What customer data is available to life sciences companies?

Hannover, 06.03.2023

Last week, my colleague Marcos Garcia Villas addressed the topic of what questions you, as a life sciences company, should sensibly ask yourself in relation to customers in order to obtain relevant data for customer engagement and to derive suitable measures from this. Following on from this, I would therefore like to dedicate this article to the following three questions: “What types of customer data are there?“, “Which systems are used to capture and map this data?” and “How do you prepare the data for analysis?”
Because merely knowing what questions I should ask in relation to customers will not get me the results I’m looking for. It is essential to find the answers to the questions in the customer data and to link this data to be able to derive relevant statements for measures.

In this regard, the following considerations will help you:

Not all data is the same. To gain insights and derive measures from them, it is important to classify and structure the data. Generally, 5 different types of data can be distinguished, which I would like to describe briefly below:

Now that we know what types of data there can be on HCPs and HCOs, let’s look at where this data is being mapped and captured in the 2nd part of this article.

Not all the above data is collected by only one system. The list of tools used to capture data can be as manageable as it can be endless. The following list of systems that are commonly used to collect data on HCPs and HCOs in life sciences companies is therefore not claiming to be exhaustive, but rather represents the most important and most common solutions only:

Whether a life sciences company uses Veeva CRM, OCE from IQVIA, salesforce or another system as a customer relationship management solution is not something we will discuss any further here. All CRM systems have in common that they serve to record all activities of the persons of a life science company who have contacts with HCPs and HCOs, in order to make an important contribution to the so-called 360° view of the customer. In this context, we also refer to this as customer centricity. All the channels that a Sales Rep, for example, uses to contact HCPs can be mapped in modern CRM solutions. Channels, such as:

represent both traditional forms of contact as well as modern and digital ones.

In addition to the basic demographic data and the pure activity data, however, all other types of data are also recorded and mapped in a CRM system. To name a few examples:

• • Geographic data, e.g. through data change requests
  • Technographic data, such as:
    • Participation in remote calls via a browser or using certain apps, like Veeva Engage
  • Recorded questions from the HCP in Approved Notes or Compliant Chat during remote calls or online events, if being used
  • Psychographic data , e.g. in the form of
    • feedback on individual CLM presentation slides and key messages
    • opening of Rep triggered emails received
    • clicks on links in rep triggered emails
    • medical inquiries that allow conclusions to be drawn about prescribing behavior, but also about HCP interests
    • Assessment and experience of the sales representative or MSL on specific issues.

Occasionally, individual data can also be assigned to different types of data or allow corresponding conclusions to be drawn. For example, an HCP’s participation in a remote call informs me, on one level, that there is a digital affinity. At the same time, the customer’s dial-up also indicates that he sees the remote call channel as a valuable alternative to other channels and that he would like to use his time flexibly as well as productively.

But before we turn to the next system under consideration, I would like to briefly return to the assessment or experience aspect of the field force or MSL. The observations of the HCP’s direct contacts are immensely valuable as they are gained directly through customer interactions. Openly expressed feedback on presented content, individual contributions from rep triggered emails or participation in events as well as the associated conclusions can only be obtained as so-called insights by the named groups of people. Nevertheless, a life sciences company must ensure that the digital storage of such insights complies with existing data protection regulations. After all, it is imperative to avoid violating one’s own compliance regulations and the code-of-conduct guidelines of the FSA, vfa, or any other association to which one is affiliated. Solutions such as Approved Notes or Compliant Chat can support in this regard.

A system used as part of an omnichannel strategy, such as Marketo, Adobe Campaign, or Salesforce Marketing Cloud, allows the planning, execution, and evaluation of email marketing campaigns as part of the customer journey management. These systems must contain demographic data on the HCPs, as well as activity data in the form of e-mail addresses and the associated opt-ins, i.e., the customers’ consent to use their e-mail addresses. Once again, the additional data collected can generally be subdivided into different types of data. Opening such an e-mail as well as clicking on a link in the e-mail, the subsequent visit to a website and the time spent on it are both technographic and psychographic data and, in turn, allow corresponding conclusions to be drawn with regard to interests, surfing behavior and times at which an HCP engages with topics of the type conveyed.

Systems through which orders are entered by HCOs in CHC and OTC, for example, as well as ERP systems where direct sales are being recorded, provide valuable activity and behavioral data on what HCOs have ordered and in what quantities, time periods and batches. In addition, they provide information on orders that were placed only as part of corresponding promotions, discounts granted to HCOs, payment behavior, and whether the purchaser acted individually or as part of a buying group, as is regularly the case with pharmacies.

Accordingly, it is then also possible to evaluate which HCOs belong to this composite in order to identify networks and dependencies. This data can then again be assigned to other types of data, e.g., geographic data regarding the distribution of HCOs within a purchasing group, but also psychographic data regarding purchasing behavior. Did the order volume increase or decrease? Were orders always placed only as part of promotional offers? And in terms of direct sales recorded in the ERP system: what proportion did Ex Factory, Base or Market Sales account for?

• For the mapping of processes in event and contract management, there are systems that can do everything, such as Cvent, or different systems that only map sub-processes and are orchestrated accordingly, such as a combination of
  • Cvent for the management of event venues and the invitations of attendees,
  • a common CRM system for the management of the overall process,
  • a spending and expense solution such as Concur,
  • and a system for managing related contracts, such as Adobe Sign or DocuSign.

In each case, existing demographic, activity, and behavioral data are used to plan, approve, organize, and document events, as well as to manage HCPs as contractors with their hourly and daily rates and contracts. The data obtained during this process, both regarding the participants and the speakers, moderators or consultants commissioned, provide information on all other types of data, but in particular on psychographic data such as:

• • Who is presenting on which topic and why?
  • Which HCPs are interested?
  • Who attends an onsite, remote or hybrid event?
  • Where are the invited HCPS coming from at an onsite event?
  • Who asked what question and who provided answers?
  • What magnetism do certain speakers and attendees have on other HCPs?

Now that we have looked at what types of data there are and in which systems they are recorded and mapped, we come to the last question of this article.

As we have seen, customer data is captured in a variety of systems, even those that are not primarily intended for such purposes. These include, for example, web and mail servers, which collect customer data to the extent that they are used to route content to customers or make it available to them, as well as to track any reactions that may have taken place, such as opening and click-through rates. To evaluate customer engagement for HCPs, data needs to be aggregated into one system. There are several different approaches that can be taken into consideration here.

The consolidation can be done in a data warehouse or data lake. It is possible to use a master data management system (MDM) introduced specifically for this purpose, however, the CRM system itself can also be used for this task. Finally, a so-called Customer Data Platform (CDP) also comes into question. The advantage of such a consolidation, e.g. in a CDP, is that the data can be matched, merged, de-duplicated, cleansed and enriched during the transformation to obtain a unified customer profile. Such customer profiles, also called “golden records”, provide a complete view of the HCP, including every touchpoint and, in the case of HCOs, every transaction.

Customer data management solutions are the key to enabling optimized marketing and sales processes. As already described, the solutions must extract data from other systems such as eCommerce platforms, websites, CRM systems and other apps, before converting it into a format that can be used by many business units and departments in life sciences companies, with the marketing team being the most important.
When connecting all the systems involved, it is also important that, in addition to the interfaces, links are set from the satellite systems into the Customer Data Management solution as the leading system, which not only regulate the flow of data, but also enables navigation for end users with the appropriate authorization.

Before we delve further into the interaction of all the systems involved, next week we will first devote ourselves to the topic of what data a life sciences company can use to show that the HCP is engaged.