Omnichannel should start with evidence-based customer need: What Medical Affairs can do differently

Omnichannel can provide more relevant, connected and scientific engagement. But sometimes, we in Medical Affairs tend to simply add new channels, technology and AI, at the risk of losing sight of the customer at the center of it all.

In this insight, Sarah Waterson, Evidence Strategy & Access Lead at MEDiSTRAVA, explores why evidence-based customer need should be the starting point for omnichannel in Medical Affairs, and what teams can do differently to turn that understanding into meaningful action.

The starting point for omnichannel shouldn’t be What channel should we use? or What content should we create?

It should be: What does the evidence tell us this customer needs?

That was one of the clearest messages from our recent webinar, Rethinking Omnichannel in Medical Affairs, where Matt Wadyka, Chief Client Strategy Officer at Inizio Medical, and Christian Velten, Strategic Lead Digital Customer Experience at Roche discussed what separates omnichannel ambition from multichannel execution.

Their discussion highlighted an important challenge: understanding customer need is only the beginning. Medical Affairs must build that understanding on evidence, translate it into action, and continually test and refine it based on what happens next.

Start with evidence, not assumptions

Medical Affairs has access to more customer data and insight than ever before. But more information doesn’t automatically mean better customer understanding.

During the webinar, Christian shared an example involving a patient population his team assumed would have limited appetite for digital engagement. When they actually spoke to patients, they discovered the opposite. The circumstances of the disease meant these patients were heavily reliant on digital channels – they were effectively waiting, ready for that kind of engagement.

The lesson is simple: an assumed customer need is a hypothesis until the evidence supports it.

That evidence can come from customer research and feedback, field insights, observed behaviors, digital engagement, scientific inquiries and other interaction data. Together, these signals can provide a much stronger picture of what customers need rather than assumptions based on broad segments or historical experience.

Before designing an omnichannel plan, we should be able to answer:

• What does the evidence tell us this audience needs to understand or accomplish?
• Which signals give us confidence that this need exists?
• What barriers are preventing that need from being addressed?
• What evidence would tell us our engagement has helped?

Make evidence-based customer need the starting point for planning. Define the need and the evidence supporting it before deciding on content, channels or tactics.

Turn customer evidence into decisions

Evidence only becomes valuable when it changes what we do.

Matt shared another example from an organization that introduced a digital solution to aggregate customer insights. On paper, it made perfect sense. But the organization hadn’t sufficiently defined which insights mattered or how they should be prioritized.

Another important lesson: the technology collected information, but the interpretation was missing. Valuable insights from the data remained untapped.

The evidence base becomes even more important as AI enters the omnichannel ecosystem.

AI can identify patterns across CRM data, field insights, digital engagement, publications and other sources. But the objective isn’t to analyze everything simply because we can. It is to identify and connect the evidence that helps us make better decisions about what a customer needs next.

For every priority insight, we should ask: What evidence supports it, and what could it change?

A recurring scientific question may point to an unmet knowledge need. Engagement with introductory content might indicate readiness for greater depth. Consistently low engagement with a channel may challenge our assumptions about customer preference.

Each interaction then becomes more than a touchpoint. It becomes another source of evidence that can strengthen, or challenge, our understanding of the customer and their evolving needs.

Establish clear rules for turning insight into action. Prioritize the signals that matter, define what decisions they should inform, and ensure new evidence can change what happens next.

Stop equating more engagement with better engagement

Omnichannel can easily become a volume exercise. More emails. More webinars. More website content. More touchpoints. But put simply, no one needs that.

Customers don’t experience channels as an organizational strategy. They experience individual interactions as competition for their time and attention.

The webinar discussion around medical websites illustrated this well. Having scientifically robust information available online can be valuable. But the existence of a website doesn’t mean a particular customer wants or needs to use it.

As Christian put it: leverage the channel if you know customers are going there – but don’t assume.

Therefore, Medical Affairs needs to ask a different question: What evidence tells us this channel is appropriate for this customer need?

An MSL interaction may enable nuanced scientific discussion. A website may provide convenient, on-demand access to evidence. A congress may create an opportunity to explore emerging data.

The objective isn’t to push every message through every channel. It is to orchestrate interactions based on evidence of what customers need and how they prefer to engage.

And sometimes, the evidence may suggest that the right next action is no action at all.

Give every interaction a clear purpose linked to an identified customer need. Choose the channel because the evidence supports its role – not simply because the channel is available.

Design for the customer journey, not the channel journey

Traditional omnichannel plans can resemble a sequence of touchpoints: email, website, webinar, field interaction, follow-up. Real customers rarely behave so neatly.

They enter with different knowledge, questions and preferences. Customer needs change as new evidence emerges, and they may move between human and digital interactions in ways we didn’t predict.

This is where AI creates a significant opportunity.

As Caroline Lustig (SVP, Client Strategy, MEDiSTRAVA) explored in What does AI mean for omnichannel?, AI can help interpret signals across the ecosystem and inform decisions about content, messenger, channel and timing.

But AI shouldn’t simply automate a predetermined customer journey. It should help Medical Affairs continually update its evidence-based understanding of the customer and adapt accordingly.

Instead of designing one perfect sequence, teams should define which signals matter and how those signals should influence the next interaction:

• What evidence suggests a customer needs greater scientific depth?
• What indicates that another channel would be more useful?
• When does new information challenge what we previously believed about that customer?

That is the shift from delivering a campaign to creating a responsive, evidence-led customer experience.

Design decision points, not just touchpoints. Define the evidence that should trigger a change in content, channel, timing or human interaction so that the customer journey can adapt as needs evolve.

Measure whether you met the need, not just whether they clicked

A more evidence-based approach also changes how we think about measurement.

Opens, clicks, downloads and attendance tell us whether somebody interacted with something. They don’t necessarily tell us whether the interaction addressed the customer need.

• If the objective was to address a scientific knowledge gap, what evidence suggests that gap changed?
• If the aim was deeper scientific exchange, did subsequent interactions demonstrate greater understanding or generate different questions?
• If customers repeatedly ignore a resource, should that evidence cause us to revisit our original assumptions?

Measurement should begin with the same customer need that informed the strategy.

Define what success looks like, identify the evidence that would indicate progress, and use engagement metrics as signals rather than endpoints.

Define success when the customer need is defined – not after the activity has been delivered. Measure whether the need changed, and use that evidence to decide what to continue, stop or adapt.

Perhaps the most practical message from the webinar was don’t wait for the perfect omnichannel system.

Start with a meaningful, evidence-based customer need. Identify the signals that support it. Design the appropriate interaction. Observe the response. Learn from the evidence. Adapt.

Then repeat.

Over time, these cycles build a rich picture of what customers value, which signals matter and which actions genuinely improve scientific engagement.

They also create the foundation for more sophisticated AI-enabled approaches. AI becomes most powerful not when it generates more activity, but when it helps organizations connect evidence, recognize changing needs and make better decisions.

Start with a defined customer need and build a test-and-learn cycle around it. Use what you learn to improve the next interaction before scaling the approach more broadly.

Let the evidence be the compass

Scientific exchange will continue to evolve. New channels will emerge. AI will create new ways to understand behavior, personalize engagement and determine next-best actions.

But the fundamental question for Medical Affairs remains the same:

What does the evidence tell us our customer needs now, and what will help them next?

Organizations that succeed in omnichannel won’t necessarily be those doing the most. They will be those that build the strongest evidence-based understanding of their customers and can translate that understanding into action.

For Medical Affairs, that means a practical shift in how omnichannel is approached: start with evidence, define the customer need, act on the signals that matter, measure whether the need was met, and use what you learn to determine what happens next.

The technology will continue to change. The channels will continue to change. But keeping evidence-based customer needs at the center gives Medical Affairs a clear compass for deciding how, when and where to engage.

Check out the full webinar with Matt and Christian here.