What CX Tech Innovations Options Are Ripe for Consideration?

Innovation is often driven by frustration.

Scaling and adopting innovative solutions always works best if it gets rid of something people hate. So, rather than trying to figure out what to use new technology for, it is better to focus on helping people get rid of problems or tasks. Which sales representative or Medical Science Liaison likes taking call notes? Who likes creating expense reports? Who likes to record time off territory?

So, let’s start with the first one. The question is can technology help with automating the creation of call notes. I think yes, using natural language processing (NLP) technology. The technology is relatively mature now.  For example, your phone can listen to speech and convert that to text on the screen. The text can then be scanned and analysed for keywords. Based on that, call notes can be created automatically, and only need to be double-checked or slightly edited by the rep to approve.

A common question is whether this violates privacy as recording a call may not be appreciated, legal or considered appropriate. Sales reps and med-legal will use this argument initially to resist change. A way to ensure compliance is to make sure the voice is not recorded but analysed and the full text is purged in real-time, leaving only the summarised call notes.

This can overcome any privacy concerns. In my opinion, sales reps will love this feature because they will get their notes automatically and HCPs are unlikely to care if it means they are better supported.

But it doesn’t stop there. Imagine what else you could do with this technology such as prompt messages if something is forgotten or assess the sentiment of the HCP during the call to what is being discussed instead of simply relying on the rep to capture this from an interpretation of the HCP’s reaction to the slide. The potential is enormous.

When it comes to innovation and predicting what tech will be adopted and what technologies are sticky, I often look at the way my own children deal with innovation. When they were young, they were driven by curiosity and now they are teenagers it seems they are often driven by laziness (companies call that efficiency!)

My daughter very quickly figured out that her smartwatch only required her to wave her arm a lot to get to the daily 5,000 steps requested by school during a lockdown. In any case, they do quickly pick up certain things that they will continue to do themselves but will also be picked up by slow followers. Instagram, collaborative document sharing, screen casting, bots. Not rep email and SMS. And as they age, they may explore an innovative new solution like Omnipresence by Exeevo.

Pharma companies and their sales reps need to adapt to their customer behaviours to stay relevant. HCPs are an interesting bunch when it comes to technology. Most are slow followers; their focus is more on people, science, safety and ethics. I am happy with that because I don’t want to imagine a world where healthcare is run by engineers like myself, their focus should remain specialised.

On the other hand, I have many friends with a medical background, who are very excited by the potential of digital to improve the lives of patients and avidly follow each advance and development in the world of consumer and med tech.

So, predicting what technologies companies will adopt and reps will accept may not be that complicated. Just look at your children now and you can picture what pharma and healthcare will be using in 5 years from now. ‘’Instagram for healthcare’’, collaborative health records, bits to do pre-screening of patients. That said, they will still allow the pharma representative to cast their presentation on the flatscreen on the wall of their office because, well, some things will never change!

About Exeevo

Exeevo is a unified, intelligent and agile digital ecosystem for life sciences organisations to revolutionise health experiences for healthcare teams and patients in their journey towards sustainable health outcomes. Built with Microsoft clouds including Dynamics 365, Azure and Teams well as Cloud for Healthcare, Exeevo platforms are verticalised for customer and patient experiences, delivered by biopharma, medical devices, biotech and consumer health organisations.

About the author

Edwin Erckens has created his opinions based on 10 years of experience in pharma and consumer healthcare in P&G, Teva and Sanofi, in local, regional, and global commercial IT/digital roles and chose Omnipresence by Exeevo for use in multiple markets during his time at Sanofi. He is a digital transformation leader with experience across different companies and industries. He started his career at P&G, then moved to Heineken, followed by regional and global executive IT/digital roles at Teva and Sanofi. He holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering and has worked and lived in seven countries. He currently resides in his home country, the Netherlands.