Pharma and Healthcare Sites Could Do Better

The Customer Respect Group in the USA has released results from its Summer 2004 Online Customer Respect Study of pharmaceutical and healthcare firms. The study rates the online presence and response of the 78 firms in the sector to be found in the top 1000 companies.

The study attempts to bring an objective measure to the analysis of corporate performance from an online customer's perspective by assigning a Customer Respect Index rating to each company on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest achievable score. The Customer Respect Index is a qualitative and quantitative in-depth analysis and independent measure of a customer's online experience when interacting with companies via the Internet.

The attributes measured are grouped into six main areas: Simplicity (ease of navigation), Responsiveness (quick and thorough responses to inquiries), Privacy (respects customer privacy), Attitude (customer-focus of site), Transparency (open and honest policies) and Principles (values and respects customer data).

Pharmaceutical and Healthcare companies obtained a poor average score of 3.5 in the Responsiveness index. In fact, 19 companies - almost one-quarter - scored zero for Responsiveness. That figure is reflected, in part, by the fact that 49 percent of firms never responded to inquiries or did so only half of the time.

In the area of Transparency, the average score was an unimpressive 6.0, demonstrating the need for sector companies to better explain their privacy policies fully and clearly. A huge 65 percent did not provide clear information on their opt-in/opt-out policies. Users of these sites will feel that they will be unable to control the receipt of marketing information if the company uses their email addresses for this purpose. There will almost certainly be customers who will not do business on these sites for this reason.

Sector firms also scored low in Principles (at 5.5). Some 12 percent of these companies share customers' data with business partners without seeking permission and 24 percent of companies share data with affiliates. Moreover, no firm makes its site accessible for those with disabilities by using label tags.

Overall, Express Scripts scored highest among healthcare firms, while Universal Health Services scored lowest. Boston Scientific Corporation ranked first among medical products and equipment companies, while Applera Corporation ranked last. Johnson & Johnson scored highest among pharmaceutical firms, while Pfizer scored lowest. And Cardinal Health ranked first among wholesaler - healthcare firms, while PSS World Medical ranked last.

'It is particularly surprising that some companies in this industry, whose business it is to provide healthcare and related products and services, do not make it a priority to treat their customers in a respectful, ethical manner online,' said Roger Fairchild, president of The Customer Respect Group. 'The Internet has become a primary tool for customer information and product research. Those firms that don't take their Web presence seriously will find themselves losing out to others that do.'

The Group's web site is at www.customerrespect.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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