Use monitoring tools to know what people are saying about your hospital and respond appropriately.
People are most likely talking about your hospital. Conversations are occurring about your brand. Do you know what they are saying? You should. Some marketers had rather not know. They prefer to stick their heads in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist. This is neither good nor responsible. Conversations about your hospital are happening and you should know what they are.
Sarah Johnson in an article for intuit mentioned three important and instructive points about knowing what people are saying about your hospital.
1. Set up alerts and conduct regular web searches.
At the very least, set up Google Alerts for the name of your hospital or healthcare organization (put quotation marks around any proper names to get the most accurate result). In addition use tools on social media sites to search those particular sites. With these two, you will receive notices of mentions of your hospital on the web and on the social media sites you monitor.
2. Invest in a monitoring tool.
The alerts and searches mentioned above are not totally effective. Mentions often escape their filters so it’s recommended to invest in a monitoring tool that does a far better job than Google Alert. The good monitoring services will monitor and report mentions of your hospital across the entire web and across all public sections of social media sites. Some to consider include Social Comply, Trackur and Radian6.
3. Make people feel they’re being heard.
It’s important your hospital is perceived as responsive and caring. Respond to issues that appear and to disgruntled consumers. Take the disgruntled person offline, express your concern and offer to make it right, if possible. If not, assure the complainant that you will do as much as possible to insure the perceived wrong is not repeated.
It may be important to also make a conciliatory statement in the same venue to show your hospital has a heart and a concern about any dissatisfaction and state that steps will be taken to correct any issues.
It is also important to show appreciation. When good things are stated, acknowledge it and be appreciative.
People are talking about your hospital. And as a brand advocate for your hospital you need to know about those conversations. Monitor, listen, learn and be proactive. Your hospital’s brand reputation may depend on it.