Without Mr. Cronkite, Hospital Finds New Ways to Engage with Customers

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey

 

When iconic newsman Walter Cronkite anchored the CBS evening news, people stopped what they were doing and listened to their one, most trusted source of news, said Tama Wagner, chief brand officer at Heartland Health, a 2009 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient. But today, people want to interact, not just be told about news and events. If organizations, including hospitals, want to interact with their customers, they must find a way to actually engage them, she said.

At the 23rd annual Quest for Excellence Conference, Wagner said Heartland Health has employed a social media strategy that is not necessarily about understanding the quickly changing technology but understanding the people who use that technology. She added that people born before 1942 want information that is directive, Baby Boomers want to be engaged and debate issues and opinions, Generation X wants to be educated, and Millennials want to be connected through peer-driven forums.

Wagner said not having a social media strategy is like ignoring half of your audience, and research shows that 93% of social media users feel a company/organization/even hospital should have a social media presence. To allow the patients to engage with the hospital, Heartland uses social media to have a conversation with its patients and other stakeholders, she said.

The 2011–2012 Health Care Criteria now include social media as a key aspect of listening to the voice of your customers. The Criteria ask how you use social media and Web-based technologies to listen to patients and stakeholders. According to the Criteria, use of social media may include blogs moderated by your organization and unsolicited opportunities to learn based on social media outlets your organization does not control, such as wikis, online forums, and blogs not moderated by your organization. "Customers increasingly are turning to social media to voice their impressions of your health care services and patient and stakeholder support."

As a user of the Health Care Criteria, Wagner said monitoring local discussion boards and other social media outlets allows Heartland Health to better understand patients and stakeholders, as well as to acknowledge and thank customers or to acknowledge and correct any customer issues. For example, Marcy George, marketing/communications consultant, media for Heartland Health, said she uses the News-Press discussion board "to judge public opinion of our news coverage and issues that arise.”

Social media also allows the hospital to engage in conversations directly related to long-term health improvement and illness prevention, always focusing on leading with a servant's heart and learning what is best for the customer. Heartland Health uses the following tools most frequently: 

• a Facebook page to promote and build a community around health improvement events; for example, to encourage discussion around weight loss, exercise, and eating tips during the Pound Plunge, its 12-week weight-loss challenge. Heartland Health also uses Facebook as an outlet for dialogue with its caregivers to further build and maintain relationships.
• a YouTube channel       
• Event discussion boards (e.g., www.takethepoundplunge.com)
• The monitoring of local discussion boards
• Executive blogging
• Tools to promote and highlight events, such as Coed for the Cure (celebrity softball tournament), and to build a community around health issues
• Marketing/advertising campaigns

Wagner said next up are e-blasts with a professional blog from its massage therapist and estheticians.

In what ways has your organization engaged with its customers through social media?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[David Donohue]

Dawn

Excellent article om engaging in building relationships with the patient. I'm coordinating a social media health education pilot research project using social media to connect with high risk diabetic patients at the Capt. James A Lovell Federal Health Care Center, North Chicago, IL.

[Dawn Bailey]

What an exciting research project. Thanks for sharing!

[David W.]

Exciting to hear about these leading practices. Incorporating social media into your website (e.g., facebook, twitter, youtube) may offer some exciting opportunities for customers to stay in your space, interface with their friends and a broader community, and grow traffic to your site.

[Engage with Customers]

Hey, useful and great blog. We might try to work a reference to this one into our post about hot to engage with customers next week is that's cool?