We talk often about the importance of organizational values and espoused culture
matching employees’ reality. Saying you’re committed to supporting employees and
providing a healthy work-life balance isn’t the same as actually demonstrating that those
values are real.
The same kind of disconnect can, and often does, occur with patients. Marketing and
communication staff are often eager to promote your healthcare organization’s products
and services. They’re often encouraged to do that by providers anxious to make their
mark—or see their faces on billboards!
How Disconnects Occur
But what you don’t want to happen is for messages to appear that aren’t reflected in
your patients’ actual experiences.
- If you say, and proudly proclaim, that you put your patients first, but that’s not
how they feel when they seek care, that’s a problem. - If you promote services that are in high demand, but aren’t able to offer
appointments in a timely manner, that’s a problem. - If you say it’s easy to connect with you online, but it’s not, that’s a problem.
It’s vital that the marketing team understands what’s happening operationally. A brand
strategy that looks good on paper, but doesn’t reflect reality, is not only irrelevant, it can
actually do damage to your brand reputation. That applies to the public as well as your
own workforce. I’ve seen brilliant marketing plans that had no business being launched
due to limited appointment access. Employees see the ad campaigns and panic when
they are forced to address increased volume with limited access.
You shouldn’t espouse what you can’t consistently deliver!
Making it Real
It’s important to have a process in place to consider whether it’s appropriate to promote
a service line and to ensure that the messaging reflects operational reality.
For instance, we work with organizations to evaluate the patient experience including
before any campaign is launched. If either access or patient experience are issues, you
don’t want to be promoting that service line. From a patient point of view that just makes
sense. It can be harder to explain that reasoning to your internal customers, though, so
ongoing education and awareness is important.
Be clear about the criteria for promoting services and explain why these guidelines are
so important. For instance, we know that about 50% of healthcare choices are driven by
word of mouth. Word of mouth won’t be positive if the service experience is poor, or if
patients can’t be seen in a timely manner.
Your brand isn’t what you say it is—your brand is what your patients actually
experience. When marketing communications efforts are aligned with operational
realities it’s a win-win for patients and your organization.
Keep it real!
Tags: brand alignment, healthcare brand, healthcare leadership, Patient Experience, patient perspective
