For those of you who know me, this idea of designing a better end to end patient experience rich with cross touch point collaboration and more open dialogue has been a real personal passion of mine. When it comes to serving our clients, I have to be careful not to think too big and go too far outside of the box that is our healthcare system today.  But at the conference we went as far outside that box as we all possibly could.  Our goal?  Change the conversation around healthcare as a way to improve the patient experience, create a culture of healthier people, and ultimately – lower the cost of healthcare.

So – who’s breaking the rules?  Well… based on what our speakers had to say, just about everyone is finding some rule to break.  Whether it is a health insurance company looking for new ways to engage patients in healthy behaviors or a pharmaceutical company trying to understand what it is like to be a teenager going through the transition of taking ownership of their health (and managing a life-threatening disease), everyone who spoke was experimenting with ways to get get beyond technology for technology’s sake and instead get to a place where the drivers are positive outcomes, emotion and trust, and technology is merely the enabler.

One of the most provocative presentations I was able to attend was given by Matt Diamanti from the Mayo Clinic. Titled, “People are the Product”, Matt actually opened with the existential question, “Who Am I”?  Now – you are probably wondering, what does the quest for the authentic self have to do with patient experience?  Matt’s response: EVERYTHING!  

Because our digital world has simply become too routine of a component of our daily lives.  Instead of understanding our problems in terms of the people actually living through them, we opt for a quick fix of digital plug ins… more data, more apps, more noise.  In “People are the Product”, Matt suggests that if we start with the premise that we are all, at our core, emotional beings living in analogue 3-D and that we want to connect to other emotional beings live and in person, we might come to realize that at least part of our current health crisis is because of too much data and not enough human connection (as opposed to the other way around).  He further suggests that to get back to a truly healthy physical and emotional state of wellbeing, we need to quiet the noise, unplug from the mother ship and instead, emotionally plug into those around us… other people working through the same challenges. In some ways, this may sound like nothing new.  But my response?  FAR OUT!  Because going analogue may be just about as provocative and new as it gets in this current state of avatar doctors and do-it-yourself health management.

Sure – an implementable solution has to live somewhere in between these two extremes, but as I heard from many of our speakers, it is only if we can get the conversation out to these far ends of what can be imagined that we can get to a middle ground where the solution is implementable, adoptable, measurable and ultimately successful for all of us who use the system. A system that blames and isolates may get us better prices – but not better health.  Similarly, a system that completely forgives may get us better “managed” patients – but not better sustainability and, I would argue, even poorer health.

In the end, the Healthcare Experience Design Conference wasn’t about presenting answers, it was about asking questions and starting dialogues.  It was about challenging the notion that we are even solving for the right problems in the first place.

I volunteered not just because I love shoes and social media, but because I figured I’d learn a thing or two about the burgeoning world of influenced viral marketing. And boy did I learn some things. I decided to write a brief white paper on my experience, Turning the Tables on SM Viral Marketing.  Below I’ve summarized the lessons I learned during my brief time as a product influencer about the do’s and don’ts of running a viral marketing strategy. 

1) Equip your influencers with an understanding of your goals and some tips for how they can help you achieve them. 

While my contact at this High-End Department Store did a great job of getting me excited about my free pair of shoes, she didn’t do too much when it came to making sure I understood her goals for this activity and what I could do to help her.  For some key things she could have done to help my posts be as “influencial” as possible, see the white paper.

2) Make sure your influencers have enough to say about your product and are prepared tweet about it multiple times a day.

Now, I love shoes and have a gift to gab… but even I ran out of steam after a few days. Having some daily suggestions from my contact would have helped me keep the tweets fresh and interesting. It would have also kept me a lot more engaged in the program.  These suggestions could have come in the form of scenarios to work through with the shoes as well as topics I should cover.  And for “filler” tweets, she might have provided links to some good third party reviews of the shoes or other interesting shoe-relevant websites.  There’s more detail on this tip in the white paper.

3) If you enlist your customers to blog for you, be prepared to be just as involved in this activity as they are… and be sure to live up to any commitments you make to them.

In my case, the High-End Department Store contact went dark once the recruitment process was complete.  As a result, when challenges arose – such as shoes not arriving, “hot spots”  not knowing who we were, and general confusion about what we were doing – we had no choice but to tweet and blog about it in hopes that maybe our contact was listening. (As I note in point 4 below, we  later found out she was not.) So what would I have done differently?  My ideas are outlined in the white paper.

 4) Listen to what your influencers are saying (and show your support)… letting them see your level of engagement will only raise up theirs.

This is, of course, a tough one.  There is a fine line between supporting and influencing your influencers – one you don’t want to cross.  That said, no one likes to hear crickets when they are putting themselves out there…especially if it is in front of those who know them in their non-influencer life.  Find creative ways to reward good posts and address issues and challenges they may be expressing in their posts. See my whitepaper for more information on the opportunity lost by my support person’s lack of engagement.

 5) Have a plan.  Social Media may seem all fun and games… but it isn’t. 

It may feel like a casual and spur of the moment channel, but it is ANYTHING but if you are a marketer looking to Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and the host of other consumer-focused social media channels to reach your customers.  It is just as calculated, structured, and thought-through as the commercials you shoot, the ads you design, and the marketing events you plan.  After all, if I read about a cute pair of Sam Edelman ballet flats and a Girl’s Night Out Shoe Event on my friend’s blog and I go to the store and NOONE knows about the party, the shoes, or anything else… there is a huge break in your marketing strategy.  For an outline of key plan components, see my white paper.

I learned as part of being acquired by Walgreen’s, Duane Reade introduced a flexible vaccination service, allowing customers to get a flu shot any hours that the pharmacy is open (albeit not well advertised). Some large survey by a market research company probably told them that 87% of customers don’t get flu shots because of inconvenient timing.

But who cares why they are doing it! This is great, or so I thought, until I started this seemingly ideal patient experience process.

I returned the next morning and the pharmacist said, “I’ll meet you over there.” I had no idea where there was, so I waited while she gathered the necessary clinical materials (gloves, needle disposal bin, etc.) from multiple locations and carried everything to a table with 2 chairs outside the entrance to the employees-only pharmacy area and placed everything down in a pile. Picture Rachel Ray carrying ingredients in her studio… except this is someone’s health, not chimichangas.  

Would you get your flu shot here?

I mentioned to her that it was great that she was offering flu shots at any time.  “Yep, we all had to get trained,” she said. I proceeded, “But it’s sorta a pain for you, I mean you have to stop what you’re doing to do this?” She replied,  “Yeah, it can be….”

The flu shot was painless, pharmacy staff was pleasant, and for me the overall experience was just fine. I’ll put aside:

• The original “we are backed up” issue (although many customers may not)….
• The poor advertising about the flexible service…
• The 7-min wait for ‘nurse-in-training’ pharmacist to prep…
• The confusion about where I should sit because of the counter divide between pharmacy staff and customer….
• The seemingly discombobulated setup that gave the impression this was their first time doing this….

Those are issues that can be solved – though not easily – with better customer communications and improved spatial design. But what about the pharmacists and employees at Duane Reade who need to literally stop the  work they are doing and the flow of their day for each and every flu shot customer? And if they don’t, they have more of those “15-minute backup issues” and potentially disappointed flu shot customers….

Or what about those non-flu Rx customers whose experience is disrupted by the flu shot processes – those patients who simply need to ask a question about their new Rx while the pharmacist is busy giving flu shots. Finally, what about these inefficiencies’ subsequent impact to DR’s bottom line? For every flu shot customer, assume 10 minutes of lost pharmacist work time.

This is a great example for why you can’t have blind focus on the customer, patient or any single group. Without considering the experience and change management for all people: pharmacists, pharmacy support, customers (both flu shot and not), Duane Reade may have started a tidal wave of good intentions that has ripple effects to the business that they didn’t see coming.

No doubt you are aware of programs that were elegant, motivating experiences for their target audiences and returned compelling business results. The question is how can you ensure that the work your agencies are doing for you will result in such experiences? Do you know what good looks like when you’re watching it develop? 

If you’re not even thinking to ask that question, then here’s

Tip #1: Ask it

After all, something about this headline intrigued you, right? Whatever industry you work in, you have the responsibility to question what it is your agencies are creating and why. And not just questions like, “Are you using the right treatment of the logo?” Rather bottom line questions like, “Will I ever see a quantifiable or qualifiable benefit of that $80,000 Flash video you suggested we put on our site?” or “That 55-e-mail communication stream…how will we know it is working for us?”

Some agencies are questioning themselves. Take David Berkowitz and his Inside the Marketer’s Studio blog where he recently ‘atoned’ for sins on behalf of marketers and agencies. Included among his confessions was, “We have killed ideas that were spot on in favor of pet projects that we wanted for our portfolios.” If you’re not lucky enough to be working with an agency that has developed this level of self-awareness and self-evaluation, I’ve provided some tried and true tips for ensuring your agency is gives you good design.

Tip #2: Own the Cross-channel Experience

The ultimate experience of your product or service is only as successful as it is seamlessly integrated across all touchpoints your audience might encounter. You may have a digital agency doing your website, a print agency doing your print materials, an IVR firm doing your call center…the people you’re interacting with don’t care about that. Whether they’re interacting with a mobile device, learning about a prescription medication, paying a bill or booking a flight, they are simply trying to use your product or service to accomplish a goal. And all of their individual interactions with your people and systems across all channels add up to the complete experience of your brand or business. That experience can break down in any single channel/touchpoint and spoil the whole experience. So regardless of any organizational drama over channel conflict, or behind the scenes in-fighting as you manage multiple vendors, someone (why not you?) needs to ensure that the overall experience is seamless and successful from your target audience’s perspective. 

Tip #3: Understand Your Audience….REALLY Understand Them

It will be difficult to do Tip #2 without doing this. No single research or insight gathering approach will give you a full picture of what you need to know about your audience. You may have a 100-page segmentation study that you paid $200K for and are wondering, “So how do I translate this into something actionable for my business?” The answer is to take that broad study and combine it with more targeted research and testing of specific hypothesis that hold promise of getting you to “good.” As David Berkowitz concedes, “[Agencies] have guessed at our target audience’s interests…rather than conducting research that could have provided real answers.” That research he’s talking about does not need to be terribly time-consuming nor expensive, yet it can significantly increase adoption rates, reduce rework and help prevent expensive missteps as you develop an engaging experience for your audience. 

Tip #4:  Make Sure the Customer has a Voice

Similar to Tip #3, someone from the agency’s Customer/User Experience group (research/usability analyst, information/interaction/experience architect, etc.) should be at any meeting involving discussion of the agency’s creative concepts or the desired experience of the design you are working on. If they’re not, explain that you want someone in the room who can be the objective voice of the customer (VOC). If only Creative is represented, you may fall victim to self-deceit or, as Berkowitz describes it, “Falling in love with ideas without considering what would provide value for our target audience.” While it is true that you can’t always rely on people to know what they will want or do at some future date under varying circumstances (how many people asked for an iPod before it existed?), you can construct tests that allow them to give you frank and actionable reactions to what you think they will want or do. And asking them can pay valuable dividends in loyalty and advocacy.

Tip #5: Get Educated

With new technologies and trends evolving every day, it can be difficult to filter through the collection of buzz words to understand where a smart investment lies (“Social Media?” “Web 2.0?” “You-Tube?” “Twitter?” “Web 3.0????”… WT$%^&!!!).  As Mr. Berkowitz confesses, “Agencies have hurried into the newest, most-buzzed-about social spaces without developing a strategy….we have imitated when we could have innovated.” The more educated you are on whatever it is you’re asking your agency to explore, the better you’ll be able to speak the same language, ask relevant questions, challenge assumptions, ensure your best interests are being considered, and, ultimately ensure that you’re getting value for your investment. If you spend just 1-2 hours a week scanning articles and becoming more knowledgeable, you’ll find almost immediate relevance to your business…you’ll also grow more relevant and personally competitive in your chosen profession.

Tip #6: Take Control of Measurement & Evaluation

Chances are agencies pitched you a fantastic program that was going to deliver amazing results based on how you’ve defined “good.” The program likely included some form of ongoing measurement to be conducted and analyzed by the agency. The problem is there’s an inherent bias when an agency measures the effectiveness of a program they create.  Similar to Tip #5, the more you and your business can dictate benchmarks for success to your agency and ensure they are tracking progress transparently to you, the more you can be assured that your program is genuinely fulfilling the value promised in the original pitch. You should insist on participation in the development of an objective measurement strategy that is relevant to the bottom line goals of your business. Ideally, the implementation of the strategy will include both data analysis and access to the raw data so you and/or a trusted consultative partner can dig more deeply into suggested conclusions as necessary. The key is not to measure for measurement’s sake, but to measure with the intent of taking purposeful action to drive the results by which “good” is being measured.

Tip #7: Exhibit Self-Awareness (and Appropriate Self-Lessness)

Unless you’re Apple or one of a few other culturally iconic brands, your product or service probably isn’t all that to your target audience. As much as you might desire it to be a central focus of their day, or as much as your agencies might want to feed your ego (and theirs) with promises that they can make it so, it is much more likely that your audience has more important things at the center of their lives than that new launch you’re working on. Perhaps the most important trait of an effective experience designer (and, I would argue, business or brand manager) is empathy. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Take the time to figure out how they uniquely benefit from interacting with your brand, product or service. Only then can you create compelling experiences that provide value to them, and as a result, to you, and your business.

I’m sure these tips are easier communicated than accomplished, but I can assure you they work. If you’re serious about getting “good” from the work you and your agencies do every day, give these a try. You’ll get better results and save your agencies from having to make more embarrassing confessions.