Customer Service Requirements in the Age of E-Commerce
By Mark Land, M.S., RAC-US, AAHP
We all might harbor in mind quaint notions of what customer service is. This is usually based on our personal expectations when purchasing products and services. Not too long ago, customer service meant going to a store, sorting through stock available at that location, and taking home what we could find. Shopping was a significant part of our lives. Today much of what we consume, wear, or use for entertainment is purchased online.
How have consumer expectations changed since then and what are they now? Today, consumers expect an online purchase process to be easy, fast, and accurate. A physical experience of touching a three-dimensional product on a shelf has been replaced by an image and brief product description on the retailer’s website. The loss of a tactile interaction with the product means that consumer reviews have become increasingly important.
Trust becomes an important issue. Can I trust the retailer? Can I trust the reviews on their website? Can I trust the delivery company to meet an expected arrival time? Trust uncertainty has led consumers to favor manufacturers’ websites when buying certain types of products, including medical products. In addition to the firsthand transaction with the manufacturer, consumers benefit from information on the manufacturer’s website and, yes, direct access to a live customer service agent to answer their questions directly.
In the pharmaceutical environment, customer service takes on a specific meaning and imposes specific requirements on manufacturers’ or marketers’ customer service, quality assurance, and pharmacovigilance teams. These requirements are unique to the healthcare products space. Other articles in this issue will go into greater detail on these requirements but here is a quick overview.
- Website and Published Materials: Any information published by a pharmaceutical company with respect to a drug product is considered by FDA the same as claims and information made on product labels. Misstatements via these marketing materials are considered misbranding the product. Everything published on a website must go through the same review process as product labels. The same is true for responses to frequently asked questions.
- Product Complaints: Complaints about product defects must be reported to the quality assurance team to be recorded, tracked, and evaluated. The result of this process could be a change in product components, manufacturing or testing processes; a revision to labels; and even a recall of affected batches.
- Adverse Event Reports: An AER is a report of adverse effects associated with the use of a drug product. That could range from a serious adverse effect requiring intervention of a health care professional to a drug product failing to work as labeled. Like product defects, AERs represent a consumer’s profound negative experience with your product. Similarly, Adverse Event Reports must be reported to the pharmacovigilance team to be recorded, evaluated, and reported to FDA when necessary. Like quality defects, AERs can result in product modifications, including and up to discontinuing the product.
Commercial issues are also very important in sustaining the relationship with consumers but are generally not reported to quality assurance or pharmacovigilance teams. Pricing issues, returns, delivery times, and the condition of the product when received are all very important, and manufacturers must have efficient and customer-centered processes to remedy these problems. Ideally operations staff review commercial complaints and seek solutions and operational changes to minimize these issues in the future.
For a deep dive into managing and evaluating customer complaint, see our articles, Handling Consumer Complaints and Investigating Consumer Complaints. Also our September issue this year discussed managing frequently asked questions FAQs.
If these concepts are new to you or you need a refresher, take advantage of these articles to benefit your consumers.