient data types. The data is then used to create an extensive profile for each patient. Some of the data usually collected for managing patient-provider relationships effectively include:

  1. Demographics: Personal information like the patient’s age, sex, address, contact, and insurance details.
  2. Health history: This covers the patient’s past medical diagnoses, treatments, medications, and surgeries.
  3. Lifestyle behaviors: This includes habits and behaviors such as exercise, substance use, and dieting patterns.
  4. Appointment history: Records of previous appointments, reasons for visits, and outcomes.
  5. Communication history: Phone conversations, emails, and text communications between the patient and the healthcare institution.
  6. Billing and payment information: Financial information concerning the patient’s insurance status and payment records.

CRM software enables healthcare providers to nurture leads by providing personalized follow-ups based on the patient’s needs and preferences. This is possible with the use of data analytics CRM tools to collect and analyze data like demographics, health conditions, or treatment history.

Personalized communication also aids in the development of trust and rapport, resulting in improved patient-provider interactions.

Pharma businesses and other healthcare-providing ventures use CRM software to collect, store, and analyze customer data, such as contact information, medical history, credit card information, feedback, therapy patterns, and behavior. 

While this data can help pharmaceutical businesses improve their patient care delivery and get more deals through sales campaigns, it also poses a data security threat to patients. Patients want assurance that their data is safe from data breaches, and theft. 

Here are some tips to secure data privacy when using pharmaceutical CRM software:

  1. Choose a CRM platform with a transparent privacy policy, good regulatory compliance, and efficient data management systems. 
  2. Train your sales teams or support staff on how to ensure data privacy with CRM software. 
  3. Use strong passwords and authentication tools to protect your CRM software and prevent unauthorized access,
  4. Encrypt and backup the data on the CRM software to prevent data loss or corruption.
  5. Keep your CRM software up-to-date to strengthen its functionality and prevent incompatibility issues. 

Patient Engagement and Communication

Whether you run a local pharmacy or you have a private clinical practice, using a CRM system will help to facilitate better patient engagement and communication. Before digital CRM systems became popular, doctors and HCPs interacted with patients in person. Follow-ups were not easy as it was up to the patient to follow their treatment instructions. 

However, with the advent of CRM solutions, HCPs can automate messages to each patient to remind them about tests, follow-up consultations, and medication use.

This helps patients manage their health better and build a good rapport with healthcare providers. Such a relationship motivates more individuals to seek out physicians who can answer questions and help them live healthier lives.

Treatment Adherence and Monitoring Using Pharmaceutical CRM Software

Regardless of how meticulous a doctor designs a patient’s treatment, it can only be effective if the patient adheres to the therapy. Patients can succumb to non-adherence due to the medications’ side effects, the inconvenience of returning to the hospital, a hectic lifestyle, or frequent work travel.

An effective CRM system gives a 360-degree perspective on how several factors like behavioral patterns, demographics, and lifestyle choices contribute to treatment adherence.

For example, analyzing a patient’s lifestyle and behavior can help predict when a patient is likely to skip dosages. It can also be used to identify those with the propensity to abandon therapy. 

Here are three approaches HCPs can use to improve patient adherence: 

  1. Create an extensive overview of the patient using pertinent data. 
  2. Design models to identify key contributors to non-adherence. 
  3. Use predictive analytics to forecast future trends in adherence behavior. 

HCPs can use pharma CRM software built with patient hubs to reach patients directly with strategic interventions that could improve adherence. Using such real-time monitoring solutions can improve awareness of potential treatment concerns which helps in treatment modification for better health outcomes.

Overcoming Challenges with Customer Relationship Management in Healthcare

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Healthcare providers use CRM systems to implement personalized therapy for patients. However, using a CRM platform is not without its challenges. Here are five common challenges HCPs face when using CRMs and how to resolve them: 

1. Security concerns

Pharmaceutical companies must follow a security-first model when dealing with customer data. To ensure that the pharma CRM is free of any cybersecurity threats, employing experts to routinely inspect the software is essential.

Healthcare firms should train their staff on basic to advanced data management rules to prevent data breaches. When a company establishes proper security practices, customers can be assured of their data safety and this in turn helps the company’s reputation.

2. Complex integrations

Expert CRM software providers allow healthcare companies to integrate any feature needed. This is particularly important when integrations with external apps become key features that are necessary for effective patient relationship management.

3. Data migration technicalities

Migrating data from one product to another can be tasking. And without the right experts on board can result in data loss. CRM providers like Platforce make data migration easier by providing customized tools to ease the transition.

4. Low User Adoption

Installing CRM software is the first step towards improved patient care in a healthcare organization. The next step is adoption, where the employees use the software in actual practice.

Some employees may refuse to make maximum use of the CRM software due to a perceived lack of value, or insufficient training. As a result, data is inadequate or erroneous, making it difficult to derive valuable insights, resulting in ineffective decision-making.

Companies should invest in training programs to onboard their staff to the technical know-how of CRM systems.

5. Regulatory Compliance

Businesses in the healthcare sector must implement all the regulatory requirements for data privacy. These include the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), a federal law that was created to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge.

Pharma and life sciences companies must collaborate with legal and compliance teams to strike a balance between leveraging customer data for effective CRM strategies and ensuring data privacy and protection.

Final Thoughts

Modern healthcare focuses on how precisely doctors can deliver treatment for optimized individual patient care. For example; Personalized medicine is one of the recent advancements in healthcare that provides healthcare services according to the need and health requirements of the patient.

For healthcare professionals, customer relationship management software can help in monitoring drug use, adherence, side effects, and receiving feedback from patients. Pharma CRMs also helps analyze data to promote better healthcare delivery to patients.

To insure the safety and security of these patients’ data, It’s advisable to choose reliable and regulated Pharma CRM like Platforce that complies with regulatory frameworks, supports integrations with external apps, and provides a comprehensive suite of tools to facilitate relationships with customers.

See for yourself!

Enhancing Customer Experience in Pharma: Strategies for Patient-Centric Care in 2024

Posted on by Japheth Oseghale

It’s interesting how, in Pharma businesses, customer experience should take priority over profit. But that’s only sometimes the case. Many pharma companies today are ranked as having the least customer-friendly experience. Finding how to maintain profitable revenue growth without compromising the quality of your customer experience makes you stand out from the crowd of Pharma companies.

In this post, we’ll explore some of the best strategies for enhancing customer experiences. For you, this could mean driving high customer engagement and developing a feedback loop that helps you understand where you need improvements in various touchpoints of your customer journey and experience.

Providing top-notch customer experience gives a competitive advantage that guarantees positive business results and helps upsell the lifetime value chain of your customers.

Table of Contents

How Important is Patient-Centric Pharma Marketing?

Any reliable patient-centric approach employs techniques that prioritize patient support services and customer satisfaction over everything else. In return, it guarantees profits, brand loyalty, and customer lifetime value to your brand.

In today’s marketing world, a customer-centric approach is a strategy that guarantees results in the Pharma industry because it gives a sense of importance. In most cases, it builds the idea that your business only exists for their needs. What could be more assuring? Other advantages being customer-centered gives you over other healthcare providers include:

  1. Empowering patients and enhancing patients’ experience
  1. Improving patient outcomes
  1. Tailoring treatment plans for individual patient requirements.
  1. Increase customer satisfaction
  1. Promotes compliance with regulatory standards
  1. Guarantees customer longevity and lifetime value to your Pharma business.

Touch Points in a Patient’s Journey Where Pharma Companies Can Improve Customer Experience 

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For pharmaceutical companies, it takes more work to guarantee customer centricity or understand customer needs. Especially since there are almost always intermediaries like prescribing physicians, regulators, and payers, these intermediaries often significantly contribute to the overall Pharma customer experience (CX).

Since you cannot eradicate intermediaries or even meet customers, having a workaround would suffice. But, it starts with understanding major touch points where you can provide positive customer engagement for improved customer experience.

Awareness and Education

Many healthcare journeys start with the patient’s awareness of their condition, potential treatments, and clinical trials. Here, pharmaceutical companies can contribute by providing accurate, precise, and patient-friendly educational materials through accessible digital channels. These materials help patients understand their condition and make informed decisions about their health. 

It also allows the Pharma industry to facilitate data-driven customer engagement. The interaction between a patient and their healthcare provider is crucial as it contributes to how pharma can improve customer experience. 

Any reliable Pharma company should support this touchpoint by providing healthcare professionals with comprehensive and up-to-date information on medications and treatment options. In doing so, they facilitate more informed discussions and decisions that boost the Pharma customer engagement strategies.

Access and Affordability

Simplifying the process of obtaining medications and ensuring affordability is a critical touchpoint. By working on transparent pricing, collaborating with insurance providers, and offering assistance programs, pharma companies can reduce the financial burden on patients.

Additionally, actively seeking and incorporating feedback is a hallmark of patient-centric care. By collecting patient insights, pharma companies can continuously improve their services to match customer expectations.

Community and Support Groups

The power of shared experiences in patient communities is immense. Pharmaceutical companies can support or facilitate the creation of patient support groups, fostering a sense of belonging and empowerment among patients.

Key opinion leaders are also a significant contributing community and support group factor. Sometimes, they spearhead actions on these groups and can influence your potential customers. They could also be instrumental in your strategies to guarantee seamless customer experiences.

End of Treatment/Follow-up 

As patients transition out of treatment, they may require resources to adapt to life post-treatment or prepare for a new phase. Pharmaceutical companies can offer guidance and support to ease this transition.

Staying connected with patients even after their treatment concludes is a critical touchpoint. Collecting data on their long-term outcomes not only supports patients but contributes to improving future treatments and patient care.

Maintaining stringent quality assurance and regulatory compliance is a non-negotiable aspect of pharmaceutical care. Patients trust that the medications they receive meet the highest standards for safety and efficacy.

How Can Pharma Companies Measure Customer Experience?

Providing a fantastic customer experience can be a stretch for many new pharma businesses, especially since interactions between pharma companies and end-users are minimal. So, it begs the question: how can you improve your customer experience if you cannot measure it? 

Workarounds can help pharmaceutical businesses measure how customers perceive their business to show where they need to improve to provide these customers with high-end customer experiences. 

To measure customer satisfaction in the pharmaceutical industry, consider using:

  1. Surveys, 
  2. the Net Promoter Score (NPS), 
  3. complaint tracking, 
  4. focus groups, 
  5. online reviews and social media monitoring, 
  6. key performance indicators (KPIs), 
  7. benchmarking, 
  8. employee feedback, 
  9. longitudinal analysis, and 
  10. data analytics. 

These methods will help you gauge customer sentiment, improve services, and maintain trust. However, these measures must be controlled to eliminate some of the controversies like survey bias, NPS limitations, and private concerns that surround each action. 

Do Patient-support Programs Enhance Customer Experience?

Patient support programs are a strategic approach for enhancing customer experiences. But, deploying a patient support program is only achievable with real-world data or real-world evidence that aims to help you onboard the right customers.

These programs should utilize personalized engagement strategies and market research that addresses the pain points of your customer journeys. It should also encourage and provide access to valuable information sharing.

How Platforce Can Help Improve Customer Experience

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Some other strategies we’d explore use digital transformation to analyze key performance indicators in exceptional customer experiences. These are the kinds of techniques deployed by leading companies to keep their services customer-centric.

Platforce is one of such digital innovations that helps you pique your customer’s minds and develop practical customer-centric strategies using advanced customer data analytics or online footprint.

Some of the most significant digital solutions for improving Pharma customers’ experience that Platforce provides include:

Omnichannel Marketing

Any Pharma business brand that focuses on omnichannel marketing would be able to quickly provide a consistent buying experience across all the channels it operates on. This experience cuts across in-store, socials, internet, and SMS.

Many people today are undeniably mobile. As a business, you must measure up to provide a seamless user interface across all these platforms to help your customers not feel the need to learn new models or new intricacies when they switch to new channels of communication.

Online CRMs

To guarantee customer engagement, pharma companies need to be seamless. With Platforce, you can use online CRMs to collect and analyze patient data. These insights provide a better understanding of patient behaviors, preferences, and needs. This data-driven approach allows for the continuous improvement of patient services. 

Also, CRMs make it easier to automate tasks or reminders. This can help in cases of treating patients with Alzheimer’s, where they’d need to be reminded to medicate. Other benefits include: 

  1. Medication adherence tracking 
  1. Feedback collection 
  1. Data security and privacy 
  1. Efficient appointment scheduling. 
  1. Personalized engagements and patient interactions

Offline CLM

Offline Closed-Loop Marketing (CLM) systems in the pharmaceutical industry offer personalized, educational, and interactive interactions with healthcare professionals (HCPs). These systems provide efficient access to information, ensuring consistency in messaging, compliance, and data collection. 

They save time and resources and are environmentally responsible, contributing to a more positive customer experience for pharmaceutical representatives and HCPs.

Why Pharma Industries Need a Digital Solution for Better Customer Experience

It’s evident that crafting an exceptional customer experience strategy isn’t just an option; it’s a necessity. The days of focusing solely on traditional channels within the healthcare ecosystem, like doctors, pharmacies, and para-pharmacies, are now behind us. Today, the healthcare emergency, with all its urgency, needs a more comprehensive approach.

The magic word here is “integration.” Everything within the world we see today is now undeniably digital. Other industries that have implemented digital strategies with in-person processes have had breathtaking results in their approach to customer centricity. So, many health systems and Pharma industries must learn to do the same for similar results.

The emerging digital world holds the key to personalization – a concept that helps the healthcare industry put the customer at the center stage. Platforce is one example of a digital solution that allows many pharma companies to make sense of big digital data.

How Pharma Companies Can Partner with Patients for Better Customer Experience

Pharma companies are often working tirelessly to provide premium services to their customers but often need to pay more attention to the role of patients in how they can improve their services. 

The truth is that patients remain a crucial player in the Pharma ecosystem and can provide valuable clues on what problems need a solution and what Pharma companies should focus on. 

For example, some patients refuse to fill new prescriptions because they are relatively unaffordable, and others will not show up for scheduled appointments because of the availability of transportation or lack of childcare coverage. In some cases, patients stop taking medication because there are no commendable results after prolonged use. These are all cues, but are Pharma businesses paying attention? 

Key Takeaways 

Arguably, enhancing customer experience is not a walk in the park. But, if done correctly, it guarantees customer satisfaction and provides useful data for personalized and targeted marketing for nurturing the right leads rather than wasting resources on unconvertible leads.

With the increasing number of intermediaries between Pharma companies and end-users, it becomes increasingly difficult to reach a desirable customer experience. 

Nonetheless, with the help of highly operational and optimized software solutions, you can remove these barriers. Let’s show you how.

Patient Engagement Strategies in Pharma CRM: Building Stronger Relationships

Posted on by Japheth Oseghale

If you are wondering what patient engagement and pharma CRM entail, you are not alone. Patient engagement involves an interactive relationship between a provider and a patient to improve healthcare quality. This relationship is important because a significant aspect of patients’ health depends on their commitment to managing their conditions.

The use of pharmaceutical software solutions to build stronger relationships offers many benefits. When patients communicate freely and know they are one of the deciding factors, they comply with treatment regimens. Patient engagement leads to a high customer retention rate and an increased return on investment for a pharma business. 

In this article, we will explore what patient-centricity means, strategies for effective patient engagement, how to measure the impact of CRM-driven technologies, and the future of patient engagement in pharmacy. 

Table of Contents

What does “Patient-Centricity” in the Pharmaceutical Industry Mean?

Until recently, when launching, the pharma industry focused on the raw materials, the new product and its advantages over alternatives. Their goal was to make maximum profit, and they addressed any issues regarding patient satisfaction when the product was in the market. This traditional approach is no longer effective. 

Patient centricity is transforming how pharmaceutical companies function. It ensures that patients’ needs are the driving force behind every decision-making process. This may involve: 

  1. Seeking patients’ input regarding the clinical trials’ design, 
  2. Providing support services both online and offline, and 
  3. Getting feedback concerning adverse effects during post-marketing surveillance.

Platforce’s CRM system, for example, helps enhance interactions between the pharmaceutical industry and its customers. Overall, the patient-centric approach increases patient satisfaction and business growth, improves the pharmaceutical industry’s reputation, and leads to a cost-effective healthcare system. 

Six Surefire Strategies for Effective Patient Engagement 

There is no standard way to engage patients in health discussions. One should use different strategies concurrently to obtain maximum results. Here are six tools for effective patient engagement you should try out.

Patient Education Initiatives

Patient education involves providing information, support, and skills to improve well-being. Sales reps engage patients through meaningful conversations to determine what they already know and assess their needs. 

Because the literacy level may differ among patients, you should educate them at their level to gain trust. Additionally, patient education should include Q&A sessions for proper engagement. This will help establish rapport and assess patient satisfaction. 

Multichannel Communication 

Rather than using one communication channel, it is wiser to interact with patients using different pharma marketing strategies. The use of omnichannel marketing to engage clients will generate more sales compared to a single channel. 

Individual patients get information through different mediums. Furthermore, the pharma industry should use a combination of:

  1. traditional channels, including in-person consultation, phone calls, mail communications, and 
  2. digital channels such as customized emails, social media, text messages, and healthcare blogs. 

With well-structured multichannel marketing, your brand will get better awareness to enable you to reach your target quickly. 

Personalized Medicine

The use of personalization in medicine takes into account a patient’s personal information, including genetics, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Pharma industries use CRM technologies to store patients’ data, such as past interactions, preferences, and behavior, in a single file. 

A patient’s records will assist in tailoring products to suit his unique needs. Furthermore, when patients see that you tailor treatments for them, they tend to share their health concerns more. Personalized medicine reduces the incidence of side effects and leads to better patient experience. 

Feedback Mechanism 

The use of direct feedback will give pharmacy businesses an overview of what the patients think about their services. It tells you the strong areas in the system and where to improve. Furthermore, patients remain loyal because you acknowledge them and their opinions.

Many companies use software solutions to automate the feedback process. You can set up triggers and follow-up messages using pharmaceutical software. It is crucial to send feedback from your end once you make changes based on the complaints you receive. 

Segmentation of Patients

Segmentation using CRM can be dicey. Though it has advantages, one needs to approach it with care. Patient segmentation and targeting groups based on 

  1. past medical history, 
  2. preferred communication medium, 
  3. demographic factors and 
  4. patient behavior. 

Proper segmentation helps you identify what each client needs. Providing the right information through appropriate channels will inevitably lead to more engagement. 

Reward Programs

Giving rewards for reaching health milestones will leave patients with a feeling of belonging. It may involve giving discounts or having a raffle draw for those who complete an educational series. 

The reward doesn’t have to be expensive to bring about a cascade of changes when it comes to the way patients manage their health. However, one should avoid substituting rewards with adequate health care. No matter how big the bonus may be, a pharma company may lose a patient if they don’t get better. 

Importance of Collaborating with Healthcare Professionals to Ensure Effective Patient Engagement

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For successful patient care, it is important to involve healthcare professionals actively. It involves teamwork between two or more specialists rather than focusing on just one. This modern practice emphasizes the fact that no medical professional can do it on his own. 

For instance, when handling a patient with a diabetic wound infection, an endocrinologist, an infectious disease specialist, and a nurse play critical roles. As a result, the patient can ask questions freely to understand how they take each action.

In addition to enhanced communication, pharma companies stand to gain the following when they collaborate with healthcare professionals

  1. Patients have more trust in the healthcare system when specialists play supportive roles.
  2. There are lower chances of costly errors and mistakes.
  3. HCPs can directly follow up with patients to improve medication adherence and compliance. 
  4. These professionals also make sure the CRM tool records patients’ data according to laws and regulations. 
  5. Additionally, feedback from the HCPs may include areas that a pharma company should work on

Five Proven Ways to Measure the Impact of CRM-driven Engagement in a Pharmaceutical Industry 

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After implementing customer engagement strategies, one needs to conduct periodic reviews to check how well these tools are doing. The following are some cost-effective ways you can easily track the impact of your pharmaceutical software solutions.

Customer Satisfaction

You can use customer satisfaction scores to track the success of CRM-driven operations. Check the scores before and after making changes and look for lagging areas. Furthermore, you can ask a customer for reviews after an interaction. 

A good customer satisfaction score shows that they have built a good relationship with your brand and are satisfied with your products and services. 

Medication Adherence 

The level to which patients use their drugs correctly after establishing CRM platforms gives an insight as to how it is working. Proper compliance when using drugs shows that patients fully understand the instructions the pharmaceutical industry provides. 

Poor health outcomes may be a result of misunderstanding or dissatisfaction. In this instance, you should look for ways to build a stronger relationship with them. 

Engagement Metrics

Engagement metrics may include website traffic, customer visits, email open and click-through rates, and social media interactions. For social media engagements, focus on the number of views, likes, and comments on your posts. An increase implies that your content is appealing and customers can relate well. 

ROI of CRM Initiatives

The ROI you get after using CRM software can track if it is adding value to your pharmaceutical company. To get the ROI, calculate the total costs spent on pharmaceutical software development, installation, licensing, support, and training. This analysis will show if the system resonates with patients. 

Customer Retention Rate

Customer retention rate will help pharmaceutical companies understand the relationship they have with their customers. A high retention rate implies that many patients use your drugs for a specified period. Customers remain loyal when you keep in touch through messages, newsletters, personalized emails, or other channels. 

Key Challenges in Patient Engagement Using Pharmaceutical Software Solutions 

The process of improving patient interaction with your company may come with some issues. The following are some barriers to effective collaborative relationships between providers and patients

Health Literacy 

Literacy is key to effective patient engagement. Some patients find it challenging to understand basic health terminologies. Patients with low health literacy may not be able to express themselves when issues arise, and they may become passive participants in healthcare decisions. 

Data Privacy Concerns

Pharmaceutical companies collect and store personal patient data. The privacy of the data is a concern when dealing with sensitive patients. Some customers may not open up fully if they fear that their data may be compromised. This lack of trust and insufficient data creates a barrier to active interactions. 

Regulatory Compliance 

There are laws and regulations to ensure ethics in data collection and the communication medium. Pharma companies must seek consent before analyzing data in any way. Additionally, using social media to communicate with patients comes with some regulatory limitations, and you cannot pass all drug information using social media platforms. 

The use of pharmaceutical software solutions will continue to evolve to meet shortcomings. One key area is the use of blockchain to store patient data into blocks to improve data security. The future of patient engagement lies in Artificial intelligence and mobile CRM. 

Artificial Intelligence 

One of the difficulties pharma companies face is the enormous amount of patient data they analyze. AI is revolutionizing pharma CRM operations in many ways. With AI, you are sure of more accurate and faster data analysis. Furthermore, a CRM robot provides timely answers to queries and 24/7 support to serve patients better. 

Mobile and Voice-activated CRM

In recent times, pharma CRM has become more mobile-friendly for a proactive healthcare approach. Pharmaceutical companies will access patients’ information in real-time anytime, anywhere. 

In addition, patients can easily schedule appointments for telehealth consultations. Furthermore, voice technology is an important aspect of the inception of CRM. The use of voice commands provides a more quality and interactive healthcare system. 

Key Takeaways on Pharmaceutical Patient Engagement

Patient engagement makes all the difference in a healthcare system, and with it, a pharmaceutical company can stand out. You can build collaborative provider-patient relationships by using personalized marketing, multichannel communication, reward programs, and proper education.

It is important to employ various measures for patient engagement and to increase the value of your Pharma business.

In this article, we’ve answered questions about patient engagement strategies and uncovered how Pharma CRMs can be a more permanent solution to many marketing and Pharma sales inadequacies.

Discover all you need to know about Pharma CRMs with this demo!

Personalization In Pharma Sales: Tailored Messages With Closed Loop Marketing

Posted on by Japheth Oseghale

The ever-changing nature of the pharma industry demands that its players stay in vogue to remain ahead of competitors. Recently, personalizing content with closed-loop marketing has influenced how marketers interact with patients and healthcare professionals. 

Also, tailoring content for different customer segments increases trust and enhances customer acquisition. However, when employing personalization marketing, you must consider the ethical considerations that come with it. As a result, you should fully understand this marketing strategy before going into it.

In this article, you’ll not only learn how closed-loop marketing works, but you’ll also get a step-by-step guide on personalizing messages for closed-loop marketing in the pharma industry.

Table of Contents

Understanding Closed Loop Marketing

Closed-loop marketing is a data-driven strategy that gathers, analyzes, and personalizes data to boost sales and improve marketing ROI. For closed-loop marketing to work, there is a continuous collaboration between the sales and marketing teams.

The marketing team promotes awareness and visibility of a pharma product or service. The individuals in the sales team sell these products and services to patients and health care professionals (HCPs). After that, the sales team gives a closed-loop reporting feedback to those in marketing.

The feedback indicates how the marketing activities are employed to impact the sales process and outcome. With closed-loop marketing, your pharma company stands to gain the following:

  • Targeted and Personalized Marketing Approach: Collecting and analyzing data helps marketers get familiar with individual customer preferences. As a result, you’ll get content and offers tailored to suit a patient’s needs.
  • Rational Decision-making: You make every decision after thorough data analysis. This will prevent losses and drive your business to the right path.
  • Spotting Loopholes: Closed-loop marketing helps to identify lagging areas in a pharma business. The continuous feedback feature of closed-loop marketing serves as a means of identifying loopholes.
  • Boosted ROI: Ultimately, closed-loop marketing increases conversion rates, resulting in better leads.

Seven Steps to Personalize Messages for the Pharma Industry Using Closed-loop Marketing

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Crafting personalized messages in pharma sales is a highly effective marketing approach. It involves carefully considering each patient and HCP’s unique behavior and interests. Though personalized marketing is a strategic process, there is no standard way to go about it. The steps below will serve as a guide.

  1. Data Collection and Analysis

The foundation of personalization in pharma sales is data collection and analysis. You can source data information from social media engagement, a company’s website search history, and more. 

After a successful data collection, you analyze it using standard marketing analytics software. This process will detect trends and patterns common to patients and HCPs.

  1. Segmentation

Segmentation involves dividing prospective HCPs into smaller groups based on shared characteristics. You can group them based on their demographic or behavioral similarity. Segmentation acts as a means of identifying niche markets and driving growth.

  1. Customer Profiling

Though people often confuse profiling and segmentation, they are different. Profiling means examining a particular group of patients using specific established criteria. 

To carry out our profiling, you need to ask yourself some questions like:  

  • What is the likelihood that a patient will use your pharma products? 
  • To what degree do they use it? 
  • What is their level of advocacy for your brand?
  1. Content Customization

The next step is to customize your content to individual client segments. This involves adjusting your product or services to create unique experiences for patients. You give each group content they will engage with most. 

However, content customization entails more than just tailoring messages. It also includes customizing the messages’ style, structure, and communication medium.

  1. Message Personalization

Research shows that 80% of existing customers will respond positively when brands provide personalized messages. It is essential to provide information that explicitly tackles individual concerns or issues. 

This includes targeted emails with HCPs’ names, product recommendations based on their specific medical interests, or custom-made video messages.

  1. Closed Loop Marketing Feedback

After sending personalized messages, the next step is to receive feedback using appropriate means. Here, you follow up on how patients interact with your content. 

Closed-loop marketing is an active form of feedback. When customer support teams receive feedback, they respond to inquiries and accept suggestions – an excellent means of assessing marketing performance.

  1. Continuous Improvement                    

The feedback marketers get creates a pathway to continuous improvement. With this feedback, you can focus on more productive marketing campaigns. Additionally, one will be able to discover what works for each patient. Following this discovery and identification, you can make adjustments as needed.

How To Measure Personalization Success in Closed-loop Marketing

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Personalizing your marketing strategy does not automatically mean it will meet your sales goals. Experts recommend using certain Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for measuring success. Some of these KPIs in closed-loop marketing are:

Conversion Rate

The conversion rate in closed-loop marketing refers to the percentage of people who did not just visit your website but took buying action or performed a desired task. Conversion rate is the evidence of personalization success.

More tailored content should result in higher conversion rates. However, this may not be the case every time as other factors may influence a customer’s experience.

Return On Investment (ROI)

Marketing ROI is the amount a pharma company makes from personalization marketing. Creating personalized content costs money. Hence, it is essential to make profits on the money spent. 

When you generate high revenue, it shows that your closed-loop marketing strategy is working for your company.

Customer Retention Rate

Customer retention rate is not directly a function of personalized content. It is the percentage of patients who continuously seek your services for a specific time. A high customer retention rate in marketing implies that more patients are satisfied with your services.

Open Rate and Response Time

You get an open rate in marketing by dividing the number of customers that view content by the total number of messages sent. On the other hand, response time is the interval between when an HCP opens the letter and when he responds. A high open rate and short response time indicate clients’ interest in the content.

Compliance And Ethical Considerations When Personalizing Messages With Closed-loop Marketing

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Personalization in pharma sales using closed-loop marketing tools is a straightforward strategy. However, there are some ethics in healthcare communication. Before carrying out a personalized marketing campaign, here are a few key issues to consider:

  1. Respect Privacy

Personalized marketing involves diving into a patient’s record for adequate data collection. Such research may pose a threat to their privacy. When gathering information from customer databases, ensure to follow the proper routes that comply with the necessary regulations and laws.

  1. Don’t Exaggerate your Claims

Marketers tend to twerk informative content to make them more appealing to each client segment. Do the twerking process with care. One must be truthful and avoid making claims based on undisclosed arguments.

  1. Prioritize Data Security

After collecting and analyzing a patient’s data, it is crucial to store it appropriately. You must protect the data against theft, loss, and access to unauthorized personnel. This is important to avoid financial losses due to a lawsuit.

  1. Avoid Bias

Segmentation in marketing may give room for stereotyping and discrimination. You must ensure that your entire marketing process is inclusive and not biased against a particular patient segment. Patients who sense bias will lose trust in that healthcare system or company.

A Case Study of Message Personalization Using Closed-loop Marketing

You might’ve wondered what personalizing messages with closed-loop marketing means in real-life scenarios. We thought to include a case study to aid your comprehension of the concept. Check this out: 

XYZ Pharma is a company that has been in business for over ten years. In the last two years, they’ve experienced low sales and turnover, so they did a market survey. The survey showed that traditional mass marketing campaign no longer drives sales as effectively as before. Hence, they resorted to sending personalized messages using the closed-loop marketing process.

They gathered and analyzed valuable patients’ data, such as:

  • medical history, 
  • health records, and 
  • lifestyle choices. 

They also collected and analyzed potential Healthcare Professional’s data. XYZ Pharma sent personalized emails addressing these HCPs by their names and frequently recommended their products to them using customized videos.

Afterward, they personalized their content and marketing channels. The sales team gave adequate feedback to the marketing department. Consequently, the marketing team was able to improve their personalizing marketing strategy from time to time.

After successfully implementing this personalized strategy, XYZ Pharma experienced a 40% sales increase the following year. Additionally, 45% of patients referred their services that same year and there was a lot of positive customer feedback, showing their satisfaction.

Challenges and Future Trends in Message Personalization 

Ethical considerations are the foremost challenge marketers face when employing personalization in pharma sales. However, this drawback is easy to overcome when you follow due process. The marketing and sales teams in pharmaceutical industries are constantly evolving, and the use of Artificial Intelligence and Omnichannel engagement has become the new norm.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence

There are powerful AI tools available for marketers. These tools can analyze data in a short time. With AI, there is marketing automation, which speeds up the entire personalization process.

Omnichannel Engagement

Omnichannel engagement involves interacting with HCPs and patients using multiple channels. Marketers use personalized mail, social media marketing, mobile applications, and companies’ websites to engage customers. They may even employ physical interactions. Their overall aim is to have a deep understanding of individual clients.

Final Thoughts

Personalization marketing gives you a competitive advantage in the pharma industry. It helps you tailor your messages to address the individual needs of your customers, prioritize data security, and guarantee a unique user experience for all end-users.

In this article, we’ve explored the “7 steps” Platforce uses to help you create personalized messages for your customers with closed-loop marketing, how you can measure the success of your personalized marketing approach, and how to tweak your approach for better sales conversion and results.

You cannot expect sales if your messages are the same as a thousand other pharma sale messages. Your sales will be mediocre at best unless you implement Platforce’s targeted and personalized marketing approach that helps you meet the needs of your customers on a personal level. Here’s a demo or tour to help you get started.

Also, stay ahead in your pharma sales by checking our YouTube and LinkedIn channels for the latest marketing updates.

Transforming Customer Relationships with Pharmacy CRM: A Detailed Guide

Posted on by Stefan Repin

Planning And Development

When planning and developing a Pharmacy CRM, first, you need to understand the unique needs and challenges of the pharmaceutical industry. This includes tracking and managing customer relationships, detailing medical institutions, and providing segmented reports for better insights into customer behavior.

A well-structured Pharmacy CRM should enable you to organize your target audience into segmented lists. This helps in tailoring marketing efforts and improving your relationships with your clients. Additionally, you should be able to manage Point of Sale (POS) and patient feedback through a single platform, simplifying the process and ensuring real-time updates.

To streamline your internal operations, prioritize a collaborative approach. This can help you manage relationship-building activities effectively and ensure all team members are on the same page. In doing so, you can gauge the potential gain from each pharmaceutical relationship with accurate and detailed reports, allowing you to identify your top-performing partnerships and gold-standard clients.

During planning, you must familiarize yourself with standard CRM implementation terms and concepts and emerging customer-centred sales and marketing trends. 

Usability is essential, so opt for a CRM that is easy to use while still offering all important features and functionalities. This allows the team to adapt quickly to the new system.

Benefits Of Using Pharmacy CRM Software

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Build Better Relationships With The Customers

Pharma CRM software helps your company build better customer relationships by providing tailored communication and marketing efforts. It enables you to segment your customers and target them with personalized messages. This, in turn, leads to more substantial and more loyal customer relationships.

Common Features Of Pharmacy CRM Software

Pharmaceutical CRM software includes several standard features that help improve your business processes:

  • Mobile access for sales representatives to manage customer data on-the-go

  • Integration with various communication channels (e.g., email, phone, and chatbots)

  • Analytics and reporting to measure performance and optimize marketing strategies

  • Efficient data management to easily track customer interactions

Customer Cycle

By leveraging CRM, you can better manage the entire customer cycle, from lead generation to customer retention. This process includes identifying potential customers, creating marketing campaigns, tracking interactions, and maintaining relationships. Managing customer cycles effectively leads to increased sales and improved customer satisfaction.

Customer Account Management

CRM software simplifies customer account management by providing a centralized platform for storing and analyzing customer data. This allows you to easily monitor transactions, gain insights into customer behaviour, and spot trends. This invaluable customer information lets you make data-driven decisions and improve your offerings.

Closed Loop Marketing Campaigns

Pharmaceutical CRM software supports closed-loop marketing campaigns, ensuring your messaging meets customer needs. You can tailor future campaigns to maximize return on investment by identifying the most effective promotional efforts. Closed-loop marketing campaigns also provide valuable feedback to determine the success of current strategies.

Inventory Cycle Management

A comprehensive pharma CRM system offers end-to-end inventory cycle management, helping streamline ordering, managing, and distributing medications. By automating these processes, you can minimize errors and ensure timely and accurate order fulfilment, leading to more efficient operations and satisfied customers.

Order Management

Pharma CRM software simplifies order management by tracking order history and providing real-time order status updates. This helps your staff to process orders quickly and with fewer errors, ultimately achieving higher customer satisfaction. In addition, order data can be used to monitor sales trends and inform future marketing strategies.

Evaluating Pharmaceutical CRM Software

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Research And Development

A good Pharmaceutical CRM software will support your research and development efforts. It should provide a platform to manage projects, collaborate with team members, and track the progress of experiments and clinical trials. You can focus on discovering and developing new pharmaceutical products by streamlining processes and communication.

Data Analysis

Pharmaceutical CRM software should offer significant data analysis tools. The tools will help you analyze sales, marketing, and customer data so you can identify trends, patterns, or areas needing improvement. With powerful analytics capabilities, you can make more informed decisions and drive growth for your business.

Enhance Data Privacy And Compliance

Managing sensitive data is crucial for pharmaceutical companies. A reliable CRM solution should have built-in features to help you keep customer and patient information secure and comply with regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and others. This includes encryption, access control, and audit trails to track data usage and changes.

Better Customer Service

Your Pharmaceutical CRM software should enable you to provide exceptional customer service. It should organize and manage customer interactions, including tracking complaints, queries, and feedback. With a centralized database, your team can access customer information quickly and provide personalized, timely support.

Adverse Events Monitoring

Monitoring adverse events is critical for pharmaceutical companies to ensure product safety. A good CRM solution should have dedicated features for flagging, tracking, and resolving adverse events. This helps you proactively address issues and maintain regulatory compliance.

How To Choose The Right Pharmaceutical CRM?

Consider your company’s specific needs and requirements when evaluating Pharmaceutical CRM software. Look for features that support your business processes, such as sales force automation, marketing automation, and customer service capabilities. Additionally, ensure the software is scalable and adaptable to your growing business needs.

Competitor Analysis

Pharmaceutical CRM software should also offer competitor analysis tools. By monitoring the competition, you can see their strengths and weaknesses and adjust your strategies accordingly. This helps you stay ahead of the curve and achieve market success.

Visits And Route Planning

For field sales representatives, visits and route planning are a vital aspect. Pharmaceutical CRM software should provide tools for scheduling visits, mapping efficient routes, and tracking sales rep performance. This helps you optimize field operations, save time and resources, and improve customer relationships.

By evaluating Pharmaceutical CRM software based on these criteria, you can choose a solution that aligns with your business goals and supports your growth in the competitive pharmaceutical industry.

What Are The Benefits Of A Pharmaceutical CRM?

A Pharmaceutical CRM can offer significant advantages to your business by streamlining processes, improving customer interactions, and enhancing sales and marketing efforts. Here are some key benefits you can expect from a Pharmaceutical CRM:

  • Automated processes: CRM automation can make your operations more efficient. From intelligently assigning leads to sales reps to automatic scheduling for physician visits, CRM tools help ensure faster and more effective management of tasks.

  • Segmentation: Organize your target audience into segmented lists within the pharma CRM, which allows you to tailor your sales and marketing strategies for better results.

  • POS and patient feedback management: With an integrated CRM solution, you can manage all the Point-of-Sale (POS) activity and patient feedback through a single platform. This helps you to monitor ongoing sales activities and make data-driven decisions.

  • Mobile access: For pharmaceutical sales representatives who are always on the go, mobile CRM access enables them to access customer history, schedule appointments, and perform other tasks easily from their smartphones or tablets.

  • Increased efficiency and productivity: By incorporating automated workflows and processes designed specifically for customer service, sales, and marketing, CRM helps boost the overall efficiency and productivity of your pharmaceutical company.

  • Personalized communication: A Pharmaceutical CRM can help your business tailor your messages to customers with more relevant, proactive information. This ensures customer satisfaction and promotes a long-term business relationship.

  • Streamlining advanced therapies: CRMs can help streamline cell and gene therapy processes, improving outcomes and reducing costs.

Adopting a Pharmaceutical CRM tailored to your business needs will allow you to unlock these benefits and more, enhancing your operations and customer relationships in the long run.

Is The Software Designed To Handle Your Organization’s Needs?

When evaluating Pharmacy CRM software, it’s essential to consider whether the software is designed with your organization’s unique needs, size, and requirements in mind. Good pharmacy CRM solutions should be customizable, scalable, and easily integrated into your existing systems.

Firstly, consider the features and functionalities that are most important to your pharmacy business. A robust CRM should help streamline and automate tasks such as lead generation, client management, marketing, and sales. Ensuring these features align with your organization’s priorities and workflow is essential.

Integration with Existing Systems: The Pharmacy CRM should easily integrate with your existing pharmacy management software, billing systems, and inventory control platforms. Seamless integration ensures that your CRM solution enhances your workflow, allowing you to maintain accurate real-time data on patient interactions, prescriptions, and stock levels.

Customization and Scalability: As your pharmacy organization grows and evolves, your CRM should be able to adapt accordingly. Look for a CRM solution that can be easily customized to fit your unique business processes and can scale up to accommodate an increasing customer base without sacrificing performance or functionality.

Ease of Use: The CRM software should be user-friendly, allowing your team to quickly learn and utilize its features effectively. An intuitive interface will enable your employees to focus on providing excellent patient care, communication, and services instead of struggling with complex software programs.

Compliance and Security: The pharmaceutical industry is highly regulated, so your CRM solution must comply with all relevant legal and industry-specific requirements. Ensure the CRM has robust security features such as data encryption, password protection, and regular updates to protect sensitive patient data.

By carefully evaluating the compatibility and adaptability of various Pharmacy CRM solutions, you can confidently choose a software solution that meets your organization’s unique needs and helps you achieve better patient health outcomes, streamlined processes, and increased revenue.

Platforce is the best pharmacy CRM software for lead generation, order management, sales automation, and task management. Unlike other software, Platforce gives your company all it needs to optimize customer relations and boost customer experience. Try out the Platforce CRM system with a demo or tour now. You can also stay updated on our Youtube and LinkedIn channels.