Healthcare Company Promotes Product Loyalty With CRM Strategy

A major U.S. pharmaceutical company specializing in the treatment of eye, skin and neurological problems partnered with CSC to protect its most prized asset: its customers.

This CSC client refused to stand idle as rival companies prepared to enter a market niche it had dominated with the only drug of its kind approved by the Federal Drug Administration. As competitors began clinical trials, the client estimated it would have until 2008 to strengthen relationships with customers and limit the inevitable market-share erosion.

Staying ahead of the game

The client formulated a three phase customer relationship management (CRM) strategy to defend its customer base in January 2004. The first phase of the plan was to build a sales force automation (SFA) tool, such as Dendrite or Siebel, to give its field personnel the information they needed to influence customers during sales calls. The client then planned to build a customer master, a kind of list that identifies customer records in multiple systems, creating a single view of each customer. Lastly, a data warehouse would help analyze customer trends and determine the impact of the company’s sales efforts.

The client needed an IT partner to put its plan into action and was introduced to CSC at a vendor conference. During initial consultations, CSC provided a new perspective on the client's CRM strategy. Instead of building a new SFA solution on inconsistent data, CSC suggested the client begin by understanding its existing customer data.

Knowing who's who and what's what

In September 2004, CSC began work on the customer master project, integrating healthcare professional data from internal and third-party data systems. When the project was delivered in August 2005, each of the client’s customers had a unique identifier that could be used to cross-reference the customer to information in the source systems.

"For the first time, the client was able to look at Joe Smith from their ERP system, and see it was the same customer as Joseph Smith in the SFA system, and Joe Smithe in their syndicated feeds from the National Data Corporation," says Chris Colapietro, a CSC principal for healthcare services. "Knowing who your customers are across your enterprise gives you a full picture of your customer base and lets you delve into customer analysis to see which customers are most important and where you should focus your resources."

In the second phase of the CRM strategy, CSC began work on the data warehouse to enable the client to view direct and prescription sales to each customer, including the investments made in customers through sales calls and other company activities. Completed in October 2006, this analytical environment lets the client know who their most valued customers are relative to the effort the client expends on them (sales calls, samples, marketing programs, etc.). According to Colapietro, this information is the key to knowing which customers to defend and which are not worth the effort versus the return.

Taking action

SFA tools are helping the client take full advantage of these new sales insights. By 2008, the client had already become more proactive in its relationships with customers. The call center began cross-selling products and actively managing accounts, rather than merely reacting to calls from doctors. By ensuring the right information and products were available to meet patient needs, the client started making doctors' jobs easier and promoting product loyalty.

Related Information

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