Advice You - Business

Are you inadvertently driving your customers crazy with your company policies? Not sure?

Well, imagine that a customer who's been with your company for a while with n

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

o complaints finally has a reason to contact customer service because of what appears to be a billing error. She assumes the error will be corrected quickly and she'll

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

Examples of combination products may in

go on her way.

Instead, your customer service rep recites a convoluted procedure she'll need to go through to rectify the issue, much to the customer's astonishment.

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

he representative explains by saying, "I'm sorry, but that's our policy and we have to follow it."

That procedure might be driven by an arcane control issue in your c

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

mpany -- or perhaps by a legitimate business requirement. But the customer doesn't understand the rationale behind it. In this imaginary scenario, she tries to offer s

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

Combination pro

uggestions, but is rebuffed by the equally frustrated employee who seems unreceptive to her proposals.

The customer thinks, "Why aren't they open to my ideas? Don't t

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

ey believe my opinions have value? My complaint is valid, my suggestions are good, and if they don't want to listen to them, I'll take my business elsewhere!"

Finally

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

at her wit's end, the customer asks to speak to a supervisor. The representative resists the request and even argues against it. When the customer threatens to end he

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

relationship with the company right then and there, the representative reluctantly summons her manager. What has caused this unhappy situation?

Let's simply acknowle

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

dge the fact that holes in our policies and procedures can surface every day. In those situations, what our policies allow personnel to do can make the difference betw

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

en keeping and losing a customer.

Those things include:

1) Sympathizing with your customer's concerns and apologizing for inconveniences.

2) Explaining why the poli

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

Following aspects would a

y exists, especially if it represents a type of customer protection.

3) Offering immediate alternatives to help assuage the situation.

4) Actively recording the conc

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

rns for ongoing system improvements, and

5) Making complaint escalation quick and painless, ideally to someone who has the authority to override the policy if needed.

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

When your policies and procedures cause confusion or don't convey a clear set of benefits to consumers, your customers can be quite sensitive to the "disconnects" th

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

y perceive. Those are areas in which the organization might not be "walking its talk" -- and the customers and prospects can feel it, leaving them wondering what your

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

olicies are or why you have them.

You can eliminate these disconnects through continually reviewing and fine-tuning the policies and procedures that affect the qualit

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

of your customers' experiences. Standardizing the procedural hand-offs within your organization also will bolster your customers' confidence and desire to work with y

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

our organization -- because they'll receive the same fair, logical, and helpful treatment no matter whom they contact.

In conclusion, there are a variety of ways in w

.

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

ich we might be inadvertently frustrating our customers and clients. In particular, our policies and procedures may be unnecessarily confusing or restrictive. By being

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

alert for situations that put our customers on the defensive and handling those situations gracefully, we can retain our customers' loyalty and avoid driving them away

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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