Closed Loop Marketing (CLM) is a business process wherein physician behavior & attitudes are captured, analyzed and integrated into the sales & marketing process. To put it in simple words, it is a continuous cycle of customer feedback and a relevant business response devised to build stronger customer relationships, in turn leading to a significant monitory impact. The overall CLM implementation strategy may vary between or even within organizations as there is no one-size-fits-all approach; however, the end objectives remain same:
- Improving customer experience and interactions
- Revenue opportunities – through greater insight into customer’s needs and preferences
- Cost efficiency opportunities – using insights to better target how we interact with customers
Closed Loop Marketing has truly revolutionized the way Pharma operates & is slowly altering the industry mindset from mass marketing to targeting individual physicians’ needs. Since inception, CLM has been christened by industry experts as the new ‘guardian angel’ for the data deprived industry. However, for most Pharma companies it remains a distant dream to conquer. Which in turn raises a key question – why are not most companies able to leverage it to their advantage?
The primary reason why CLM initiatives fail is that companies are not able to use the data they collect from their customers to generate even basic insights about them. Companies are practically drowning in data on their customers. However, lack of people and process capabilities to analyze it makes it very difficult for them to find actionable insights from it. In other words, Pharma companies need to improve in collecting the right datasets, analyze them with right frameworks & derive insightful conclusions from the analysis.
Planning, developing and launching a Closed Loop Marketing Analytics (CLMA) platform is a complex process involving integration & validation of data from multiple technical platforms. Data captured using iPADs / Tablets & other channels syncs directly into the CRM system (Veeva). The core goal of a CLMA strategy should be to utilize this data captured across channels & combine it with existing knowledge of customers in CRM, to generate insights about customers. Better insights help in developing more robust customer segmentation. This in turn leads to maximizing brand content impacts, eventually making headcounts & investments more efficient.
When developing a CLM based analytical model, the lesson learnt is to go ‘Slow and steady’. Most industry experts advise a four-phase approach. Phased out manner is very helpful in gradual implementation along the CLM maturity curve.
1.Adoption & Utility Monitoring:
- Capturing a few basic Key Performance Indicators at initial launch
- Focus on utility of content/channel
- Monitoring quality of data captured & the extent of integration between CRM-CLM data
2. Combining historical content/channel inclination with existing knowledge of the customer in the CRM database (Specialty, Tier, region) to devise preference driven Micro-segments (beginning with customer groups eventually moving down to the individual consumer level)
- Monitor KPIs across micro-segments to study behavior, attitudes & propensities
- Each time marketing deploys new content measure feedback in target audience
3. Business Impact & ROI Assessment: Correlating content usage & feedback captured in a CLM system to business impact measures captured in CRM database
- Measure direct ROI of content in the target micro-segment
Customer Relationship Management
