Your Brand’s Missing Piece

Have you ever gotten to the end of putting a puzzle together and you are missing the last few puzzle pieces?  You look everywhere for them; inside the box, under the table, on the floor and when all else fails, you look behind the sofa cushions.  The picture looks great, except for that one gaping hole that your eye can’t take its focus off of.  The picture isn’t terrible, but it certainly is less attractive than what the image on the box promises.  It isn’t complete.

Hospitals and other healthcare organizations spend billions of dollars each year to ensure that the public views their brands in a positive light.  It’s amazing when you stop to think about it.  However, like a puzzle, employees are an essential piece of any healthcare brand.  And if that “people” piece is underperforming, it doesn’t matter how much you spend—there will always be a gaping and highly visible hole in your image.

Workforce culture plays a large role in the brand of any service organization.  By focusing attention on your people piece, you are not only satisfying the needs of your patients, their families and everyone who walks through your doors, but also building your brand equity.  Now is the perfect time to focus on your employees, especially since many companies are asking employees to do more with fewer resources and lower wages.  It’s a fine line between survival and control—a line upon which many hospitals are currently tap dancing.

With all the daily changes taking place in healthcare, we believe you need every advantage you can muster to bring out the best in your culture.  Your patients have expectations.  Your physicians and medical staff have expectations.  Your front line employees have expectations.  Your community has expectations.  By paying attention to encouraging, empowering and focusing your staff and employees, your patients will be rewarded beyond any expectation they have for your services.

You can have all the latest and best equipment in your hospital, but unless your people are at the top of their service game, your public image will inevitably suffer.  Remember, state-of-the-art equipment will one day be outdated and less efficient.  Good customer service never gets old—and it’s one of the most efficient drivers of brand equity.

Next time, we will share with you thoughts and ideas on how to identify a struggling culture and discuss what you can do to improve it.