Seth Godin’s new book, Tribes makes a plea for the emergence of new leaders. On the bottom of the jacket of this very quick read, find the following words, “If you think leadership is only for other people, you’re wrong. We need YOU to lead us.”
Seth does a great job talking about followers, leaders, things that work and things that don’t. It could have been written as a manifesto for healthcare change. While people are trying to figure out how to fix things, impassioned doers are actually challenging the accepted. They are demanding more rights, attention and better care.
While large institutions talk, define task forces and ponder quality scores, consumers are discovering new tools of empowerment. They, unlike their parents, have a fundamental distrust for what was always viewed as sacrosanct.
Today’s healthcare leaders need to seek out the new leaders that have a voice and start to actually listen, respond and initiate with those that are driving change. They’re not hard to find on blogs, message boards, portals and lobbies of doctor’s offices and hospitals. Without knowing each other they are creating a movement that will not accept what has long been accepted.
We hear the term “search engine optimization” a lot in our business. More and more of our clients are challenging us to land them atop the Google results pages. And I can’t say I blame them, really. After all, when a lady in Paducah types in “great hospitals,” you want your name to be first.
One of the most effective ways of accomplishing this, of course, is to fill a site with lots of content . Stuff in as many “key words” as humanly possible in hopes that you’ve got more in there than the hospital across town.
What this invariable does, though, is make the site bigger than it has to be. And it makes it more cumbersome to use. Which means that lady who is looking for specific information on your site might need to spend more time finding the relevant information she needs or, even worse, may give up altogether.
When designing sites for healthcare, I think it’s important to remember to keep them as user-friendly as possible. Could you be jeopardizing your ranking on the search engines by doing so? A bit, perhaps. But you have to remember that searching for a hospital isn’t the same as searching for a pair of shoes. Patients are rarely looking for a medical facility blindly. They’re relying on doctor referrals, recommendations from friends and family and even on their own experiences. And in any given community – or even region – folks know who the major players are in healthcare.
Sure SEO is important. But it’s not as important as making your potential patients comfortable and confident when they visit you online. It’s the interactions that truly “make the sale.”
It used to be that patients put themselves at the mercy of their doctors when it came to treatments and referrals. But as we all are beginning to find out, that is no longer the case. This article from cnn.com confirms what a lot of us in the healthcare field are starting to experience -- that patients are taking control of their healthcare decisions and using a variety of tools, especially the web, to find the information they need. As we move forward, web strategies are clearly going to be a dominant part of our marketing plans.
Last week I attended my first SHSMD conference in San Francisco with three other associates from Point to Point. I was impressed by the organization, quality of the people and sessions. I was even more impressed by how people processed bad news.
Each morning we were greeted with headlines of the financial meltdown by newspapers placed by our doors. The story of impeding gloom continued via CNN in the hotel bar, restaurants and walkways. Yet even with the din of disaster the conference remained focused.
It wasn’t until I returned to my office that I realized that those who work in a hospital have to manage the everyday events of birth, death, good news and bad and still provide superior care. Not easy, even on easy day. Not possible, unless there is clear and complete organizational understanding of what the patient experience needs to be.
I have been talking about healthcare for a long time. But I also do a lot of listening and observing both through market research for various clients and in my own network of family and friends. I am constantly amazed by the role communication plays in shaping people's experiences. Many people believe their doctor and medical team are wonderful because they take the time to explain things in terms that are easy to understand. Because they show respect in listening and answering questions without being condescending or put-off. They may not have the training, clinical skills or expertise of other doctors or nurses in their field, but they've created an experience worth sharing with others and worth recommending to others.
And I often see and hear the opposite experiences. Where highly skilled clinicians are insensitive or disrespectful in their communication with patients. Not only do they hurt their relationships with those patients creating an environment of poor trust and insufficient disclosure, they also lose business for their system or practice. From doctors or nurses discounting a patient's or caregiver's Internet research, to being completely insensitive to a patient's pain, fear or other feelings. And these experiences are also shared with others in hopes that none of their family or friends will have to experience these situations.
The stories people share with others help shape any health system's image and reputation. It is important to understand the stories your patients and their families and friends are telling about you. Because these stories likely have more impact on the listeners than advertising has.
I’m excited to announce a new division of Point to Point, smartly named Point to Point Healthcare. We’re excited about the opportunities in healthcare and look forward to making a difference for providers and the companies that sell services and products in this rapidly growing segment.
We believe that by placing the consumer at the center, we will help our clients gain greater brand traction and market share.
Please check out our press release as well as this recent announcement in Crain’s.