I was
reading a weekly column from noted coach and businessman Harvey Mackay.
He contended that trust is the most important word in business. It gets to the point that people buy from people not from companies.
We know we are in a business (and it is a business healthcare) where
people don't want what you offer and it may be years before they need it.
There are
studies upon studies that demonstrate how people choose hospitals for
example. Physician recommendation is first usually followed by
recommendations of friends and relatives. But how do people find a
primary care physician? Usually through word of mouth from people they
trust. So there is that word again.
As health
care entities how do we start to build trust? I would contend first and
foremost that you need to humanize the big institution that you represent.
As a former chief marketing officer for a hospital in NJ, I came into the
position with a challenge. The hospital had been for profit and their
idea of community involvement was none at all. The mentality was that
"we
are paying our taxes so leave us alone." Dilemma was that the competition
was eating our lunch. And now as a not for profit we were tied at
the hip with a sister hospital that faced closing. More than ever we
needed to tell our story.
Did we use
billboards or fancy advertising? No. Simply the strategy was to
involve our senior team, and all levels of the organization, in the
community. Yes simple things like joining the Chamber of Commerce, rotary,
all made a difference. Because now the community saw that there were
real, living, human beings behind the stark cold walls of the hospital.
In the end when we had to make hard decisions on the closing of our
sister hospital, the community understood. They shifted services to the
remaining hospital not the competitors.
So how can
you start to build trust?
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Transparency: do you promote transparency at all levels? This is not just quality and
price transparency but simple things like publishing the emails and phone
numbers of senior staff so people can contact them directly. CEO blogs promote transparency. Take a lesson from Paul Levy, CEO of
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. His hospital has
suffered through some costly medical errors. While these same errors
have happened at countless hospitals, they usually are not revealed until
the lawsuits starts flying. Levy addresses these in his blog,
Running a Hospital, warts and all. In the end this builds trust and
confidence even from the very situations that might otherwise not.
For a great article on CEO transparancy check out
Wired Magazine.
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Data
Collection: I preach a lot about how organizations can leverage word of
mouth for strategic gain and trust building. Data collection can aid
this. Let's not talk CRM but anecdotal and observational
information. What do you really know about the people you care for?
Give you an example. I had an endoscopy recently. And before I went
under I was talking to the staff about what I did and we happened to get
into the fact that
I sang and one of the staff sang as well. So when I received a thank you
note from the team they mentioned that little tidbit. Made me feel
special. Built my trust. And if I go back they will probably have a
record of it and mention it again.
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Monitor: there are people out there talking about you. Just ask the community
hospital in Paris, Texas. They have a not so kind blogger who has a site
called the
http://www.the-paris-site.blogspot.com/. Check it out. How do you
react to the blogosphere and establish relations? Appoint someone
who scans the Internet regularly and responds and participates in the
discussion. Comcast has been famously using Twitter as a device to
respond directly to customer concerns and complaints. Creates trust.
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Create
Community: Harley
has an annual road rally. I have talked to people who have attended. It
is not about Harley as much as it is about bringing people together,
stepping out of the way and letting them talk to each other. In the end
they remember who brought them together. Shouldice Hospital is Canada has
this down to a science. An annual patient reunion dinner attracts 1,000
people. At one hospital we staged a Bicycle Safety Day that brought
numerous constituents together. As CMO I grew tired of it and tried
to ditch it. The community said no way. Community is also
about groups on Linked In and Facebook. Let people meet and move out
of the way. Builds trust.
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Adopt Causes: adopt causes that are strategic to your services. So an orthopedic
service line or a long term care facility might adopt fall prevention as a
cause (not the season!). Sounds counter-intuitive but if you can keep
people healthy and in a quality of life longer inevitably something will
happen to someone and they will need that knee or hip replacement and
rehabilitation. Who will they look to first? The people that tried to
keep them healthy longer. Builds trust.
Trust is key.
As Mackay pointed out, Wayne Huizenga, the only person in
history to have founded three Fortune 500 companies (Blockbuster, Waste
Management and AutoNation), knows plenty about building trust. He says: "I
don't want to be just a voice on the phone. I have to get to know these
guys face-to-face and develop a sincere relationship. That way, if we run
into problems in a deal, it doesn't get adversarial. We trust each other
and have the confidence we can work things out."
So how do
you build trust in your own life and as an organization? Trust is built
and maintained by many small actions over time, the tipping points for
choice.
