The costly disconnect between what we advertise and what we can actually deliver
Healthcare is notorious for its silos—departments that are hyper-focused on their own work but fail to fully understand how their work needs to link to other departments. Marketing and clinical departments are good examples of this.
Marketing has a long, proven history in listening and understanding the voice of the consumer. Healthcare operations departments are headed by both clinicians and non-clinicians who understand and live the patient experience. Both have skills and perspectives that are vital to the organization’s success, especially in competitive markets.
But, as we work with organizations to transform culture and shape the patient experience, I am consistently surprised to find that the left hand often doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
The Disconnect in Action
What I often see are organizations that are putting out beautiful campaigns and compelling taglines that promise the sun and the moon, but the workers—the people who actually have to deliver on those promises—often don’t even know what has been promised and may have difficulty delivering the experiences being marketed.
Too often, marketing campaigns are completely developed and then taken to the clinical departments as an afterthought: “Here’s what we’re promoting.” The clinical teams respond, “Wait, can you really say that? We’re understaffed and barely able to get through our current workload?” This disconnect does little to build unity within the organization.
Yet the campaign runs anyway. Think of how that impacts employee trust and the patient expectations.
The front-line staff is expected to deliver on the marketing strategy and campaign promises. To do that, they need to be aligned and believe in the promises being made. Marketing can’t just decree, “Thou shalt deliver a patient-centered experience,” without ensuring the people on the front lines can actually make it happen.
Assessing Market Readiness
Simply asking the right questions can help. For instance, I’ve used a tool for a marketing readiness assessment with different categories. Services had to pass certain criteria before marketing campaigns could launch:
- Patient Experience Scores: What’s the patient experience right now? If you’re not delivering good experiences currently, you’re not ready for marketing.
- Capacity: What’s your capacity? If you don’t have capacity, why would you spend marketing dollars? You’re essentially inviting people to a party when the house is already full.
Organizations need to pass these basic tests before they start promoting services they can’t properly deliver.
They don’t always know what they don’t know, though. That’s where mystery shopping can come into play.
Mystery Shopping Reveals the Truth
Mystery shopping is valuable because we not only quantify things like appointment availability, but we’re also asking about perceptions of the entire experience. This gives you insight into whether marketing promises align with patient reality. When you know what the experience actually is, you can take action to improve.
Building Bridges
Washington, D.C., isn’t the only place where people need to reach across the aisle. Let’s make sure that marketing and operations understand and respect one another’s roles. When marketing and operations work together from the beginning everyone wins and you’ll be creating brand ambassadors.
Do you need help assessing your organization’s readiness and building conversations between marketing and patient experience departments? Get in touch!
Tags: brand building, branding, Communication, health care culture, health care marketing, healthcare culture, healthcare marketing, interdepartmental communication, marketing communication, Patient Experience
