Pharma Needs Customer Experience Centers of Excellence

Lately, I've been hearing a lot about "centers of excellence" at pharma companies as in "Digital Center of  Excellence" and "Content Center of Excellence." I heard the latter mentioned today in the #PharmaContent Twitter chat session, which follows ExL Pharma's Content Marketing conference now going on in Philadelphia.

This slide from a presentation by Rebecca Lieb, Industry Analyst, THE ALTIMETER GROUP, and author of "Content Marketing," explains how to organize a "Content Center of Excellence":

Wow! This is pretty complicated and involves multiple executive-level stakeholders, including an "executive steering committee"! Of course, this would be overkill if implemented to develop the usual type of pharma content such as "talk to your doctor" and "you might have Low-T if you scored 70 or more on this quiz."

I'm thinking that if pharma spends that amount of executive-level resources on tactical issues like content development and digital marketing, why aren't there any strategic-level "Customer Experience Centers of Excellence?"

What do I mean by that?

Simple. Pharma needs more people who understand the customer and what makes for an excellent customer experience no matter if the "touch points" involve "content," traditional marketing, or digital communications.

Alec Pollak (@apollak) tweeted: "One could say that if it isn't customer-experience-centric then it really isn't Content Marketing." (See more tweets from the #PharmaContent Twitter chat session at the end of this post.)

Speaking of patient centricity, Dyan Bryson, VP, Patient Enablement Services at Indegene Lifesystems Pvt. Ltd. and Managing Director, Inspired Health Strategies, LLC, had this to say in a Pharma Marketing Talk interview:

"The real innovation is in our own thinking; that our customer, not our brand, guides solid business decision-making. That is the leap for our industry but most other industries already know this and work with their end-user in mind. To me, this is simple. So simple that frustration sets in as I continue to see people looking for the holy grail in yet another tactic. I thoroughly understand the need to produce ROI, I just see another longer-term path to ROI through patient-centered, user-guided means -- not brand-led or brand-guided. I know, this takes courage as people try to hold on to their jobs, as companies try to placate shareholders. But, as a shareholder myself, I would have more faith in C-suite leadership taking the long view and moving to user-centered business strategies, let alone a user-centered business model. After all, don't I want that company to continue to pay out dividends over the long haul? Well, being user-centered is the strategy that will support the business over the long haul."

Listen to the entire interview:

More Business Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Pharmaguy on BlogTalkRadio

Meanwhile, here's the #PharmaContent Twitter chat session:

Tweets about "#pharmacontent"