Pharma Marketing Managers Need to Regain Control of Their CX by Investing in Measurement Methods

Marketing Managers are in the Dark as to Their Brand’s Digital CX Performance

Senior digital leaders at pharmaceutical firms rate customer experience (CX) design as one of the biggest business opportunities in their industry.[i] Interactions that customers need and find easy to use drive positive impressions about the company that designed them, which eventually develops into a transactional relationship that customers won’t give up on easily. Pharma’s marketing managers share the views of their digital leaders: of the thirty-two marketing managers we interviewed for our study of CX measurement, twenty-nine find it very important to know how well their digital initiatives meet customer needs and contribute to business goals (see Figure 1). However, understanding whether marketing managers can put their money where their mouth is and measure their brand’s digital performance is still unclear. The survey revealed that:

• Marketing managers don’t know how good or bad their digital CX is. We asked if marketers could confidently answer a series of specific questions using any data they currently had relating to various aspects of their brand’s digital CX performance (see Figure 2). None of the thirty-two marketers could answer all of the questions; only eleven were able to answer more than two of them (see Figure 3). And while many marketers felt that they could confidently answer how user-friendly their CX is, only five could compare their design quality with those of their peers.
• Lack of measurement discipline jeopardizes digital brand investments. The survey reveals two reasons why marketers are in the dark regarding the performance of their digital CX. Firstly, many marketers do not collect any data to track their customers’ experiences (see Figure 4). Secondly, those who are collecting data use just one or two tools to do so—which is insufficient to answer all of the important questions and perceive the larger picture (see Figure 5). There was a positive correlation between the number of tools marketers use and the number of questions they were able to answer—suggesting that using more methods gives marketers greater insight and clarifies which solutions will help improve digital CX (see Figure 6).
• Marketers need to regain control and select the right measurement tools. To understand if they’re meeting customer needs, marketers must apply the same discipline and rigor to measuring CX as they do to determining the effectiveness of traditional interactions such as rep visits or congresses. In addition, marketers must know how and when to use the various measurement tools. Luckily, they don’t have to look far; most pharmaceutical firms have core measurement capabilities in place.[i] Any marketers who can’t tap into a centralized capability can use basic digital analytics and expert evaluations to jump quickly into CX measurement (see Figure 7).