Main Subject - Business

When it comes to looking after our customers, quite often there’s a gap, a huge gap between theory and practice. There are books about customer relations; there are videos about customer relat

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

ions; there are Gurus (mostly self-appointed) about customer relations. None of them actually have to deliver customer relations. That chore is left to what was known in the last two World War

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

Examples of combination products may in

s as the PBI – as in “Poor B….y Infantry”- the foot soldiers. The front line people, your front line people. So what do they make of it all?

You know about Pareto’s Law – I discuss it

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

often enough – yes that one, the one that says 80% of the business comes from 20% of the customers? Well, it (almost) applies in this case. More than 80% of front line staff haven’t yet totall

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

y bought into the idea of effective customer relations. The other 20% have discovered a very enriching way of achieving a satisfactory outcome from interactions with customers. In other words,

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

Combination pro

most of the time they succeed! And when they succeed, the customers actually thank them!

This can’t be about you – can it?

So what’s the problem? The first answer is: ‘the Directors”

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

the next answer is “the Managers”. “Nonsense”, you say. “I’m one of those, and I have explained very earnestly why we must all focus on achieving first class relations with customers”. Mmmmm!

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

Creating business and profit enhancing relations with customers requires the right environment, ethos, culture and philosophy. You can’t achieve it by simply telling other people to do it. Y

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

ou can tell them the technique for turning “difficult” phone calls around, but if they don’t feel like doing it, then they won’t.

If You And Your Whole Organisation Don’t Believe In Develo

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

ping Good Relations With All Of Your Customers – It Won’t Happen.

When so much time and money is spent on training people about the need for constructive relations with customers, why is

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

it often so bad? For much the same reason that when so much money has been spent on telling people that smoking kills you, they still insist on smoking. No, the issue is the environment. There

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

Following aspects would a

used to be spittoons in bars. What is a spittoon? It’s a bowl or bucket into which people spit. Oh yes, people used to spit into spittoons. They spat because they chewed tobacco; they spat be

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

cause they had – please forgive the term – phlegm. For whatever reason, they spat. And so there were spittoons. So long as the environment accepted people spitting, there were spittoons. Once

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

that environment changed, the very idea was repulsive. Which gets us back to relations with customers. So long as the environment in your organisation is tolerant of taking a patronising, comp

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

eting or negative attitude to customers, some people will do just that.

What does that mean?

Jargon obscures. There are various terms used such as Customer Relations; Customer Care; C

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

ustomer Service; Customer Support – and a few more besides.

Customer Relations refers to the principles and practice used by everyone across the board in a company in developing and maintaini

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

ng a certain quality of relationship with customers and prospective customers.

Customer Care refers to the techniques and attitudes necessary to deliver a high quality of service to customers

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

.

Customer Service / Support / Helpline refers specifically to a department set up to field enquiries and complaints from customers so that operational departments need not spend time dealing

.

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

with them. The term ‘Customer Relations’ may also be used for this function. Technical Support performs a similar function for technical reasons.

In discussing customer relations we are not

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

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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Writing business thank you notes - rare in the world of business - can forge a closer relationship to clients and ensure their future patronage. The article highlights the importance of business thank you notes and details key points to consider before sending such notes to customers.

There are four reasons careers are stymied. Deal with them to revive your career.

If you currently do not view customer complaints as a valuable opportunity, you are ignoring a very effective strategic tool for success. In more than 35 years of professional experience in marketing, I can assure you that the effective handling of complaints and a good service recovery strategy are very valuable marketing opportunities. The sad news here is that many businesses simply do not accept this and squander many opportunities to grow their business. I suggest a way to view complaints is to look at the complaints received and then develop and implement an effective means of managing complaints to produce positive outcomes for the customer and your business. Here are 10 things to do to manage complaints in a classy manner.

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