ESTRACE is indicated for the treatment of vaginal vulvar atrophy (VVA). Women find it difficult to discuss this debilitating condition with their physicians, and they often associate VVA symptoms of painful intercourse and vaginal dryness with older age, rather than a medically treatable condition. As a result, Allergan needed to help female patients better understand the cause of their symptoms, proactively discuss VVA with their physicians, and accept ESTRACE as the treatment of choice.

Using a Customer Experience (CX) Audit, PulseCX defined all stakeholders in the vulvar vaginal atrophy (VVA) treatment journey, identified emotions and behaviors behind existing communication gaps, and determined how to enhance sales-representative interactions with healthcare professionals (HCPs), helping reps play the role of “experience managers” to activate HCP-patient discussions. To maximize physician-patient communication, PulseCX also created an “experience plan” of focused tactics for each stakeholder.

Identifying and overcoming communication gaps // The Stakeholder Journey Map revealed key roadblocks in the physician-patient treatment discussion. Patients were not adequately educated on treatable VVA symptoms, so they did not feel confident in speaking with HCPs about painful intercourse and vaginal dryness. While HCPs saw themselves as leaders of the VVA treatment journey, they were not proactive because they expected patients to bring up issues. Sales representatives were eager to encourage the physician-patient treatment discussion, but they lacked the tools to do so.

Empowering representatives to better engage with HCPs // CX Audit insights helped sales representatives activate HCP-patient discussions by helping HCPs overcome a specific set of VVA-treatment issues. PulseCX recreated the rep-physician interaction by focusing discussion on the messages and data that sales representatives could use to help healthcare stakeholders overcome these issues. Representatives also encouraged HCPs and nurses to invite patients to RejuveNation, a new online destination that offers individualized VVA education and support.

Amplifying the physician-patient conversation // PulseCX built customer experience (CX) plans for each stakeholder to encourage VVA and ESTRACE discussions. The patient plan covered all relevant media and provided tools to drive them to their providers. The HCP plan provided resources to ease the physician-patient conversation, included Phreesia-automated patient intake for individualized patient experiences, and increased ESTRACE awareness. The representative plan included a new iCVA and detailing resources that incorporated the necessary data analytics to help them focus their sales calls specifically on the key issues.

The ESTRACE CX drove Rx // This new CX approach helped representatives drive more physician-patient conversations about VVA and ESTRACE, moving the brand from #2 to #1 in category sales within 6 months.