Useful Advices - Business

It’s a mistake to think that because a customer has expressed dissatisfaction with your product or service they will not come back to you.

They won’t return if you handle the situation badly. However, some of your most vociferous complainers could become your most loyal customers, be

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

cause you handled the situation well and treated them with respect.

This means recognising some essential traits:

• Customers want to be respected

• They want attention

• They want to be appreciated and recognised

• Most of all they want to be understood

Losing Customers:

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

Why do businesses lose customers?

A survey with which you may be familiar, asked customers why they changed supplier/vendor.

Here are the results:

• Developed a good relationship with another supplier 5%

• Less expensive products elsewhere 9%

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

• Unhappy with service/product 18%

• Because of the poor attitude of the supplier 68%

Your Customers Are The Lifeblood Of Your Business:

It is never easy to win new business, which is why we should nurture existing c

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

stomers and try to minimise problems and inconvenience.

It’s a good idea to:

• Make regularly visits or calls – spotting trouble early on can help prevent it

• Reply to calls/queries as soon as possible

• Talk to your customers – find out about them

• Keep them well informed

• C

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

onduct regular reviews of your performance - see your service through their eyes

Ensure that the lifeblood keeps flowing through the veins of your business.

Solving Problems:

Suppose they are difficult.

Few people are truly difficult. In any case it is important to make a d

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

stinction between difficult people and difficult behaviour, which is often a result of non co-operation on your part.

• Focus on the problem (challenge?) not on them

• Show interest – bring out their likeable side

• Put yourself in their shoes – remember empathy?

• Be personal – u

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

e their name if that’s what they would like

• Appeal to their better nature. ‘As a parent of small children you…’

• Cultivate their goodwill

Saying Thank You:

Let your customers know you appreciate them. Find little ways to thank them for their custom, especially when they

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

re not expecting it. This is a great way to attract compliments, especially after sorting out a difficult problem.

• A simple but sincere thank you card – personalised

• Gift vouchers

• Cards at Christmas or other appropriate festivals – Diwali, Hanukah, Eid

• VIP days for special

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

events, launches, dinners

• Social gatherings for key clients

Loyalty cards are very popular now with many organisations. Discounts, bonus points, free samples, all help to make your business stand out.

Compliments & Comments:

Why do we find it difficult to accept complime

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

ts?

Is it because:-

• We don’t have enough faith or pride in our product?

• We think it’s probably a back-handed complaint?

• We don’t trust people?

• We don’t know how to react? (How about thank you?!)

Compliments tell us what we are doing right and give a boost to our morale.

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

f we allow it, they bring us pleasure.

Some customers just mutter a comment because that’s how they are. They don’t really want you to take them up on it. (It’s a good idea though to take note of what they say and if appropriate ask, ‘Is everything okay?’)

Relationship Marketing<

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

b>:

Relationship marketing is no longer a new buzz word and obviously it’s here to stay. It’s all about looking at your customers and your relationship with them in a new light. Rather than develop a product or service and market it to the customers, relationship marketeers think abo

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

ut what the customers want and adapt their product development strategy accordingly.

It’s about customisation to meet the needs of the individual. Relationship marketing is based on getting feedback and using it to develop and improve your service. Earlier it was suggested tha

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

companies make it as easy as possible for customers to complain. In relationship marketing, feedback is sought before a complaint occurs. This helps to:

• Identify potential problem areas before the customer does

• Customise

For many companies it has become practice to enco

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

rage customers to provide such information via the website. You need good quality of information if you are to have a two-way relationship with your customer

Customer Expectations:

Have customers changed? – In a word - Yes!

• They are more demanding

• Have hi

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

her expectations

• Have a more pressurised lifestyle

• Want everything but don’t necessarily want to pay for it

• Are less tolerant

• Want more for their money, time and effort

• Are much more aware of their rights – influenced by consumer rights programmes

• Are driven by custo

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

mer service issues in their own workplace

• Are more likely to seek recommendation from friends and colleagues than rely on advertising

• Are driven by new technology – particularly the internet

BUT – the key to supplier differentiation lies within these increased expectations,

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

since customers now value closer links with efficient, competent suppliers who are willing to act as long term allies.

And Finally:

Some key lessons on keeping abreast of customer needs and minimising complaints:

• Use as much of the available technology as possible – ma

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

e it work for the customer

• Focus on customers as individuals

• Listen and act on what they say

• Increase the value of each customer – especially in the long term

• Welcome complaints – always, always, welcome complaints.

Copyright © 2006 Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserve

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Useful Advices - Turning Customer Complaints Into Customer Referrals

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