07 Dec 2009

Pharmaceutical firms 'looking to improve CRM'

Customer research management (CRM) is becoming a more important issue for pharmaceutical firms, it has been revealed.

E-Commerce Times reported US drug firms spent $309 million (£188.7 million) on CRM in 2008. However, this is expected to grow to $329 by 2011 and be up to $343 million the following year.

Therefore, companies are looking to invest in more efficient CRM methods to make the process as manageable as possible over the coming years.

"Both the big and mid-sized firms have embraced CRM in full swing. The industry has witnessed significant return on investment in areas such as marketing mix effectiveness and sales force productivity," commented E Sujith, team leader and healthcare analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

Elsewhere, TMC Net recently reported the main areas where companies need to focus when implementing new CRM principles are databases, tracking customer satisfaction levels, collaboration, keeping records of all customer communication and backing up data.