Connecting with your Patient Population with Doug Pohl | E. 71

The Healthcare Leadership Experience

Healthcare marketing has seen a shift from ‘’patient’’ to ‘’consumer’’ in recent years. Doug Pohl explains to Jim Cagliostro how a focus on heart and emotions can help to reconnect hospitals with their patients.

Episode Introduction

Doug explains why hospitals need to prioritize ‘’humanity’’ over the bottom line, how to become a two-way mirror to build patient relationships, and why Business 101 is all about listening. He also shares how his experience as a singer/songwriter helped him to understand the power of storytelling, and why true leadership is about helping people climb the ladder.

Show Topics

• Hospitals need to focus on humanity in marketing

• Losing the community connection

• Healthcare marketing is a two-way mirror

• Business 101: It’s about listening

• Tapping into the power of storytelling

• Leadership is about helping people climb the ladder

06:54 Hospitals need to focus on humanity in marketing

Doug explained why the shift to ‘’consumers’’ from ‘’patients’’ creates a deeper problem.

‘’I feel like a lot of them are doing a decent job, in that there's been this shift to people, you can't necessarily even call them patients yet, but to view them as consumers. So, they market to us as consumers. And I get that, and I think it's effective in some ways, but my personal view is if we're treating people as healthcare consumers, there's a deeper problem that we're not addressing. And I think to ignore that is a long-term mistake. So, I think it's really important that we focus on people's humanity and do it in some powerful ways. You and I talked previously, there's some commercials out there that tap into the emotions of what people are feeling when they go into a hospital, whether as a patient or a loved one or whatever the situation is, a clinician, whoever. Everyone has these strong emotions that come with them into a healthcare facility. And understanding those, having genuine empathy, feels like a weak word these days because we use it so often. But genuine concern for those feelings and for those people and wanting to help in real ways, even if it means less efficient business or a lower bottom line, but focusing on the heart and the emotions, I think is really the best path forward for marketing. And in my opinion, for operations in general.’’

09:13 Losing the community connection

Doug said the acquisition of a smaller hospital by a larger system pushes patients aside.

‘’ I think it sort of starts in-house with a disconnect with the clinicians and administrators and everybody who works in that system at that regional hospital, where they feel less of a connection with their organization, they feel like things are being imposed on them by the mothership, and all of a sudden everything's changed. They feel a disconnect. They feel pushed aside. They feel like they're not as important as they should be, and perhaps as they used to be. And I think there's a trickle-down that comes from that. They pass on those feelings to the community, whether in the hospital or outside in their personal lives. It does change how people feel subconsciously, at least. I live in a small community, and we do have a small regional hospital that's connected to a larger one, but we're friends with the nurses and the doctors. We see them out in town and at the gym, and we talk to them, we hear their struggles, and we hear how tough it is for them. And so, these feelings are being shared in the community, and it does impact you as a patient that when it's your turn, you go and you know what people are going through, and there's this sort of inherent disdain for the organization as a whole because of it.’’

12:36 Healthcare marketing is a two-way mirror

Doug explained why every brand needs to reflect the audience back to themselves.

‘’In marketing, our job as a brand, any brand is to be a mirror, but it's sort of a two-way mirror. So, we want to reflect the audience back to themselves. The things that bother them, their challenges, their pain points, whatever you want to call it, we acknowledge those. We say, "Here's what’s going on with you, we understand your situation." So, we reflect that, and we can do that not just by saying it, but we have to say it in the right way. So, we also reflect their exact words. That's why getting those videos, those voice recordings are important. Hear that, get that voice of customer data, in this case patients or whoever it is, but get their actual words and use it. As an organization, you might call a certain program, you might have an in-house name for it. Let's just use our imaginations here. But when you start marketing, people don't understand that. And maybe you're doing your research with your audience and you realize they're actually using a different name for it. Well, name, use what people say and give it back to them. That helps them feel more connection, that sort of subconscious connection that we can't measure, but it makes a difference. It really does. Once you have that and you genuinely understand, then you're able to present your solution or offer it in a way that feels natural. It doesn't feel salesy, it just feels like an extension of that connection.’’

16:31 Business 101: It’s about listening

Doug questioned exactly how much the needs of the patient are being heard today.

‘’How much listening is going on? Are organizations not just listening, but actually hearing and absorbing and really taking patient's needs to heart? Yes, there has to be a balance with operations and with the financial concerns and all of that. I get it. But at the end of the day, none of that matters if patients aren't happy. And I'm going to go back to the beginning here. There's this trend of calling patients consumers. If your consumers aren't happy, you need to change something. That's the whole point of the business. You have to have people happy to get them to spend money, otherwise they're going to go somewhere else, right? Business 101. So, I think the most effective way is to look at how we're listening. What are we doing? Where can we improve to listen better? And once we listen, then what are we doing with that information? Are we genuinely being that mirror? Are we giving people what they want? Or are we just putting on a light patina onto what we wanted to do anyways?’’

18:15 Tapping into the power of storytelling

Doug said overlooking the human experience leaves out 80% of the marketing story.

‘’This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately. Stories are so powerful. It's incredible. And back in my songwriting days, it was always about the story. I'd make a point to go talk with whoever I could, wherever I was at. I wanted to go talk with strangers and just get them talking, just hear their stories. And it's amazing, people almost always want to share. I would write songs based on their experiences, based on what they told me. And those are the songs people love the best. They were real. They were actual stories that had a beginning, a climax and an end. And it was similar to their own lived experiences. So, again, it was taking people's stories, hearing their own words, and feeding it back to the audience. And so, it's the same thing that we can do with our marketing. We tell those stories. It's not just a disease. It's not just a treatment or a condition or whatever. It's a real person, who has parents and children and jobs and concerns and bills and whatever. That's all part of it. And to neglect all those different aspects of who they are, of what makes them human, that's to leave out 80% of the story or more. That's the meat that's really going to help connect with people, because everybody has those things. Not everyone has... pick a condition. Not everyone has diabetes, but everybody has bills and parents and jobs or whatever. So, that's how we connect, is by telling the whole story. It has to be a 360 view. And when we do that, I think it really opens up some amazing possibilities for what we can do, not only to create successful marketing, but to actually help and do what we're trying to do with healthcare.’’

27:28 Leadership is about helping people climb the ladder

Doug said leading by example and turning to help others means everybody wins.

‘’My first management experience came from my job as a lifeguard in college in the summers. And my first year, I started off with a great manager who led by example. He never asked us to do anything that he wouldn't do himself, and he made sure we all saw him do it first. And then when it was my turn to be manager, I didn't do that. I was lazy, and I would just assume people knew that I could do things. And I learned very quickly that that was a big mistake. Now, what I try to show my team is, not only can I do it, but I can probably do it better than you because I have done it. I did it for years, and now I want to help you get to my level. So, then we can all grow, we can all benefit. Everybody wins. So, I think my leadership advice that I try to remind myself all the time is, lead by example and then turn around and help the next person up the ladder.’’

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You’ll also hear:

‘’Everybody has a different story.’’ From professional country music singer/singwriter to healthcare content marketer. Listen to Doug’s unique journey.

Following your instincts and avoiding ‘’normal’’, how going with gut instinct was Doug’s trajectory. ‘’I've never wanted to be normal. In high school, that was my only trajectory, was just to do something different and just go with my gut.‘’

The power of storytelling: Why listening to people’s stories is the first step to connecting with your patients. ‘’Not because we have a particular end in mind, because we want them to support an idea or to reinforce something that we might already know, but genuinely because we care.’’

If a message misses the mark, it’s not the fault of our audience. ‘’Anytime we're communicating, if someone's not understanding us, we sort of put the blame on them, but really the onus is on us. So, the question should be asked, "How can I do better? What is it that I'm not doing or that I need to improve in order to help them understand what I'm trying to say?"

Giving data the time to filter through. Why healthcare’s unique nature means results take time. ‘’Anytime you're working with people, it's going to take a long time. So, you want to be flexible, but you need to allow the data to come in.’’

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