4 Ways to Deliver Better HCP Service in Just Minutes a Day

Aug 13, 2024 | Alison Mersky

Planning and executing face-to-face interactions take up most of a biopharma field rep’s workday. But what about all the time in between, like the four minutes it takes to fuel their car or the 10 minutes they wait for lunch?

With the help of a compliant chat solution, these brief moments bring additional value to healthcare professionals (HCPs). A compliant chat tool like Veeva Vault CRM Engage pairs the speed of instant messaging with features for regulatory tracking and oversight, creating a powerful new channel that helps biopharmas achieve HCP-centric engagement.

HCPs can reach out through compliant chat and request service whenever needed. Field teams can satisfy requests in minutes, not weeks—in fact, the average field rep responds to an HCP message in less than five minutes.

The best part is that this channel fits neatly into your field’s existing downtime while increasing their productivity. Here are four ways compliant chat can maximize the spare minutes in your reps’ schedules and elevate the HCP experience.

1. Answer an HCP’s question

With the rise of more specialty drugs and complex insurance structures, HCPs often require more assistance in the prescription process than before. Resolving these questions quickly could make the difference between an HCP prescribing a drug or switching to an alternative.

For example, an HCP may need help securing prior authorization for a drug. If they can’t reach the drug’s rep, this could be a missed opportunity.

But if the rep and HCP are connected via compliant chat, the HCP can message the rep with their question. The channel allows HCPs to raise their hand and get help when needed, expediting the right therapy into the patient’s hands.

The data also suggests that in the current face-to-face-only model, HCPs have questions they want answered faster. According to Veeva Pulse data, when given access to a rep over a compliant chat channel, HCPs initiate chat conversations 30% of the time—engagement opportunities that would be unavailable without this channel.

When it only takes a few minutes to get the HCP the information they need over compliant chat, it’s too much of an opportunity to waste.

2. Send a piece of relevant content

The benefits of content on promotional response cannot be understated, and the numbers bear this out: Veeva Pulse data shows that calls using digital content lead to 2.5x more patient starts than calls that don’t. But what if your reps didn’t have to be in the office to get that content to doctors? What if they could send content to HCPs at any time, maybe even as a direct response to an HCP request?

Using Vault CRM Engage, field reps can send content to HCPs over chat in just a few taps. Reps have ready access to a library of pre-approved content from their smartphones that they can pull up and send out instantly.

Full traceability ensures they can also see whether the HCP has opened or read the content. Additionally, if an HCP forwards the content to another HCP, Vault CRM Engage will track the identity of the other HCPs along with their opens and clicks.

Not only is sending content over compliant chat fast, but HCPs also seem more receptive to this channel. Veeva Pulse data shows an average read rate of 80% for compliant chat, twice that of rep-triggered email at 40%.

3. Fulfill a sample request

For most field reps, replenishing an HCP’s sample stocks is part of their regular rounds, but it’s challenging to forecast when HCPs will get new patients who could use samples. Often, reps show up to an empty sample closet without knowing just how long it’s been empty and how many patients they may have missed out on during that time.

If HCPs have an open channel for compliant chat with their reps, it becomes much easier to alert the reps when they need more samples. With a simple message, a rep can know to top up the HCP’s sample stock or even drop off a sample for a specific patient.

Moreover, if a rep uses Vault CRM Engage, the built-in sampling functionality reduces the time it takes to collect a sample request. HCPs can send a sample request over the messaging interface, which the rep can respond to by creating a signature request in Vault CRM.

Once the HCP signs the request, backend integrations seamlessly let the fulfillment provider know to ship the HCP’s requested samples. Now, a sample request that might have taken weeks is resolved in just a few minutes.

4. Connect an HCP with another team member

As insurers and regulators increase their requirements, HCPs need more support from multiple teams to ensure their patients get treatment promptly.

However, for many HCPs, getting in touch with these teams is a challenge. For example, Veeva Pulse data shows that 70% of key opinion leader HCPs only ever engage with one biopharma company’s field medical team. This is in stark contrast to the situation with sales teams, where it’s the norm for multiple reps from different companies to contact the same HCP.

The compliant chat channel lowers the barrier for HCPs to communicate requests to their reps, making it easier to ask reps for directory assistance. Through their sales rep, they can easily access the contacts of other HCP-facing teams, such as field medical, market access, and payer support.

Vault CRM Engage makes contact sending straightforward with a Digital Business Card that a rep can send via messaging to their HCPs. In just one message, the rep can pass over their colleague’s phone number, email, and Engage profile to an HCP so that the HCP can instantly connect with the team they need.

Enhancing the face-to-face relationship

Compliant chat allows reps to provide a higher standard of HCP service in less time. For some field leaders, this raises a question: Would messaging ever replace face-to-face interactions between HCPs and reps?

The industry data shows that this isn’t the case. Veeva Pulse findings indicate that field forces who use compliant chat see the same number of face-to-face interactions as before they opened this new channel. The main difference is that the number of digital interactions between HCPs and reps doubles, meaning that compliant chat earns reps additional touchpoints with the HCP.

This trend makes sense when we observe how people generally use digital channels. A strong in-person relationship between two people isn’t diminished by a digital method of communication; it only presents opportunities for more touchpoints.

In the same way, a digital channel for your field reps can strengthen their relationships with HCPs. The instant communication enabled by compliant chat allows reps to support HCPs in their moment of need, turning the blank spaces in your reps’ schedules into valuable opportunities to facilitate better patient care.

See how compliant chat helps Boehringer Ingelheim build stronger HCP relationships.