Learning about customer engagement in medical device packaging
Curtis Hogan, regional manager UK & Ireland at Oliver Healthcare Packaging, offers his perspective entering the medical device packaging industry.
In any industry, putting the customer first is the key to success, but this is especially true when it comes to medical packaging. It’s a niche industry that requires significant knowledge and expertise to ensure you understand and are ready to meet the customers’ needs.
Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get your start in the packaging industry?
I was born and raised in the United Kingdom and have been with Oliver Healthcare Packaging for about two years now. My role at Oliver is to work with companies based in the UK and Ireland, in both the medical device and pharmaceutical industries.
Coming out of school, I was looking for a stable industry that was also interesting to me. I started my career in nutrition. From there, I jumped to dental, then pharma. This experience led me to the sterilisation industry. All of these industries are related through their focus on health, medical and wellness. My last role in sterilisation, however, and the work I do today at Oliver, are the most similar since they are both later in the medical supply chain.
What keeps you interested in the healthcare industry?
It gives me great satisfaction to work in a sector that truly helps people. A real need in society is served, from lifesaving products to pain management breakthroughs. Our industry is one with such potential for growth, fast change, and advancement for the future, which excites me. There is always something new coming to the forefront.
How do you feel your past experiences have helped you provide value to your customers?
Everything is highly technical with implications for human health, life, and patient safety. You must be able to provide technical information as you meet commercial responsibilities. That can be hard but is also a nice challenge. My past experiences have helped build an understanding of the constraints customers face when it comes to packaging their device. When it comes to patient safety and packaging, it’s important to be able to look at situations and suggest solutions from a different perspective.
How much do you have to know from a technical standpoint to be credible with who you are selling to?
You need to have a good foundation of product knowledge, but we have a world-class technical team at Oliver, too. I can start a discussion, and then rely on our technical team to help with the specific science and troubleshooting. For example, at Oliver, my sterilisation background gives me a well-rounded perspective, and our technical team can expand on what I know as needed. Working with engineers, operations, or scientists requires the ability to address complex concerns. It is rewarding to be able to offer that. It’s also important to include other departments—it allows your customer to meet additional team members and benefit from the experience of the full team. The collaborative nature of Oliver’s culture is a point of differentiation customers appreciate. At the end of the day, it truly is a team effort.
In your current role with Oliver Healthcare Packaging, what type of trends are you seeing among customers?
It’s hard to talk about trends without mentioning Brexit and COVID, but that has not gone by anyone. The pandemic has caused an uptick in elective surgeries and that is where we’re seeing trends established. The sudden boom in elective surgeries is causing a lack of resources in hospitals, making it difficult to cater to the backlog that has occurred as a result of COVID. This shows the fluid nature and expansion of our industry. We must remain flexible and responsive.