Charting a Course for Loyal Customers

In our last white paper, Branding Healthcare Part I: Getting Your Team on Board, we suggested that the first step in steering through a sea of challenges posed by today’s operating environment is to align your leaders and employees through training and tools to gain a consistent understanding and commitment to your brand.

Here, we embark on some of the next steps in delivering on your brand promise to earn a stronger, more engaged customer base. Typically, organizations capsize due to three branding issues: fuzzy positioning, lack of customer insight, and poor communication skills.

Frequently we see organizations that go through the motions with a new logo, tagline and brand style guide. But these are not always based on a clear understanding of what differentiates the organization or a deep insight about patients/customers and competitors. Demonstrating your passion to exceed customer expectations in unexpected ways is key to creating brand loyalty. Successful brands nurture a close and personal relationship with their customers. They create trust and emotional attachment, while maximizing the number of users. In short, the brand name evokes a clear and consistent image in the consumer’s mind.

Navigate Your Target Markets

Who are your best customers and what do they care about? Before you position your organization, it’s critical to do the research that will ensure your messaging resonates on the right radar. You can use focus groups, community-based research, individual in-depth interviews and quantitative surveys to find the answers to your questions.

Ask about consumer awareness and preference. The perspectives of referring physicians can be key, too. As you define your core or most influential target markets, consider these questions:

1. Have we defined these individuals as real people with needs, wishes, and desires (versus data and demographics)?
2. Would the individual recognize him or herself and care about being part of this group?
3. Does this individual have a real reason to be interested in our product?
4. Have we defined the size of the target group as large as identity and interest will allow? What about trends and potential?

Other questions to consider include:

• How regularly do prospects use services like ours?
• How large and profitable is the segment?
• How strong in market share, awareness and perception is the competition?