2025 Review: Customer Service As Important As Capacity And Capability

By Louis Garguilo, Chief Editor, Outsourced Pharma

At times the predominant concern of biotechs regarding outsourcing development and manufacturing is capacity at CDMOs.

That gets shunted aside when the market adjusts, and the emphasis turns to CDMO capabilities that best match emerging science and technologies.

But throughout 2025, it’s a third “c” – customer service (or more accurately the lack of it) – that's been a focal point.

Biotechs particularly have expressed exasperation over amateurish relationship management at CDMOs.

So what do we mean when we specifically point to customer service?

Defining A Customer-Centric CDMO

In practice, customer service is the sum of all interactions that make a sponsor feel fully supported throughout the lifecycle of their outsourced program.

But it’s more than a function of support, and it is certainly more than what a CDMO delivers.

It’s how it’s delivered – the received experience within the contracted activity.

On a project level, stellar customer service maintains responsiveness, transparency, and accountability in each project communication and decision.

Skillset-wise, customer service at a CDMO is the human interface to scientific expertise.

This means the ability of scientists/technicians/analysts/engineers, project managers and at times even executives to translate complex technical work into understandable, actionable communication for the sponsor.

In an oft-parsed phrase, it’s what turns a vendor relationship into a scientific and business partnership.

At its apex, then, customer service at a CDMO entails an alignment of sponsor-provider business goals – CDMOs, to the extent possible, treating a biotech’s success as integral to its own. It’s also an attitude manifest in proactive identifying of risks and sponsor needs.

It’s, well, sort of like supermarket shopping.

CDMO As Grocery Store

At first blush, this analogy may seem too far afield: the customer experience at your choice of grocery store (or wherever you do your food shopping) compared to your CDMO experiences.

But consider: grocery and CDMO “shoppers” have options in selecting the business they will frequent. For the discerning customer, pricing/value, quality, and other factors matter, but what often turns out to be a differentiator is the customer experience.

Consider:

• A shopper arrives at their grocery store to a parking lot that hasn’t been paved for years and is full of potholes.
• The grocery carts are rusted; wheels that don’t roll correctly.
• The shopper is eyed suspiciously by a “greeter” who gives the impression of a warden.
• Employees have placed boxes in the aisles and in front of merchandise on the shelves,  attempting to stock those shelves while customers are trying to shop.
• Numerous items on the customer’s shopping list – and/or that were advertised as available – are out of stock.
• Prices on items are missing, or mislabeled, or deceptive.
• At the register, lines are long and cashiers unfriendly; the self-checkout software/hardware would try a priest’s patience.

Readers can map out their own point-by-point comparisons with experiences at some CDMOs.

For example, your CDMO point of arrival is not the “parking lot,” of course, but might be the initial inquiries placed with business development personnel.

Do you get a welcome to your initial forays? Or are there bumps in the road to detailed replies to  those initial queries or more formal RFPs? No “potholes” or “rusty carts” per se, but all told we are subjected to a bumpy apparatus underserving the shopping customer.

When they arrive, are responses consistent between “as advertised” and what can actually can be delivered?

“Blocked aisles” work out as the inability to schedule site visits and inspect the merchandise, so to speak, or talk with SMEs or project managers.

In such organization (stores and CDMOs), the feeling is the businesses is not there to serve the customer, but the customer is there to serve the businsess.  

Contract Despite It All

Competition is a salve to such service deficiencies. There are more CDMOs than ever before, and more good ones that by comparison make those we are discussing above seem all the more undesirable.

However, full optionality, shall we say, is not always available.

For example, M&A (in both grocery stores and the CDMO industry) take potential alternatives off your board, or at least change the desirability equation; location can be delimiting; geopolitical considerations might interfere with choice.

Thus, at times you decide to buy at the less-than-satisfying CDMO. How then can you proceed to make things work out for the better?

Without overstating the opportunity, a proactive sponsor can help shape the relationship toward mutual success.

Set expectations early, both orally and in writing of any documentation or contracting.

Insist on a single point of contact empowered to act, not just to pass (or bury) client messages.

Request regular, structured updates. Push these to go beyond slide decks; instead, include genuine two-way discussion. Recognize and reinforce positive responsiveness when it occurs—recognition of good service can beget better service.

On the other hand, biotechs should be candid (direct, persistent) when service lapses occur. Make it clear you do not accept what is happening. Raise concerns quickly, document them, and ask for resolution plans. Many CDMOs are stretched thin; sometimes, calling attention to lapses resets priorities in your favor.

But if a pattern of poor customer service doesn’t change—if every project feels like pushing a broken shopping cart through blocked aisles—it’s time to consider other stores.

Today, there are CDMOs large and small proving scientific excellence and great customer service can coexist. They answer communications, and take ownership of challenges.

“Customer service” isn’t a conversation topic only; superficial and sentimental.

It affects productivity, trust, speed to clinic or market. A biotech that feels respected, informed and supported can make faster, better decisions.

In our business today, sponsors say the experience is as valuable as any capacity or capability requirement needed of a CDMO.

For CDMOs, they should recognize that at the end of the day, we all remember how the store made us feel—and that determines where we shop next time.