My last post took a look at how doctors can utilize patient-centered marketing (i.e., consumer relationship management, telemedicine, etc.) to build long-lasting relationships. Which would lead many people to reason, “Well, of course, that’s good for business.” But did you know that more and more studies are showing that good doctor-patient communication can positively impact a patient’s health?

Newsweek recently ran an article citing many studies that have found this all-too-often missing link can actually affect a patient’s sense of well-being, number of symptoms and overall health. Newsweek specifically noted a Canadian study which audiotaped more than 300 office visits by 39 primary care physicians. Afterward, patients were asked to rate the visit when it came to their doctor-patient relationship. The researchers then followed the patients’ health over time.

“When patients reported that their doctors focused on their feelings and listened to them carefully, they not only felt better, but objective measures showed they had fewer symptoms of the disease,” wrote Shannon Brownlee, Newsweek contributor.

These days, what used to be called a good beside manner is being referred to as a “therapeutic relationship.” Google it and you’ll see it’s often used in the context of psychiatry – engaging the patient, listening, empathy, support, sincerity, etc.

There are lessons here for us as healthcare marketers as well. Forging a relationship based on listening, engagement, empathy and support shouldn’t start with the provider, it should start with us – the marketers. If you think about it, a relationship is really what patients want from all of their doctors and healthcare providers, isn’t it? And establishing this tone in your marketing message right from the beginning isn’t just good business, it just might be good for the patient’s health as well.

In short, when it comes to patient communications, whether it’s doctor-patient communications or a communications plan, it all comes back full circle to one very important thing: trust.

Have you infused your healthcare marketing with this relationship-first approach? Have anything you’d like to add? We’d love to hear it.

Every patient wants to feel special. Listened to. Respected. It doesn’t matter what the persons’ age. Fortunately, there are doctors out there who really know how to make each patient feel as if he or she the only person that doctor sees. These doctors take the time to explain. To follow-up. To calm nerves. They forge a relationship. And if cultivated, it can last a lifetime.

So, as a marketer, how do you make sure caring bedside manner goes beyond the bedside? Here are some thoughts:

Encourage doctors to know patients. There’s nothing like a doctor or staff member who jots down (or types up) personal notes in your chart and then asks you about your family or career each time they see you. CRM is an effective way to help personalize the patient experience.

Have your doctors pick up the phone. Skype. Send a text. Shoot an email. Doctors who dedicate some time each day or week to follow-up with patients who’ve had a surgery or procedure are proving just how important their patients are to them. Doctors might not make house calls anymore, but they can still make contact with patients at home. It could be as easy as picking up the phone. Telemedicine – where doctors video conference with patients – is gaining in popularity as well.

Also, a friendly text or email reminding a patient of an appointment is usually a welcome gesture. More and more, doctors are also reminding patients via an email blast to use up their insurance benefits before the year’s end.

Keep the lines of communication open even when the office is closed. No patient likes having to wait for the doctor’s office to open on Monday morning to schedule an appointment to address whatever happened over the weekend. For those doctors whose websites don’t have it already, creating a patient portal allows people to schedule appointments online, ask questions, access their electronic medical records, pay bills and refill prescriptions.

Share the knowledge. For the most part, patients want to be informed. Which is why websites like WebMed are so popular. Recommend your doctors invest in a couple of iPads for their lobbies. Have them bookmark relevant sites and download helpful and healthy apps. If they have blogs, Twitter or Facebook accounts, make sure patients can easily see those, too.

Have any other ideas on how to keep the patient front and center? Let us know your thoughts.

SoLoMo  – a marketing strategy incorporating social features, location data and mobile applications – is affecting all aspects of marketing at a rapidly growing rate. It is a lesson that every brand, from high-stakes retail to the restaurant around the corner from my house, needs to take into consideration. What’s the rationale behind this movement?

Nielsen and NM Incite published a helpful graphic that provides an informative view of consumers’ social, local and mobile consumption habits and how these three players relate to one another. It’s titled, “The Most Valuable Digital Customers,” and here are some of the statistics that caught my attention.

Social

• App adoption rate
• 58% used the Facebook app
• 18% used the Twitter app

Location

• App adoption rate
• 39% used the Google Maps app
• 5% used the Foursquare app
• 5% used the Yelp app
• 45% of visitors to local deal sites are very likely to recommend those daily deal sites
  Visits to coupons/rewards sites are up 11% since 2009 (65.4 million, August 2009 vs. 72.3 million, August 2011)

Mobile

• 38% of Americans own a smartphone
• Smartphone users spend 2/3 of their mobile phone time on apps
• 44% visit social networking sites

Those who acknowledge this shift and incorporate social, local and mobile strategies will be rewarded with increased customer loyalty and trust. Look at brands like American Express and its Small Business Saturday campaign. Or Krispy Kreme and the company’s new Hot Light app. Neiman Marcus is another brand that has truly embraced SoLoMo, utilizing Foursquare for its recent “Foursquare Challenge” promotion where 15 high-end clutch purses were hidden in secret locations throughout its stores nationwide.

Here’s the fascinating thing about SoLoMo – you do not have to be a glossy, national brand in order to incorporate social, local and mobile strategies. SoLoMo is just as important, if not more, to small business owners in your community. These establishments live and die by customer loyalty and word of mouth. Social, local and mobile have the potential to be game changers for those small businesses that recognize the possibilities available in these areas.

Regardless of whether you are a small mom-and-pop store or a high-stakes brand, you need to be cognizant of how SoLoMo will impact your online identity. The increases in smartphone ownership mean not only are users active in virtually any location, but they’re only a couple clicks away from their entire social graph. The repercussions for those brands that choose to ignore this shift? Potentially missing out on sales, customer insights, credibility and the opportunity to influence.

Are you taking advantage of SoLoMo for your brand? Tell us about it.

2011 held countless displays of public relations that enhanced and hurt the reputations of people and organizations everywhere. In fact, there are plenty that could comprise a good year-in-review list. However, when I look back at 2011 through the PR missteps lens, I assess the damage not based on the nature of events themselves, but on how those events made me feel. The question I ask myself is “which events stirred the worst feelings within me?”

By far, the most disturbing 2011 event for me was the Japan earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster that spurred massive leaks of radiation. While the crisis led to yet another change in Japan’s leadership (the governing Democratic Party elected Yoshihiko Noda as the new prime minister in August -  the sixth person to hold the post in five years), that change led to no better handling of the situation as the tragic events unfolded.

What I remember most is the anger that bubbled up as Tokyo Electric and the Japanese government created as much mystery as possible around the amount of radiation being let off by the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant – the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. I’m still haunted by the matter-of-fact statements made by plant workers, bidding goodbye to their families for at least “many months,” to contain the toxicity emanating from the bedeviled reactors. To this day, I can’t recall any reports of what ever became of those unfortunate souls. Did any of them make it back out of the reactor facilities?

And then, there’s the kicker. Japan’s emperor Akihito comes out of the woodwork to comfort a lost and terrified nation. The emperor’s speech was his first-ever televised address and it was the first time any Japanese emperor has given a speech directly to the people on television during a national crisis. I wonder if the emperor realized what an irreversible PR nightmare was in progress. Did he sense that the trust and confidence of an entire people in its government was at stake? Was he somehow trying to bridge the gap between the Japanese government’s need to save face with the world by minimizing the appearance of chaos and the need to be honest and transparent with the Japanese people when they needed it most?

For many Japanese, the crisis brought with it a wave of doubt as to whether or not their government, an institution that has enjoyed a trust not seen in the U.S. for decades, was telling the truth about the realities of the disaster and the harm it was doing to people. When the government says that, on one hand, everything is just fine at the plant, but on the other hand, seal yourselves inside your homes and try not to breathe the air from outside, even the most loyal Japanese nationals began to lose trust.

This was a chilling reminder to me that as a PR practitioner, trustworthiness and transparency are my most valuable assets. Failing to communicate or waiting too long to communicate during a crisis can strip people of the calm they desperately need during that time. And it’s one of the things people tend to remember when the crisis is over or subsides. If Japanese citizens continue to lose trust in the government’s truthfulness or competence, then Tokyo will face another crisis, this one of its own making. Once that trust is gone, saving face will be out of the question.

Well friends, it’s that time of year. The time when we’re supposed to take a long, hard look at ourselves in the mirror and ask, “How can I be a better me?”

If you haven’t already, chances are you’re finalizing your list of New Year’s resolutions. You know, go to the gym more, get organized, eat healthier, stick to a tighter budget, stress less …

Which got me thinking. Now is also the perfect time of year for organizations to really think about improvements they can make when it comes to their advertising plans. I’m not talking about an entire overhaul here, just some simple suggestions. Minor tweaks, if you will.

1. Be more social. Launch a new blog or a new Twitter feed in support of a specific product or service. Really go after that niche audience. A very specific blog or Twitter feed is a great way to differentiate yourself without the worry that it might undermine your existing marketing efforts.
2. Help others. Build a contest tab on your Facebook page to benefit charity. Ask your followers to vote on a charity, or perhaps recommend their own, and then make a donation to the most popular choice. It helps you build Facebook traffic, generates some viral buzz around your brand and makes life better for those around you.
3. Be more eco-friendly. There are lots of ways to make your organization green, but what about your advertising? We say, save a tree and try digital if you haven’t already. Scrap that brochure for a QR code. Or turn that annual report into a microsite. It’s the perfect way to test the effectiveness of a new media and help the environment at the same time.
4. Push yourself. Let’s face it, at one time or another, every client has been presented with more than one creative concept at a time. If your concepts tend to gravitate toward more conservative ideas, 2012 is your chance to try being a little bolder. I’d venture to say that the more creative the concept, the more it resonates with your audience. And the more attention-grabbing and memorable it is, the better your return on investment. Thus, what you might tend to view as a “risky” choice, in actuality is the “safe” one.
5. Look to the future, not to the past. If 2011 was a great year for you, “Congratulations!” If not, there’s nothing you can do about it now. It’s a new year, which means a new beginning. Figure out what worked and what didn’t. Learn from your mistakes and move on.

Now that we’ve got some ideas out on the table, here are some tips to help you follow through.

First off, commit yourself to trying just one to start. Then, make a plan on how you’re going to achieve it … and tell someone. That’s right, stick your head outside of your office right now and yell, “Attention everyone! I am going to (insert New Year’s resolution here). Ok, maybe not, but you get the idea. Not only can colleagues hold you accountable (oftentimes with just the right amount of good-natured peer pressure), they can also be there with a little positive encouragement when you need it most.

Have any other advertising New Year’s resolution ideas? We’d love to hear them.