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Marketing must continually innovate
if we are to ensure customer success
Hamish White, CMO explains:
At Biocomposites we specialise in innovative calcium technologies that are used in surgical procedures, such as orthopaedics, spine, trauma, foot and ankle.
Our Head Office is based in Keele, Staffordshire, in the United Kingdom, but we also have sales representative offices in the USA, China and India.
We’re a mid-sized company of around 200 people and we pioneer calcium compounds for surgical use. Our two lead products are STIMULAN and genex.
In this market, supporting the surgeon directly is critical. It’s very common for the sales representative to be in the theatre, or the operating room with the surgeon, providing help and advice in how to use our product.
So, what you need is a network of salespeople who are close to their surgeons. We support them with our own sales team, but outside the UK the ultimate sale is achieved through third-party sales representatives who are supporting the surgeon.
This means that we have to ensure that all those salespeople are fully trained and compliant, and sell and support our product in the correct way.
“We’re used in over 120,000 procedures every year now, and supporting that with a sales force is challenging. As you keep growing, you can’t just keep adding people all the time, you need to find ways to scale efficiently, without effecting the performance of the product and how you support it.”
Hamish White, Chief Marketing Officer – Biocomposites
The challenge of scale, compounded by COVID
Now of course, there is also COVID. Hospitals have been stretched and much harder to access, quite understandably, so if our sales representatives can’t be in the room, how do we ensure that we support them.
This isn’t really a sales issue; this is a product support issue. How can we be their helper in the OR if we can’t be there, because they do often have questions.
Can I use it with this antibiotic?…What will the setting time be if I do use that?… etc… Because time is important, you don’t want that wound to be open any longer than it needs to be.
Direct engagement enabled by technology
So, that’s where technology can help. There is a new category of app, called Companion, and it’s there to help the user use the product.
We have taken that onboard and launched Biocomposites’ Companion this year. Its purpose is to make sure that the people preparing our product, which is sometimes a surgeon, but quite often the scrub tech, have the information they need to do it properly.
They can either view it in real-time, offline in the OR, or just five or ten minutes before they go into the procedure, to refresh themselves on what it is they need to do.
The Biocomposites Companion App
bridges the gap
“The impact of COVID-19 on clinical practice has made it difficult for our sales representatives to be present in the operating room, and provide guidance to the surgeon during a procedure.
Hamish White, Chief Marketing Officer – Biocomposites
The Biocomposites Companion app puts product preparation information, setting times and tips directly into the hands of the operating room staff.”
Launched with no code – updated with clicks
We were introduced to Caddify and their no code Companion App platform, and building the app really couldn’t have been simpler.
I sat down with our inhouse designer and mapped out the screens and the workflow we wanted, and we gave those to Caddify and then they basically came back a few weeks later with the app built.
We tested and approved these internally, and then it was a simple case of making these publicly available on the Apple and Android app stores.
Feedback you actually want to read
“The Companion app helps us to provide safe and high-quality patient care. It enables any staff member to find valuable Biocomposites information quickly – pre-op or intra-op – and provide just-in-time teaching, OR efficiency and excellent patient centered outcomes”
Paige Bailey, Operating Room Manager, St. Mary’s Hospital, Camrose, Alberta, Canada
“I think the Companion app is really easy to use and has all the info I need. It is a great help before my surgeries to refresh my memory about the products. What I like most are the preparation videos, antibiotic setting times and the top tips – which are always important.”
Mr Abhijit Bhosale, Consultant Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Surgeon, Barnsley Hospital, Barnsley, UK
Products and Services used
Thinking about your Companion App?
Advice from Hamish White, CMO
My advice, if you’re thinking of having your own companion app, would be to just really think about how it supports the user. There is no point in just giving someone an app because it’s cool, it has to serve a purpose and that purpose has to be real.
In our industry, everyone’s on their phone, it’s not even laptops and iPads, it’s phones in pockets. As long as you’re giving them content that they genuinely want, at the moment they need it, you will be successful.
Next steps
Have questions?
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See what Biocomposites have achieved by installing their Companion App
