CSL Behring

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has forced our industry to rewrite the way in which we engage with our stakeholders, including HCPs and patients. In order to address this to the best of our ability, our companies will need to be more flexible and more agile than ever.

Some 20 years ago, we interacted with our stakeholders either by telephone or through face-to-face meetings. There was sparse use of email or other engagement vehicles. It was a few years before we transitioned to multi[1]channel engagement, with the arrival of social media, but there was little, if any, harmonisation of this approach.

What CSL Behring sees as being key to enhancing stakeholder engagement will be the concept of Omnichannel Orchestration. It is not simply about having a wide range of channels, but more about delivering seamless, consistent and valuable experiences and interactions across all channels. The main aim is to align the channels By Lutz Bonacker, SVP and General Manager, Commercial Operations, CSL Behring Lutz Bonacker ENHANCING THE STAKEHOLDER EXPERIENCE THROUGH OMNICHANNEL OPTIMISATION | | April 2022 9 CIOReview and harmonise the message, the timing and the delivery to the stakeholder. In fact, to obtain optimum stakeholder experiences, the message also has to be personalised.

One of the approaches through which CSL Behring believes we can achieve this, is by first identifying the end goal, essentially defining how we can deliver the best stakeholder engagement possible. The word “stakeholder” in a wider sense refers to a wide range of people, including HCPs and patients. It cannot be confined to stakeholders with whom we have commercial interactions. As everything we do focuses on patients, we engage with them in a variety of ways across the organisation. Other important stakeholders include payer organisations, governments, hospitals, integrated delivery networks and wholesalers. However, when we look at where omnichannel orchestration is likely to have the biggest impact, it is going to be on HCPs and, as appropriate, with patients.

CSL Behring’s focus has always been on providing therapies for rare and serious diseases. To do this well, continuous effort in improving stakeholder engagement is important, but our efforts were given greater impetus by the advent of the pandemic during the first quarter of last year. At this point, the opportunity to engage face[1]to-face with stakeholders, essentially, interactions that have taken place very regularly, were cut noticeably. While virtual engagement was already happening between reps and HCPs before the pandemic, what we see is that it is becoming much more entrenched now, and has gained an air of normality.

As we exit the pandemic, it is doubtful that HCPs will abandon the virtual engagement model, because of convenience and efficiency it offers. What we are going to witness is the emergence of a hybrid model, in which HCPs, depending on preference, make use of both the face-to-face and virtual models. Accordingly, company offerings will need to be targeted and compact; relying on impactful content that evolves consistently to ensure that HCPs remain informed and engaged.

What is clear from our perspective is that virtual interactions are certain to continue and, as an increasing number of doctors feel more comfortable with this mode of interaction, industry will require new engagement models, with more personalised, tailored messaging. At CSL Behring, our aim is to reach out to the right stakeholder, via the right channel, with the right message at the right time.

The key, then, is creating this quality content that carries the right message for the right group of physicians. What is crucial here is to generate insights by analysing and leveraging factors that drive their professional life and engagement. For example, if we know that an HCP wakes up each day and reads the NYT and his Twitter feed, an advertisement on either of this, could be far more fruitful than sending a simple email that he may not even open before getting to the office. It is not a holistic approach to stakeholder preferences, but rather a personal approach that focuses on individual information preferences.

  ​ While virtual engagement was already happening between reps and HCPs before the pandemic, what we see is that it is becoming much more entrenched now, and has gained an air of normality

   

 

 

This is already incredibly successful in the retail world. You might be browsing for a product and subsequently find ads on your social media, relating to this product. At CSL Behring, we are looking to utilize components of what the retail world has achieved, by understanding what the key needs of the patient or HCP are. This means that it is our responsibility to provide them with the right tools and capabilities to support decision-making along the entire spectrum of the diagnosis and treatment and after/continuous-care journey.

 

 

However, the approach has to go even further, if we are to optimise omnichannel orchestration. By implementing effective follow-up, we will be able to gauge how HCPs are reacting to the content so that it can be adapted to their needs. The engagement, coupled with the analytics, will allow for actionable recommendations to be made on engagement and timing. Moreover, enabling this seamless flow would be an automated algorithm that is capable of recognising the nature of a particular query and delivering a templated response – effectively an electronic-mandated standard response letter.

 

 

When all these issues align – data, content creation, algorithm and follow-up – the omnichannel approach can be optimised, obviously within the legal framework set by the countries we work in. Essentially, it is an extension of the multichannel approach, but instead of each channel being operated in a silo, CSL Behring is focusing on achieving a harmonisation of the offering to provide a personalised and rewarding stakeholder experience.