Finding Harmony: When Other “Voices” are as Important as the Customer’s
Posted by Vovici Blog on Thu, Jan 12, 2012
By Stephanie Thum, Guest Contributor
Voice of the Customer concepts aren't new to people managing health care organizations. Patient surveys, patient feedback, and patient satisfaction scores have been the driving force behind hospital operational improvement initiatives for years. But where (and how) do Voice of the Customer philosophies fit when it comes to something as seemingly basic as a hospital name?
Hospitals get renamed all the time for reasons including ownership changes, mergers, or large philanthropic gifts. In the last five years, for example, Columbus Children’s Hospital in Ohio became Nationwide Children’s Hospital after receiving a $50 million gift from Nationwide Insurance. Newton Memorial Hospital in New Jersey morphed into Newton Medical Center as part of a merger with Atlantic Health System. The University of Pennsylvania Health System changed its name to Penn Medicine.
So when name changes occur, should patients and local consumers have a say-so? Does a hospital’s name really matter?
During my research for an article published in Strategic Health Care Marketing, I discovered that – from certain angles – the answer is yes. As is true in any other industry, hospital names need to resonate with customers. Focus groups and surveys can provide a baseline understanding of how consumers view a hospital’s nomenclature. But in the healthcare industry, “Voice of the Customer” isn’t where organizational renaming decisions should begin and end.
Doctors, donors, trustees, board members, volunteers, and employees all need to agree on a name change, or – as Rick Jacobs of Denver-based Monigle and Associates said in a conversation for Strategic Health Care Marketing – “you’ll crash and burn.”
As one might expect, it is very difficult to balance the voices and please everyone.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Medical Center brand leaders rose to the challenge. Focus groups responded to a variety of possible name changes – most favorably to the simplicity of “UAB Medicine.” Leaders then took the name change to internal stakeholders and many responded well, but gaining buy-in took significant organizational patience, months of internal conversations, presentations, and repeated and consistent communications – driven by a strong chief executive officer.
Debbie Hunter-Snow, Associate Vice President of Marketing at UAB, shared that it was a challenge, but when the chairman of the department of surgery walked into a meeting wearing the new logo on his lab coat, it felt like a victory.
So, what’s in a name? In healthcare, it’s up to Voice of the Customer executives to find out by seeking out – and finding harmony among – the voices of patients, their families, and the internal groups responsible for pushing the hospital brand forward in the market every day. To be successful, everyone must understand the brand – and their place in it.
Stephanie Thum is an independent consultant based in Washington, D.C. Follow her on Twitter www.twitter.com/stephaniethum.