Loyalty 360 had the opportunity to hear from Heidi Shurtz, Senior Manager, Customer Relationship Marketing for Allergan. Below, Heidi shares insights on the challenges faced in reaching the pharma customer, and the value of a consolidated consumer database.
L360: What are some hurdles for the pharma industry in engaging their customers and building loyalty?
Shurtz: One of the largest hurdles in pharma is not owning the point of sale. Whether a consumer is purchasing at the pharmacy or directly from a provider, there is always a third party in the mix. As with any situation where there is another party in the process, increased communication is essential or procedures fall through the cracks.
L360: As a result, what challenges do you face by not having a direct interface with your consumer?
Shurtz: We have a very effective and successful sales force and they communicate with our customers, the providers. Our end consumer can receive information from our websites, through CRM or the provider, so consistency of message can be a challenge. Not all providers participate in our programs, so that also adds a level of confusion from a consumer perspective.
L360: Without a direct point of sale available, what are some of the best practices you have seen in the industry to engage with customers and gather data?
Shurtz: The hand-raiser is still our primary opportunity. When a consumer registers on our site or at an event, that is our queue to be present in the conversation and drive action. The next step is engaging with the most targeted information possible, which means really knowing and understanding your consumers.
L360: How do current compliance guidelines impact your ability to deliver messaging to your customer?
Shurtz: Since our industry is very regulated there are challenges with marketing and messaging to our customers, the providers, as well as with our end consumer. We don’t have the ability to have a direct conversation with consumers through social media, and be transparent, as you see in automotive or CPG companies do well.
L360: As a result, what do you find are the most effective outlets for communication?
Shurtz: We leverage a well-constructed database and deploy intelligent CRM communications that incorporate transactional and behavioral information. We couple that with a consumer loyalty platform that rewards consumers for their loyalty, in most cases after their very first product purchase or treatment. Our in-office offers also help us reach our target that hasn’t yet visited our brand websites.
L360: As a best practice approach, many companies today are looking to consolidate their often siloed customer databases. What are some of the inherent values and challenges involved in the migrating & consolidation of databases?
Shurtz: I know this topic very well, my first year at Allergan we consolidated multiple consumer databases that had been created for promotions over the years. The challenge is knowing where all your information is, how it got there and how you can translate it to current and future marketing objectives. The value is in the data. The more you know about consumer habits the better you can interact with them in the most relevant way.
L360: What can you share regarding the impact of your recent efforts to engage your customers as a result of having a consolidated database and segmentation strategy?
Shurtz: After our consolidation efforts we were able to provide feedback regarding acquisition campaigns with the highest ROI, so they could be duplicated and remove the lowest performing campaigns. We also have information that is used to model those consumers most likely to use one or all of our products, which allows us to target the highest value consumers.
About Heidi Shurtz:
Prior to Allergan, Heidi managed owner loyalty at Toyota Motor Sales, creating the first owner website and CRM program. On the agency side, she was an Account Director managing B2B and B2C initiatives. Heidi and her husband can be found most weekends on the baseball field watching her two sons.
This fall, Allergan’s Hiedi Shurtz will be joining a panel of industry experts, at Loyalty 360’s Engagement Expo (November 6-8th, 2011, The Westin Stonebriar, Frisco, TX), to discuss the steps necessary to secure executive buy-in for data collection and analytics programs. In the session titled, Customer Data, Segmentation & Analysis: Driving Engagement and Customer Strategy, attendees will learn: how to identify meaningful data and best practices for data collection; how to create a segmentation strategy that meets the marketer’s specific objectives, and how to use analytics to yield customer intelligence that drives customer strategy. Moderated by Connie Hill, President & Founder - VeraCentra; Panelists: Heidi Shurtz, Senior Manager, Customer Relationship Marketing - Allergan; Sarah Mendez, Marketing Director - Mister Carwash & David Sims, VP of Direct Marketing – GNC.
Register now at: EngagementExpo.com