Liberty and Multimedia for All

Medical supply firm expands online to target new markets

A revamped Web presence will help Liberty Medical Supply Inc. reach $150 million in direct marketing sales in fiscal 2000.

Scheduled to go live this spring, the site (www.libertymedical.com) will be linked directly to Palm City, FL-based Liberty’s 350,000-name customer database, as well as a file of over 50 forms and authorizations required by federal and state regulators, such as faxed prescriptions from doctors.

“It’s a proactively built database that checks documents and authorizations. The database does all the thinking behind the screen,” says George Narr, executive vice president of information systems at Liberty. He notes that the file stores marketing data collected by phone, mail, fax and fax and online. “We were able to get all our computer systems talking to each other,” he says.

In addition to automating online marketing for the company, the site allows Liberty to expand into new markets to target younger age groups. Its core business is selling blood-testing kits and related supplies to diabetics; it plans to diversify into the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease market and other areas.

Targeting the customers of health maintenance organizations is also on the agenda, notes Narr. “We’re not just sticking to Medicare anymore.”

Liberty is one of the nation’s largest medical products suppliers to Medicare beneficiaries. A subsidiary of Woburn, MA-based PolyMedica Corp., Liberty presently accounts for more than 80% of the $110 million in revenues reported in January by PolyMedica for the first nine months of fiscal 2000. During the four years since PolyMedica acquired Liberty, teleservices systems for order processing and other customer services have gradually been automated using interactive voice response (IVR) technology, which allows customers using phone keypads to place orders or request information.

A new 72,000-square-foot customer interaction center in Port St. Lucie, FL, scheduled to open next month, will process inbound and outbound e-mail, phone calls and online messages. It will be linked with Liberty’s database housed in Palm City, as well as with America Online and an Internet service provider that maintains its Web site in Reston, VA. When the redesign of the Web site rolls out, customers will have access to greater levels of information, says Narr. “You’ll be able to look up your own account, click a button for information on customer eligibility and respond to questions. The database will be intelligent enough to tell you what to do to place orders online.”

By incorporating features of its existing IVR teleservices system in the site and routing e-mail to customer service agents in the same queues as phone calls, Liberty expects to increase the productivity of reps by 30%, based on preliminary tests of the new systems.

Automated marketing systems developed in-house with technology and help from Shelton, CT-based Information Management Associates Inc. equip Liberty’s database to control everything from the scripts that pop up on reps’ computer screens to creating computer-generated customized product offers for individual customers. Whether someone is phoning in or clicking a button online, the database automatically uses customer identification numbers and phone numbers to cross-reference and look up records. “We want to steer customers to the most profitable order for us and still be beneficial for the customers,” says Narr.

The database analyzes the customer’s records to automatically generate a “perfect order” and directs the Web site, IVR system or customer service rep to encourage customers to accept that order, typically by asking if the customers want a refill of a previous order. Advertising campaigns will be updated to generate traffic for the site. Liberty currently spends about $12 million annually on advertising to generate about 10,000 new customers per month. The company buys direct response television, print and radio spots.

About 60% of its orders are processed by telephone. Customers can still place orders via mail by returning barcode response cards that are scanned to enter their data. While Narr anticipates Liberty will soon receive 25% of its orders from the Internet, the existing IVR teleservices system and customer service agents will still be available for customers who prefer to do business that way, or who have questions about matters such as Medicare benefits.