On hospital “patient experience” and my beloved-pain-in-the-behind of a Father

DSCN0743I’ll tell you right now, this post has little to do with anything remotely marketing, strategy or social media related. It is tangentially related to customer experience in a healthcare setting, but that is not why I am writing it.

It has to do with being human. And with gratitude. Which, I would argue, are slightly more important matters.

My 85-year old father had surgery yesterday. He’s been my best friend since I was a little girl. He let me dance on his feet. He blows bubbles like a little kid on the beach, and swims even when it’s so cold that no one else will. He payed my way through college. He supported me when I dropped out of college and moved to California briefly. And when I came back. And every day since. He worked at a concert venue until he was over 80, and digs the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And, as if that’s not enough, he was a navigator on bombing missions over Germany in WWII.

As a hospital patient, he is a total pain in the behind.

He doesn’t follow important medical instructions. He won’t accept help getting around, even when he needs it. He threatens to take out his own IV. He jumps to every possible worst-case scenario about his health, when none of them appear to be true. He complains about the bad communication, when really, he just can’t hear because he is too stubborn to get digital hearing aids. He rants incessantly about the cost of healthcare to the people who are just in the trenches, busting their butts to try to help people.

The nurses, however, are saints.

They understand, with coaching from Scott-the-very-kind-hospital-chaplain, that my very beloved pain-in-the-ass of a father is reacting to the total loss of control that he is experiencing. They remain firm and calm, even when I am yelling at him to stop being mean and leave his IV alone. (I am not mean, but sometimes yelling is all he responds to. It gets his attention, at least.)

In a setting where I have long questioned why the patient experience is so lacking, I now realize: the nurses ARE the “patience”, the glue, that hold all of it, and all of us, together when times are tough. They are so kind, so caring, that everything else about the patient experience that often fails us really must be kept in perspective.

The pre-registration mix up that’s too convoluted to attempt to explain here. The near miss on giving Dad antibiotics to which he is allergic. The doctor who “didn’t know” that I was anxiously waiting for news long after the surgery had ended, and who never came out to give me so much as the time of day. The broken telephone in my Dad’s room, so when family was trying to call him after surgery, he wasn’t getting any calls. The conflicting information received from doctor and nurse about what was happening the day after the surgery.

None of it matters all that much, compared to the quiet acts of heroism that are happening the whole time.

I work for an advertising agency, integrated marketing firm, brand strategist blah blah blah. And sometimes I am under the illusion that it is difficult. It is not difficult.

It is a walk in the park compared to what Nurse Debbie and Nurse Lori at Elmbrook Memorial Hospital did today.

Thank you, to all the nurses.

Enough with the pointless Twitter promotions: Get a strategy

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Sure, the #moonfruit promotion, in which anyone who tweeted #moonfruit got entered to win a Mac a day for 10 days, got plenty of play. And according to Marketing Vox, they claim their sales spiked. That’s fantastic, and I’m sure because of that, a lot of people will disagree with me. But, how many of the people who tweeted #moonfruit even know what it is? Much less anything specific about why it’s good, better, different? How much more might their sales have gone up in the short term or the long term if their promotion or content was actually…gasp…RELEVANT? What would the reported ROI look like if something had been shared regarding what the brand stands for, or at least what the product IS and some interesting feature of it? Something that I, the would-be consumer, would actually care to hear about?

Same goes for this new @MarriottHawaii “Tweet Yourself To Hawaii” promotion. You can enter to win a trip to Hawaii, or, if you send in a video, you might win a Hawaii tweetup for you and 11 friends. Yeah, yeah, I know we’re talking about it, so in their mind, or their agency’s mind, it’s probably a raging success right now. And general response to it from the Twitter community seems to be mostly positive. But in my opinion as a strategist, it’s a big “SO WHAT?” What do we know or feel about this brand that we didn’t know a few days ago? Absolutely nothing. Just that it exists.

Is it enough that people talk about you if all they are saying is that you EXIST? Really? Is “we exist…pass it on” a strategy? Mmm…NO. OK, it IS, but most of the time, I say we can do more. Isn’t there an intersection between branding and social media communication in which you can tell a story about your brand and still promote it – move the needle – at the same time? I believe there is.

Now, I’ve only been on Twitter for about nine months. But in that amount of time (during which I have been spending waaaay too much time on Twitter, mind you) I have encountered so little strategically relevant content that I am frankly a bit stunned. It seems awfully hard to brands to figure out what to do with this tool. The most notable exception is the Ford Fiesta Movement. I’m not saying that every strategic execution needs to be that elaborate, either. Just tell me something, anything, about what the heck you want me to take away about you.

Tom Martin proved in his experiment “How One Man, an iPhone and Twitter Changed Consumer Perception of Mardi Gras.” that twitter can be used to effectively reposition a brand. So I asked him to weigh in on this discussion. Tom, am I just a brand strategy geek that doesn’t get this, or what? Do you think this type of “tweet-to-win” promotion is a strategic, effective use of this tool? (I will post a link to Tom’s post here when he responds.)

How about the rest of you? What do you think? Is “we exist…pass it on” enough? Or is it time for brands do better? If you have seen other strategic exceptions, please share them; I actually hope to be proven wrong on this one. Maybe I am just missing all the good stuff.

Peace pause: enjoy your successes

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I was recently in a twitter conversation with a prominent marketing and social media character (resisting use of “guru” or “expert” here) that we all admire very much, and who has recently achieved something really special of which anyone would be enormously proud. Yet, he confided that he is in fact not enjoying his success. Because he’s already looking for “the next big thing”. This has been on my mind a lot, because if he, of all people, can’t pause and go “Damn. I did good.” then who among us can? When is it enough? How high is up?

Most of us here, myself included, can absolutely relate to that type of drive and ambition. There’s some sort of rush that comes from accomplishment that is hard to match. It’s like the crash that happens after a big, exciting new business pitch. “Now what?” “What’s next?” “I need to perform at that level again.”

But. Here’s the thing, people. Life happens in moments.

Your life, like it or not, is happening NOW. And NOW. And NOW.

Tomorrow may come, and it may not. Sorry to be a downer, but face it, it’s true.

So, I ask you to ask yourself, if you are not enjoying it NOW, what’s the point? If not now, when?

Today – stop for a minute. Just a minute. Or five. Or ten. And really, REALLY take in all that you have done. Meditate on it, even if you’re not a “meditation kind of person”. Absorb it like a sponge. Let it flow through you. And just for a moment – let yourself be ENOUGH.

I hope you don’t mind me going all Zen on you today. I write what I feel. Now get back to work and go like hell :-)

Photo credit: Brett Rogers http://www.beatcanvas.com

How letting go can improve corporate culture

Bit2One of the themes in Mack Collier’s excellent Social South presentation, What Rockstars Can Teach You About Kicking Ass With Social Media, is finding ways to shift control to your fans. Mack gives great examples of this, like the Beastie Boys handing out video cameras at their concerts and letting their fans shoot concert videos. Contrast this to the “typical” approach of forbidding photography at concerts. Which is likely to inspire more passion?

Now, take that idea and translate it to WITHIN your organization. How can you better use your INTERNAL fans? I would wager some big bucks, that in most cases, there are people that work for you that are chomping at the bit to be empowered to make things better. What if instead of pulling back so hard on the reins, you simply engaged them in conversations about the direction of the company? What would happen? Here’s what would happen:

You would be more in touch with what’s really going on in your organization.

You would have more, better ideas.

You would have more loyal, passionate employees willing to go to any length to help you succeed.

You would have a stronger, more positive, energized culture.

Your customers would then feel your stronger, more positive, energized culture. They, too, would become more passionate, loyal, fans of yours, and more likely to spread the word. See? Could just turn a negative cycle into a positive one.

So ease up on the reigns, there, Hoss. Stop clinging so tightly to the illusion that you can control everything that you shut out your biggest fans, whether it’s internally, or externally. LEAD. Do so strongly. But collaboratively.

Five favorite things about social marketing from Social South

Social South GroupI am an in-#soso-mniac. Meaning I have just been too amped up by the great sharing that happened at Social South to sleep much the last few nights. So I’m sharing these things with you so you, too, can be an insomniac (but hopefully an inspired one). I should note that there were three or so sessions happening at any one time, so these are just nuggets from the ones I chose to attend. There were many more great sessions even than these, and content will be shared at www.socialsouth.org. Also I’m not sure what the final count was at the conference, but should note that this photo was taken at the very end of the conference, and there were 2-3 times this many people participating. Thanks to @jbagby25 for sharing the photo.

The first thing that has to be understood about this conference is the powerful and moving videoconference keynote from Esra’a al Shafei of www.mideastyouth.com (@mideast youth). Is your social strategy “Expose Injustice”? No. But theirs is. They have successfully changed discriminatory government policies, largely through use of social media channels. Check out their incredible videos here. I also recommend Jason Falls’ great post about this session.

Beth Harte, from MarketingProfs and The Harte of Marketing blog (see blogroll) brought a healthy dose of how to write and measure a strategic plan to the conference which I must say was quite refreshing. I find Beth to be quite the kindred spirit for anyone who wants to approach social marketing and media from a more strategic direction. You can check out Beth’s slides here. And follow her on Twitter, @BethHarte.

Mack Collier, from the Viral Garden blog (see blogroll) gave a well-crafted presentation on What Rockstars Can Teach You About Kicking Ass At Social Media. Not only does it contain strategies for fueling fans, but it is also a great example of how to tell a cohesive presentation story with powerful ideas, simple slides and great examples. I strongly recommend you check out the slides here and find a way to see Mack deliver it sometime.

@richardatdell and @lionelatdell, first of all, are two of the nicest guys you will ever meet in your life. Four lessons from their experience that I noted were: 1) Listen and learn. 2) Join other conversations and participate. 3) It’s a big world out there; go where the conversations are happening. and 4) Online and offline interact together (this last one was an important recurring theme that will warrant a post). For me, it was validating somehow to know that even Dell started with the basic blocking and tackling. This quote from Lionel: “Plan. But go where the conversation takes you.” and this one from Richard: “Strategy is one thing, but there is no substitute for action.” say so much in so few words.

Tom Martin presented How One Man, an iPhone, and Twitter Changed Consumer Perception of MardiGras. Tom is a true innovator and his case study, which he also wrote up in an Ad Age article, is one of the first to actually quantify the power of Twitter to change how a brand is perceived. In the name of full disclosure I suppose I should mention that Tom has been a friend for the past, oh, 18 years or so. And I didn’t see his entire session because there was a higher ed session that I needed to attend at the same time. That said, this is an awesome example of someone actually measuring what they accomplished in social media and how, specifically, it impacted a brand. If you find more of those, please share them, because I am not seeing them.

I feel so fortunate to have been a part of Social South, an inspiring, exciting community of crazy-nice, brilliant people. Any questions, or thoughts you’d like to add? If you engage with any of this stuff, I’d appreciate your feedback in the comments.

Your customers expect the “make it happen” button


Marketers, hospitality brands, everyone: consider this a friendly reminder that creating a positively talkable customer experience should still be strategy numero uno in your playbook. Why? Because customers now  expect the “Make It Happen” button.

Put yourself in the shoes of your customer. (OK, it’s me. Today. But pretend that it is you. Seriously. Do it. Please.) Imagine this experience. It might help you deeply understand that what your customers go through — and what they expect from you — is much bigger than you think.

You’re leaving on a business trip. When you are dropped at the airport, your four-year-old is crying and screaming “Mommy Mommy Mommy” in the car, so your nerves are raw and you haven’t even entered the airport yet. First leg of the trip goes fine, you’re starting to relax. Your connecting flight leaves on time, you’re thinking “no sweat. I’m good.” Until you are told that there are 32 (yes, 32) planes ahead of you on the runway. You regroup, read your book, make pleasant conversation with your seat mate with some serious halitosis. Fine. Until you fly into a thunderstorm, think you’re falling out of the sky, and circle the airport for a while before you are allowed to land. All this before you even get to your hotel.

(Hotel marketers — Hampton Inn & Suites, specifically: are you paying attention now? You should be.) You – the customer – are incredibly relieved to get to your hotel. Until you realize that the gate agent at the airport kept your American Express card.  You regroup again and head to your room. Nice amenities, you’re thinking ahhhhh at last. I can order some room service and chill out. The menu looks great. So you push the room service button and…no one answers. You see that there is a “Make It Happen” button. “Let us spoil you. Direct any request to our make it happen line.” SWEET, you’re thinking. Surely someone at the make it happen button will bring me some food. Except, um, no one answers the “make it happen” button either. (Seriously. I am not making this up.)

So, you call the front desk and are informed that, oops, the restaurant is closed for renovations – we “forgot” to mention that when you made your reservation. But hey, we can shuttle you to another part of town, you can order a pizza, or you can walk five blocks to a diner after traveling for nine hours. We can “make that happen” for you!

Guess what your customer says? Can you guess? “Make this happen: I am checking out. Now. Buh-bye. And when I get to my new hotel, I am going to write a blog post about your God-awful service, that I hope through some small miracle many people see. Let’s make that happen.”

Then, you get to your new hotel, and, um, find your American Express card, which you’ve already cancelled, and they won’t reinstate, and won’t send you a new one for four days (remember those commercials they used to run with the couple traveling and AmEx is there to save their butts? Yeah, so do I). So they pass you around from person to person, put you on hold a few times until you are standing at the hotel desk in tears, and eventually tell your hotel “She’s good. She can stay.” You breathe a sigh of relief. And go to your room and immediately tell the world about that, too.

The moral of this story? Like it or not, those marketers that haven’t figured this out yet need to deal with the fact that customers have come to expect the “Make It Happen” button. We’re less tolerant of mediocrity – or worse – than we used to be. Because we have channels for sharing and amplifying our discontent. And because we have every right to expect more.

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