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An interface for communication: the SPOC concept at WEFRA LIFE
To reach the target audience at all touchpoints of a healthcare marketing campaign, agencies need to pay attention to good project management. The requirements for solutions are steadily growing more complex, and there are an increasing number of stakeholders involved in client collaboration. It is critical that they are connected well so that there is always an eye on client needs, communication channels are simpler and consistently high work quality is ensured. At WEFRA LIFE, this task is the responsibility of a single point of contact (SPOC), someone who is a designated link in the communication between all the parties involved and the agency’s services. Niklas Kurz and Tobias Wagner, Chief Operating Officer and Key Account Director respectively at WEFRA LIFE, explained the new concept in a masterclass.
Unlike what you might first imagine, ‘SPOC’ does not stand for a main character in Star Trek. Rather, it refers to a key player in the services provided to clients. Spelled out, it means ‘single point of contact’. WEFRA LIFE has been using the SPOC concept successfully for more than a year now. An employee tasked with being the SPOC functions as a central interface and is the main person to talk to for the client as well as the WEFRA LIFE team, regardless of the project. Tobias Wagner, Key Account Director, explains why such a position was rolled out at WEFRA LIFE: ‘There are a variety of reasons behind it. In the past, we kept facing the same problems over and over with pharmaceutical campaigns. For example, there is a demand for more complex solutions. Clients are seeking things like combined solutions in the areas of omnichannel marketing, social media, campaigning, PR and content, HCP and direct-to-patient communication, medical education, programmatic advertising, specialist portals, UX and analytics; and so on. Secondly, the budgets provided are increasingly being centralised, which means that we get one budget for deliverables in a range of different service areas. In keeping with our mission of being the driving force in the healthcare market, it is important to offer our clients a contemporary solution full of advantages, even with more complex requests like these. Designating someone as an SPOC takes care of that optimally, because this person acting as a central interface shortens the communication channels, consolidates the responsibilities and, in doing so, reduces the project management workload.’
‘Using the SPOC model, we can counteract coordination difficulties or missed deadlines effectively and even in advance,’ Niklas Kurz, WEFRA LIFE Chief Operating Officer, adds. The agency has identified three major benefits for itself from the use of the concept. ‘Firstly, there is always a point of contact for all departments and business units, from the briefing to defining the timeline as well as contractual discussions and controlling,’ Kurz explains, ‘Another advantage is that the SPOC acts as a quality gate. This person performs the final quality management before the results are presented to the client. As a result, we always keep control over our own performance standards. A third advantage is the interdisciplinary access that the SPOC has to all skill sets, which also ensures that tasks are allocated flexibly to the relevant experts, from media planning to social media.’
Sparring partner and peer
This comes with massive benefits for clients, too: ‘Above all else, establishing an SPOC provides a contact person and sparring partner who, at the same time, is also a peer. He or she keeps track of the client’s needs and, in doing so, understands how to challenge questions and issues – and not only for projects in German-speaking markets, but also internationally,’ Tobias Wagner says emphatically, ‘On top of that, the SPOC also embodies client centricity. He or she puts on the “client goggles” time and time again to shine a light on quality and results from the client’s perspective in collaboration with the team. He or she is an adviser for complex requests, knows about products, indications and marketing trends; and has a base knowledge of all areas of marketing.’
With a portfolio of requirements like this, the SPOC obviously needs to boast some experience in the healthcare marketing business to be qualified for the position. Deep project management know-how is necessary, too, especially when it comes to the processes and structures at WEFRA LIFE. Tobias Wagner, who has himself previously been engaged as an SPOC for projects, explains the soft skills that are also called for: ‘Conceptual thinking, a comprehensive approach as well as reliability, assertiveness and affability are absolute, must-have characteristics. This is because comprehensive advice and service can only be ensured when the SPOC has the ability to choreograph an interplay of agency services and paint one big picture.’
From theory to practice
The Key Account Director also describes what the role of an SPOC often looks like in practice: ‘It is very important to us that our clients always get to know their designated central contact as early as possible. If there is a pitch, that means bringing the SPOC into the pitch process, like during the initial conversation with our new business colleague Nenad Obradović, for example.’ As for existing clients, Wagner also says it is possible that their requirements may change and that projects not previously overseen by an SPOC become more complex and be allocated one for this reason.
Assessing the use of SPOCs so far, Niklas Kurz and Tobias Wagner see positive results: ‘My impression is that the SPOC model is appreciated by clients and our business units, too,’ Tobias Wagner reports, ‘Everyone sees the major benefit: it makes our day-to-day business more efficient!’
Can you picture having your project overseen by a single point of contact? Tobias Wagner is your person to turn to for questions and quotations (tobias.wagner@wefra.life). Or, would you like to have another watch of the live concept masterclass? Ask for your exclusive access here: masterclass@wefra.life