Today any company, big and small, active in the medical business declares openly that it is customer oriented. I would say that being or stating to be customer oriented or customer centric is both fashionable and necessary.
However, as you can imagine there are different levels of being customer oriented, a big difference between saying and doing. And inside the companies, it is possible to have different departments with variable levels of customer orientation.
Why Customer Orientation?
The essence of customer orientation is focusing on the customer and potential customer, identifying customer needs (current and future), and satisfying those needs.
Customer orientation is an important driver of a company’s performance as described here and companies that “truly” follow this “religion” with its behaviors, practices, and commandments are examples of success in their respective sector as reported by Forbes.
There are many companies with a good level of customer orientation in some of their departments, for example, sales, after-sales service, and marketing. These are the classic departments that are in close contact with the customer, and their results and bonuses depend on customer relationships.
However, in other areas of the business, there are fewer incentives to be customer oriented and therefore this culture is less developed. Today I would like to highlight some elements that support customer orientation in several departments of a medical device company.
What do the different departments of a customer oriented medical device company look like?
R&D
In a customer-oriented company, the R&D engineers spend time meeting customers, attending surgeries, listening to problems, and exploring the environment of the use of the devices of their responsibility.
R&D staff know the competitors, analyze and study competitors’ products measuring the performance, and seeking for better customer outcomes. They solicit, welcome, and favor direct customer product feedback during the project of development. They involve from the beginning of any project, all the internal stakeholders, for example, marketing, sales, manufacturing, regulatory and supply chain.
User feedback and customer complaints are considered valuable sources for product improvement and refinement. The investigation and evaluation of customer feedback are performed not only according to the norms and following the procedures but with the aim to better serve the customer.
Manufacturing
All the manufacturing staff have a basic knowledge of the product and its clinical use. Quality and cost improvements are continuously researched. Production cadence is aligned with the demand and delivery schedule; in case of demand, variance adjustments are promptly made to meet the new production program.
They consider the production plant a showcase of the company and an opportunity to promote the know-how and expertise. The manufacturing management hosts customer visits with the purpose of creating value for the customer. Customer visits are welcome and well organized, the appearance of the plant is considered in detail, final products are well displayed, kaizen activities are shown, and manufacturing personnel is happy and proud to be part of the visit.
Supply chain
The standard for service delivery time is set according to customer expectations and the supply chain team works constantly to improve it. Backorders are rare and the department meets the standard delivery time regularly. Customer service is knowledgeable and friendly; they handle customer inquiries and resolve problems in a satisfactory and timely manner.
The procurement strategy is well defined, and they work with high-quality suppliers with long-term relationships.
Regulatory affairs
The regulatory affairs department considers the mission of the FDA, EMA, and other regulatory agencies to protect public health and works in partnership with them. They understand the use and the value generated by the product and suggest the most appropriate regulatory pathway.
Regulatory affairs collaborate with users to collect valuable data to support the post-market surveillance and post-approval requirements, for example, post-market study and registry enabling the company to generate rapports of clinical use.
They integrate and leverage regulatory approval obtained in one market to shorten regulatory approval and adoption in another.
Marketing
In a customer-oriented company, the marketing department brings the voice of the customer inside the company. Marketing urges upon the importance of customer orientation for the entire company and promotes customer oriented behaviors in any situation.
Upstream marketing is well developed, and it is the foundation for product development; the study of customer needs and wants is considered vital and multiple methodologies for collecting the VOC are implemented.
Marketing allocates the promotional effort according to profitability and market segmentation, targeting, and positioning.
They develop and measure KPIs for customer satisfaction, company image, and branding which are monitored regularly.
Marketing collects customer feedback, evaluates opportunities, and drives new product/service development and improvement.
Sales
Sales force is recognised by the target customer segments and has a deep knowledge of the customer environment. The sales rep is a specialist in his/her field of activity and strives to provide the best solution for the specific customer.
The commercial organization continuously gathers customers’ feedback, needs, and comments providing regular information to the departments needed to be informed.
The sales force establishes with the customer a long-term business relationship.
Conclusion
To become customer oriented as many companies have declared, the entire company must adopt this “religion”. Customer orientation will provide superior value to customers and this is certainly a key success factor against the competition.
Moreover, customer orientation on the level of artifacts, rituals, and declarations will not bring real value to the company and could have a negative effect.
In my opinion customer orientation has to become a fundamental organizational value and as described before, important signals will be visible in the different departments.
Are the various departments of your company customer oriented? What does customer orientation mean for your company? Let me know your thoughts in the comment below and don’t forget to subscribe.