IT Success!: Towards a New Model for Information Technology

10.6. Feasibility study and defining a solution

The team kicked off a feasibility study, which had three main parts:

• External input: physicians were invited to a customer feedback meeting and asked to give their views concerning 'customer service'. Not surprisingly, they wanted to deal with as few people as possible in as short a time as possible. This was particularly important when they had a patient in front of them and they needed a quick answer. They also wanted to be able to use the same channel for other interactions like adverse effects reporting, seminar/event registration, etc., without having to call their sales rep. The key feedback from this session, and a subsequent survey, was the requirement for a one-stop-shop call centre.

• Internal input: monthly tracking of calls to the telephone switchboard (via the PABX) revealed a lost call rate of 15%. There was also a one-week, company-wide survey, during which every person potentially in touch with customers filled out a log of who called and for what purpose. The analysis showed that questions were asked by physicians (39%), pharmacists (15%) and sales reps (13%). These figures confirmed that there was a real need for product information.

• Benchmarking: in an attempt to compare themselves with the industry, competitors and non-competitors alike, a number of standard questions were prepared and calls made by doctors on the project team to other pharmaceutical companies. The results were very poor, with just one out of the ...