Executive Summary
Can competitive benchmarking improve business performance?
Our analysis suggests it can.
Using Navigator365™ Benchmark data from 301 healthcare professionals across seven markets, combined with real-world client performance data, we identified a clear relationship between:
- Competitive benchmarking
- Omnichannel engagement excellence
- Customer experience performance
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Market share growth
The findings indicate that pharmaceutical brands that outperform competitors on omnichannel engagement tend to deliver better customer experiences. Better customer experiences are associated with higher customer loyalty, while higher customer loyalty correlates with stronger market share evolution.
In short:
Competitive benchmarking helps identify engagement gaps. Improving those gaps improves customer experience. Better customer experience increases customer loyalty. Higher loyalty is associated with stronger business outcomes.
The analysis provides evidence that customer experience should be viewed as a strategic growth driver rather than a standalone engagement metric.
What is competitive benchmarking?
Competitive benchmarking is the systematic comparison of your brand’s customer experience, engagement capabilities and commercial performance against competitors.
For pharmaceutical companies, benchmarking provides answers to critical questions:
- How does our customer experience compare to competitors?
- Which omnichannel capabilities have the greatest impact?
- Where are we losing ground versus peer brands?
- What improvements are most likely to drive business results?
Without competitive benchmarking, teams often measure performance in isolation. Benchmarking transforms internal metrics into meaningful market context.
How competitive benchmarking drives business growth
Our research revealed a consistent progression across brands and markets.
Step 1: Benchmarking creates actionable insights
Benchmarking identifies strengths, weaknesses and competitive gaps across customer engagement activities.
These insights enable organisations to prioritise investments in areas with the highest improvement potential.
Step 2: Better omnichannel engagement improves customer experience
Brands that deliver a consistent experience across channels achieve significantly stronger customer experience outcomes.
Chart 1: Omnichannel engagement and customer experience
🔶 BENCHMARK INSIGHT
Omnichannel excellence is the strongest predictor of customer experience performance.
Brands that deliver consistent, coordinated engagement across channels achieve substantially better customer experience outcomes. The exceptionally strong correlation (0.94) suggests that healthcare professionals increasingly evaluate brands based on the overall quality of their journey rather than on individual touchpoints.
What this means: Before investing in additional channels, ensure existing channels work together as one connected experience.
Step 3: Better customer experience increases customer loyalty
Customer experience is not simply a satisfaction metric.
It directly influences how likely healthcare professionals are to recommend and advocate for a brand.
To test this relationship, we analysed customer experience performance against Net Promoter Score (NPS).
Chart 2: Customer experience performance and NPS
🔶 BENCHMARK INSIGHT
Customer experience is one of the strongest drivers of customer loyalty.
The data show a strong relationship between customer experience performance and Net Promoter Score (0.78). Brands that consistently create relevant, valuable and frictionless interactions are more likely to generate advocacy among healthcare professionals.
What this means: Organisations aiming to improve NPS should focus less on the score itself and more on systematically improving the customer experience behind it.
Step 4: Higher customer loyalty is associated with market share growth
The ultimate business question is whether customer loyalty influences commercial results.
To explore this, we combined benchmark NPS data with twelve-month market share evolution data for three specialty brands across seven countries.
Chart 3: NPS and market share growth
🔶 BENCHMARK INSIGHT
Customer loyalty appears closely linked to business performance.
Across the analysed brands and markets, higher NPS scores are associated with stronger market share evolution. While commercial success is influenced by multiple factors, customer loyalty may serve as an important leading indicator of future growth.
What this means: Treat NPS as a strategic business metric rather than a customer satisfaction metric alone.
From competitive benchmarking to business growth
The findings reveal a clear evidence-based framework.
Competitive benchmarking → Growth framework
- Competitive benchmarking uncovers performance gaps.
- Performance gaps guide omnichannel improvements.
- Better omnichannel engagement improves customer experience.
- Better customer experience improves NPS.
- Higher NPS is associated with stronger market share growth.
- Stronger market performance creates sustainable competitive advantage.
🔶 STRATEGIC CONCLUSION
Competitive benchmarking delivers value because it identifies the improvements most likely to influence customer and business outcomes.
The combined analysis reveals a consistent progression:
Benchmarking → Omnichannel Excellence → Better Customer Experience → Higher NPS → Market Share Growth
Rather than relying on assumptions, organisations can use benchmark evidence to prioritise the initiatives that matter most.
Organisations using Navigator365 Benchmark 4D can systematically identify which engagement capabilities have the greatest impact on customer experience, loyalty and commercial performance.
Why this matters for commercial and customer engagement leaders
Many organisations already track:
- Digital engagement metrics
- Campaign performance
- Channel effectiveness
- Satisfaction scores
- NPS
However, these metrics often exist in separate dashboards and reporting systems.
Competitive benchmarking provides the missing link by connecting customer engagement performance with customer loyalty and business outcomes.
This enables commercial, marketing and customer engagement leaders to move from measuring activity to understanding impact.
Discover Navigator365 Benchmark 4D
Most benchmarking studies tell you where you stand.
Navigator365 Benchmark 4D helps you understand why you stand there and what to do next.
The framework connects:
- Omnichannel execution
- Customer experience performance
- Brand perception
- Adoption dynamics
across the competitors that matter most.
This enables pharmaceutical organisations to identify the specific actions most likely to improve customer engagement, customer loyalty and business outcomes.Discover how your brand compares to competitors and identify the opportunities with the greatest potential impact on customer experience and growth. Learn more about Navigator365 Benchmark 4D or schedule a conversation with one of our experts.