Survey: Reps prefer email to texting, but face-to-face contact still strong
It’s a sign of the times. Email is the most often-used form of rep/customer communication today, though face-to-face contact remains a strong second. Phone calls are third, and text messaging has yet to catch on, at least in the professional setting.
These are results from reps who responded to Repertoire’s sales survey in December. More than half identified the physician office as their primary call point, while 37 percent said it was the acute-care hospital and 11 percent said post-acute care.
When asked, “How many days a week are you in front of providers?” 27 percent responded five days, 22 percent said four days, 20 percent said three days, 9 percent said two days, and 22 percent said fewer than two days.
Despite Amazon being on the lips of many in the industry today, 65 percent of respondents said that the company has had no effect on their sales. Twenty-five percent said Amazon is adversely affecting their sales and dollar volume, while 9 percent said Amazon is adversely affecting sales volume, but not dollar volume.
Federal legislation – specifically PAMA and MACRA – hasn’t had much of an impact on sales either, according to the respondents.
PAMA – the Protecting Access to Medicare Act – is the federal government’s attempt to bring Medicare reimbursement closer to that of private payers. (In a word, that means “down.”) Nevertheless, 82 percent of the respondents said PAMA has had no effect on their sales.
Meanwhile, 80 percent said that MACRA – the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 – hasn’t affected sales at all. MACRA replaced the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) methodology for updates to the Physician Fee Schedule with a new approach called the Quality Payment Program.
Finally, when asked to grade the quality of distributor/manufacturer relationships today, 13 percent said “A,” 40 percent a “B,” 36 percent a “C,” and 10 percent a “D” or “F.”