In college, you learned the basics of marketing – how to
write a press release, how to compose a marketing plan; you may have even
learned a bit about logistics or consumer behavior or … internet marketing… but
when you were thrust into your first marketing job, you learned what they teach
you in school hardly prepares you for the real world.
The Proof is in the
Pudding
Many marketers have the luxury of convincing their audience of a product’s worth. In your case, however, the service is the product, and the service is only as good as the customer experience. Would you choose a hospital that has a reputation of cantankerous, and down-right mean nurses even if they were a little closer to home or had flat screen TVs in every room? No? Of course we are exaggerating the factors but one poor customer service experience can have a severe impact. Due to fluctuating personalities and personal issues, some things are unforeseeable but there are also many ways you can improve the customer service experience – and it all begins with your staff. Teach your staff to meet the consumer’s needs before they have them. By instilling character values and holding your staff to a consistent level of excellence you have laid the foundation for honest and precise marketing.
Walk Softly but Carry
a Big Stick
Consumers don’t sit around waiting for your next direct mailer or radio commercial to come on. In fact, consumers find most of these advertising pieces to be clutter. In our attempt to market everything, the consumer loses sight of the most important aspects of your hospital in all the “noise.” Marketing is too valuable to waste on mediocrity. Using precious marketing dollars on the run-of-the-mill healthcare is unjustifiable and if you attempt to fluff up the ordinary, the consumer catch on and it will leave a bad taste in their mouth.
In 2007, Ten Adams began a new department called Workforce Development. This department fleshes out the issues and problems our clients are having and addresses them in a positive way. The number one thing we have learned since we implemented this department is that it takes a combination of internal marketing, external marketing and implementing policy and procedural changes among staff. And, though academia will teach you that as a marketing practitioner that it takes lots of ads and press releases to be successful, you and I know better. It takes knowing and understanding the human element; it takes investing time in your staff and in your consumer. It takes getting patients in the door with an brilliant marketing message and then providing them with the most compassionate and exceptional care from the time they walk in until the time they go home.
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