The following is a guest article by Burt Rosen, Principal, UpDawg Marketing.
I’m sure you are just like me. You walk into a beautiful resort hotel lobby, you feel the warm breeze off of the ocean, maybe hear some tropical birds, smell the scent of fresh flowers, are handed a tropical drink and you think to yourself “thank god healthcare is just like this”.
No? That hasn’t happened to you? Really? Well, it should! (maybe not the tropical drink part, or at least a non-alcoholic one if it does happen!).
Healthcare has a lot to learn from experience-based industries such as hospitality. After all, someone who is in your facility, on your website, in your app, engaged with your call center, talking to your inside sales rep is someone to whom you can provide a great experience. Someone who can feel your brand, understand why you are different, appreciate you, buy a lot of products and services from you, and spread the word all about you and the experiences you create.
So, how do we get there? I worked in the hospitality business for 4 years (at Starwood Hotels – Sheraton, Westin, W, St Regis, etc) and learned some principles that I still use every day in my Marketing roles, on the B2B AND B2C sides. There are 4 basic principles and I want to walk you through what they mean and give some context in a healthcare marketing setting.
- It’s all about the first 15
- Everything communicates
- Different, better, special
- Loyalty/Surprise and Delight
# 1 – It’s all about the first 15
In my first paragraph, I tried to paint a mental picture of how it feels when you check in to a tropical resort. Do you think any of that experience is coincidental? Well, it’s not. By really studying people (not in a usability lab but in the real world (ethnography), how they interact, act, what prompts their senses, we focused on unique smells, sights, sounds, and experiences for people checking into our hotels. We learned early that the first fifteen minutes of someone’s stay dictates their satisfaction with the entire stay. That’s why the check-in experience is so well crafted and finally tuned. We put the same kind of thought into the websites into how we trained our call center agents. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, as the saying goes.
In healthcare, we don’t have lobbies, breezes, music, animals to help us create experiences and those first impressions. But, we do have people (call centers, inside sales) who can begin setting up a great experience as they are the first people that a customer or a customer’s customer usually chat with. How much time are you spending training your call centers, your inside sales team (or whoever qualifies your leads), or even your sales team on your brand and the experience you want to create? It’s time very well spent to make sure they are all aligned and working towards the same amazing experiences for your customers.
Which segues perfectly into our next principle.
# 2 – Everything communicates
Literally (no really), EVERYTHING you do communicates. Is your brand about an amazing experience? Do your invoices support that? Do your internal departments treat each other with amazing experiences? Do the most stressed-out customer-facing teams react that way? Does your financial reporting reinforce that? You’re recruiting? If you are brick and mortar, is your garage clean? Etc.
This was a HUGE focus for us at Starwood. Our job descriptions were written in the brand language, our call centers provided the same experience as our websites, and our front desk agents were trained in the brand and communicated using the correct words. In fact, in the hotel business, hotels can get “de-flagged” (de-branded) if they aren’t “on-brand” and communicating that way.
In healthcare, I go back to all your customer-facing departments and efforts (sales, implementation, account management, billing, customer service, help desk, etc). Is your website aligned with your billing? Do they look the same, have the same tone, same customer service options, etc? Are your press releases in line with how you speak on social channels or are they written in corporate-speak?
And most importantly, is it all based on what customers need and want, as opposed to only what you are selling? (Outside in vs inside out approach). Avoid the PRODUCT BARF approach of yelling product features at people. Instead make sure you are communicating to them about their needs and how you are helping them solve their problems, and do it across every touchpoint. NOTHING is too small, Everything communicates!
# 3 – Different, Better, Special
How unique is your marketing? In healthcare especially, I’ve seen so much blue, gray and white. Why? Why aren’t people standing out, taking some risks, and breaking the mold?
At Starwood, we used a very simple test to determine if something was Different, Better, and Special (DBS). We would look at the work, cover the logo on the page, and ask who else could be bringing you the same work. If the answer was anyone else, it wasn’t good enough.
We put a ton of effort into distinguishing the brands from one another. Every hotel brand had 3 unique words that defined it. For Sheraton, it was warm, comforting, connection. No other hotel brand at Starwood could use those words. It ensured a real delineation between the brands and made sure that DBS would always be a thing, and nothing generic would be produced.
One of the best manifestations of the work my team did was the websites. LeMeridien.com was targeting the creative class. We had the first-ever visual search where people could build a “mood board” and the site would recommend hotels based on it. For sheraton.com (remember warm, comforting, connection) we built, in 2006, the first-ever major brand site based on user-generated content and uploaded guest stories of their travels around the world (not their hotel stays, their travel experiences). W was the hip brand, the site offered guides to hip events happening around town. We took a lot of risks with DBS but it was a framework that really helped us to stand out. We got great press coverage, won awards, etc.
# 4 – Loyalty/Surprise and Delight
Loyalty in today’s world isn’t really loyalty, it’s quid pro quo. You pay more, do more, etc and someone gives you something free for it. Stay at a hotel? Get point. Fly? Get points. Not really loyalty.
For me, I am loyal to some brands that don’t even treat me that well, for example, Jeep and Apple. Neither treats me well but my loyalty comes from my identification with what the brands stand for. If they would only think about me a bit, I’d be a crazy advocate for them.
At Starwood, we did the quid pro quo version but a little better. Our key theme was “No blackouts”. So those points you earned? You could use them whenever you wanted them, not when we wanted you to.
Surprise and delight is a key part of loyalty. Zappos used to give their call center reps budgets to do nice, unexpected things for customers. Companies that invest in their customers, not just giving them free crap, can build loyalty. We had an amazing program, SPG, because we took care of our members and even built relationships with some of them. I am actually still FB friends with a few!
The thought here is to not always be expected. Do things that make people take notice or do a double-take. Don’t just give them stuff for using you, but think about how you would want someone to build a relationship with you and then operationalize it. It can be done, others have done it well.
Hopefully, my 4 principles have helped generate some new ideas. I actually have never forgotten them, and although I’ve been out of hospitality for a while, all four of them have shaped my thought process and the way I operate in any marketing I do, whether it’s consumer or B2B.
So, let’s strive for this. Next time you use a healthcare app, something nice surprises you. Next time you have to go to urgent care, there is music on that soothes you. Next time (hopefully never) you have to go to the ER, it’s easy to get in and out, smells good and the chaos is controlled. And, maybe someone might even offer you a pina colada (I AM NOT ADVOCATING THAT HEALTHCARE SERVES ALCOHOL! Just wanted to clear that up!)
About the Author
Burt is a mission-driven Marketing guy who loves to make a difference in the world and help companies grow. He is passionate about thinking differently and is focused on solving people’s problems. His core marketing philosophy is “outside in, not inside out” meaning listen to what the customers (or communities) need or want and help them with that, don’t focus on telling them what you do or have.
He has an eclectic background, having worked in TV, at digital agencies, and in client marketing roles in travel (Starwood Hotels), education (KinderCare and Empowered Education), and healthcare (HealthSparq). All of his experiences have had a strong focus on storytelling, brand development, and using brands to acquire more customers (whether they are the weary business traveler, parents, and kids, health plan members, or people looking for personal transformation).
On a personal note, Burt is a huge family guy. He has two kids (one a recent college grad and one in college) and a wife who has dedicated her life to helping other people in a variety of non-traditional ways, and a very small dog. For fun, he loves volunteering and helping people, exploring the Pacific Northwest (where he lives), hiking, mountain climbing, playing squash, living healthy, and food carts!
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