Cases - Business

On a good rollercoaster ride you have no idea what to expect next. You usually expect the worst, and when anything at all happens, you scream. You might even come close to losing your lunch a few times as you are practically flung out of the car. There are exhilarating moments that can be w

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

ildly exciting, but they are interspersed with fear, apprehension, and yes - even screaming.

Is this how your customers experience your business? Fun seekers may go back to ride that rollercoaster again and again, but think about businesses that depend on you for their livelihood – a little

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

Examples of combination products may in

oo much excitement perhaps? Business to business (B2B) companies can achieve the benefits of a strong customer experience in customer loyalty, buying preferences, and referrals to other customers. However, the relationship with the customer is far more complex than when compared with consumer

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

product companies.

B2B companies must go above and beyond doing the minimum to meet the customer’s transactional needs. B2B customer loyalty is all about being committed to a complete, systematic and relentless dedication to an idea. That is, the experience that is expressed in every way th

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

t touches a customer by every employee, consistently across all forms of communication, and for the lifetime of the customer. B2B companies often stumble when they fail to align their customer facing operations and people with the customer experience promised by the company.

Customers of B2B

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

Combination pro

firms perceive their service experience to be the sum of every form of communication they receive from your business, and every interaction that they have with your company. And this point of view lasts forever, so that errors committed in the past will always remain part of the customer’s p

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

rception of their experience with your business. This remains true regardless of how well your business may be performing at present. Many companies place a heavy reliance on customer service centers responding to customer calls and resolving issues quickly, assuming customers will then be ha

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

py with their business overall.

Delivering an experience that is consistent with your customer promise across every touch point with customers is the first step to truly differentiating your business. When all those interfaces are aligned and delivering a consistent experience and message to

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

our customers, then you will achieve a high level of operating efficiency. If just one interface fails to deliver on the customer promise, then you have to spend time and money correcting errors and inconsistencies. This impacts directly on customer satisfaction and retention, willingness to

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

buy, direct costs required to repair or rework, and in overall financial performance as vital energy in the form of human and financial resources are redirected to address the deficiencies.

In B2B customer relationships, the goal is to develop a long term sustained relationship with the cust

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

mer. The longer the customer is retained, generally the more profitable the relationship, and the greater the ability to continue to produce revenue from that customer. Have you ever heard in your business that the customer was sold something that differs from your ability to deliver? Somet

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

Following aspects would a

mes product features, business terms, implementation schedules, service levels, all apparently promised by a sales person, and yet are not consistent with the current capability of the business to deliver.

Each one of these issues requires energy and investment by the business to overcome in

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

rder to get the customer on an acceptable long term path, and with slightly reset expectations. The customer has already experienced significant inconsistencies between the promise and the experience of that promise, before the relationship really gets under way. The cost of building loyalty

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

with that customer is very high and efforts will continue to be expended over a long period of time as the company endeavors to restore its reputation with that customer.

The costs of poor performance are tangible and often already measured by companies, including: rework, error correction,

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

oncessions, lost opportunities, and customer attrition. Each one of these increases your cost of service, selling, support, and overhead as you implement remedies to correct them. These costs can have an exponential impact across the business: that is, each element or system that fails, or

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

any inconsistency between them or against the customer promise tends to compound the negative perception of the customer.

Why is there such a compounding effect? Remember that for business to business customers, the sum of all of their experiences and all the communications with your entire

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

irm over time serve to create their perception of your company. When one element disappoints the customer, it is automatically compounded by another element – even though they may seem totally unconnected from inside your company. Left unchecked, the customer’s disappointment will grow and n

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

egative perceptions will expand beyond simply the issues at hand to become a general perception of your whole business.

Many businesses have sophisticated processes, software and even six sigma quality improvement programs designed to measure and improve that performance and increase profitab

.

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

lity. These initiatives do not often measure systems across the enterprise and rarely do they measure the effectiveness and consistency of communication and performance of all of these systems with the intended customer promise of the business.

Managing each issue in isolation will result in

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

a significant drain on energy and the resources required to deliver sustained profitable growth. Align all systems and people in your company so they can focus most of their energy to serving the customer better, innovating new solutions, beating the competition, and moving the bottom line up

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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In business, good graphic design isn’t simply a luxury. It’s an absolute necessity.

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