Attendee feedback is important.

Feedback is Important, but Paper Doesn’t Cut it

As salespeople, we often focus on content, organization, and compliance at Speaker Meetings. Rightly so, these are critical in determining the outcome. However, to ensure excellent performance and good attendance on an ongoing basis, we must capture speaker program feedback as an important element in the holistic promotional exercise.

Historically, capturing feedback and opinion after an event has been via a paper-based tick-box processes. This means, at best, a lot of paper administration and manual processing or, more often than not, nothing is done with it at all. In fact, plenty of times 

Online Surveys – a (Small) Step in the Right Direction

For some time now it has been possible to set up on-line surveys – this has certainly improved the process, but still has various pitfalls. Firstly, the surveys are generally completed sometime after the event has taken place due to lack of technology or time at the venue. This means that an HCP is required to a) receive and open an e-mail and b) have the interest and time to log on to the survey site in order to complete the questionnaire. Secondly, because there is a delay in capturing feedback, respondent will have forgotten key pieces of information which were delivered at the time, which they may have found useful and could provide feedback on. Furthermore, although it is now possible to pick up e-mail on phones and log in to web sites, the sites are generally not designed and developed to adapt to these devices, so the process becomes time consuming and difficult to navigate.

The final thing to bear in mind for this type of survey is that they generally have to be manually set up, therefore although there isn’t the paper administration associated with ‘paper surveys’ there is still a manual time consuming process of building surveys then inputting e-mail addresses and/or mobile phone numbers into fields in order that everyone receives the relevant e-mail link, and the concept of repeating this exercise for large speaker programs with potentially hundreds of delegates attending doesn’t even bear thinking about.

On-Site Cloud-Based Systems are the Answer

To create the most effective environment for collating feedback from these events, an on-site, easy access, easy to use system which facilitates permanent recording of information would be ideal. Cloud based technology platforms can provide exactly this type of service. For example, the Pharmagin speaker meeting platform the capacity to 

Personalized and finger-tip ready surveys means that the time that it takes for an HCP to complete their responses is minimized. Furthermore, because they are effectively ‘real-time’ this enables the respondent to provide feedback whilst it is fresh in their mind. Pressing ‘complete’ has the added advantage that the scores and comments are permanently recorded immediately for the sales rep and sales manager to be able to analyze at the first opportunity after the meeting ends.

Turning Feedback into Action

The ability to store and collate all the data at source means that the meeting manager has the capacity to run and compile reports as soon as all the delegates’ responses have been submitted. The reports may be presented in different views depending on the requirements of the planner, branding team or client and it is possible to personalize each of these. Most importantly, while paper-based survey rarely results in meaningful reports, and web based ‘post event’ capture is only marginally better, these real-time applications can generate higher rates of response leading to more valuable outputs that will help pharma sales team build better campaigns in future.

The Pharmagin cloud-based speaker meeting platform will ensure you capture speaker program feedback from the maximum number of delegates in the most convenient, user-friendly fashion. Using the latest technology to allow attendees to be able to complete feedback forms at the event with pre-populated information which is permanently captured is a real step forward. In addition to this, the reporting function of the software ensures that the feedback is analyzed and presented in a clear meaningful fashion such that the ‘positives’ and ‘could do betters’ are visible to all levels of management allowing the meeting organizers to work to a Gold Standard of meeting development. This facility fully interfaces with all other aspects of Pharmagin’s Speaker Program suite to supply a full-service cutting-edge technology offering.