We are a finalist: 2019 Customer Experience Awards

Paul Frith, Director and Co-founder of Rubica shares insights and thoughts on becoming a finalist in the 2019 Customer Experience Awards, under the category: Business Change & Transformation following Rubica’s work with Sanofi UK.

How do you feel about Rubica being nominated as a finalist in the 2019 Customer Experience Awards?

We are so pleased to be a finalist in this year’s Customer Experience Awards (CXA). This is our first year entering the awards, and to be recognised as a finalist is just brilliant – especially given some of the other companies that were in the running!

Whilst it is a great achievement for us, it is also a huge acknowledgement of Sanofi’s focus and commitment to its customers, and the changes they are making to how they are working with customers to achieve common goals together that better supports the NHS and its patients.

What project did you submit to become a finalist in the 2019 Customer Experience Awards?

We have become a finalist in a key category this year: Business Change & Transformation.

The project came about following Sanofi’s Primary Care Business Unit (PCBU) needing to respond to an increasingly challenging landscape: customers were experiencing rising demand for medicines and increasing cost pressures, but still needed to deliver better value and improved outcomes for patients.

Sanofi PCBU asked Rubica to help them overcome this challenge by implementing Key Account Excellence (KAE) whilst they also set the business on a transformation journey to become a Key Account Organisation (KAO).

KAE would change and transform Sanofi PCBU’s culture and ways of working at a leadership, manager and individual level to ultimately build stronger, more influential customer relationships, a profitable and sustainable future for Sanofi – fulfilling its mission: “We Help Our Customers Help Their Patients Enjoy a Better Life”

What was your approach?

Our approach was multi-faceted and looked to fulfil 4 key objectives:

1. Define what ’excellent’ KAE was for Sanofi PCBU and uncover existing pockets of excellence to amplify or replicate.
2. Assess the organisation’s strategy, structure, people, processes and measures – identifying what should pragmatically change to make KAE a reality.
3. Understand existing cultural beliefs and behaviours that could support or hinder KAE.
4. Work at a leadership, manager, account team and individual level to understand how to enhance relationships with customers and make KAE a reality.

What were the results?

Significant results were and continue to be experienced across the business, which has subsequently led to a broader roll-out organisation-wide. Results include:

• A £6m increase in the PCBU Business Operating Income in 2018 compared with 2017.
• Over six months, Sanofi has seen volume growths of 23.1%, 25.4% and 18.6% respectively in key geographies for its diabetes drug.
• Primary market research in December 2018 showed that up to 62% of its customers noticed a positive difference in how Sanofi interacted with them compared to 2017. One respondent commented:

It’s brought awareness and has increased uptake. Uptake would have been slower without the rep. Their constant reminder of referral pathways, data, prescribing, patient identification has all contributed to more use of the drug in our hospital.

• Over six months, Sanofi’s medication for high cholesterol experienced volume growth of 47.4% and 130.1% respectively in key geographies.
• The London Business School measured the success of PCBU’s strategy over nine months of activity. Results showed that it was one of the top performing organisations in terms of efficiently executing their strategy when compared to other organisations in the study.

What does Sanofi PCBU say?

As a result of our Key Account Excellence journey with Rubica, our organisation is more focused and has a new confidence and ability to make informed, comfortable decisions around how we approach our accounts and best focus our energy, resources and time to deliver a win: win for us and our customers.

Throughout the journey Rubica have felt like part of our team. They have taken the time to really understand what we were aiming to achieve, and through their knowledge of what good Key Account Excellence looks like, have challenged and worked tirelessly to help get us there.

The whole Rubica team have added a huge amount of value and have been instrumental in accelerating the journey at Sanofi.

– Karen Stoddart, Head of CV Franchise

I’m proud to have seen a cultural shift in the way our field teams have embraced this new way of working. We don’t focus on coverage and frequency any more. Instead, our teams are empowered to focus on their key accounts and get the best results for our key brands. It’s gratifying to see people becoming more confident about sharing best practice and taking responsibility for building their own business plans. This project represents a quantum leap in terms of ownership and empowerment for our account executives.

– Tunde Falode, DCV General Manager, Sanofi