Your employees are the stewards of your reputation. They are the most important marketing asset you have. Make them your brand ambassadors

1. Building Trust and Guarding
Reputation For Home Health
Providers
Connecticut Association for
Healthcare at Home
Annual Meeting
Nov. 5, 2015

2. The Good News =You’ve Done
Everything Right. RIGHT??
• You hired that consultant
• You did those client
satisfaction surveys
• You focused-grouped
your referral sources
• You’ve plumbed the
brains of your
– Managers
– Care providers
– Board members
– Referral sources
– Folks you don’t even know

3. You’ve got that responsively
designed website

4. You’ve employed state-of-the-art
marketing tactics

5. But………………Who is the real face
of your brand?

6. These are your….
• Custodians of your
brand
• Community
Ambassadors
• The face of your
organization to the
world
• The way your brand
plays out outside your
four walls

7. Who do you know?

8. What does this mean?
The management of
your reputation is in
the hands of
hundreds of
minimum-wage
workers

9. What does it mean?
Part II
• With one
• unintended slip
One moment of
bad judgement
• One misplaced
comment =
– All your work
building a brand
can and will be
undone

10. What is a Reputation?
• Who your are expressed
in someone else’s terms
• Every organization
develops a reputation
based on peoples’
perceptions of it over
time

11. REPUTATION
by Warren Buffett
“If you lose
money for the
firm by a bad
decision, I will be
understanding. If
you lose
reputation for the
firm, I will be
ruthless”

12. Your reputation is….
What it is
• Your most important asset
• Built over time
• Fragile
• Vulnerable
What it does
• Serves as a way for
healthcare systems and
primary care providers to
evaluate you
• Distinguishes you from the
increasing number of
alternatives available
• Helps you weather a
violation or other crisis

13. When Reputations Go Wrong

14. Butter Queen’s Reputation Melt-Down
• What happen
– Harassment lawsuit
filed 6/19/2013 by
2 former employee
in 2012
– Testimony by Deen
admitting the N-
word
– Lawsuit eventually
thrown out but….
• What resulted
– Erupted on social media
– Nat’l Enquirer claimed
video of racist remarks
– Skewered on the Daily
Show 6/20/13
– Bailed on Today Show
6/21/13
– Deen’s embarrassing
apology 6/21/13 …
– Dropped by the Food
Network 6/21/13
afternoon

15. Reputation Shattered
$17 million empire lost $10 million
• Smithfield Foods - dropped as spokeswoman.
• Walmart - ended their relationship
• Caesars Entertainment – removed Deen's name
off of four of its restaurants
• Other lost sponsorships
– Target
– Home Depot
– QVC
– Diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk
• Publisher of her upcoming cookbook cancelled
their deal despite its spot on Amazon as #1

16. Years to Form -- Ruined in an Instant
• Lululemon
• BP
• Tiger Woods
– "I've always been aware
that the image you
patiently construct for an
entire career can be ruined
in a minute. It scares you a
bit, but that's the way
things are."
• Roger Federer

17. In an instant…….

18. Your Employees =
The Stewards of Your Reputation
• Your community ambassadors
• Your face to the “customer”
• Your best recruiters of other “stars”
• You most likely Brand Assassins
– “100 years of trust can be broken by an intern or
an hourly employee”
• Mark McClennan, MDL Group

19. The Employee Brand
Good employer brand=
–Perceived as an
employer of
choice
–Known in your
industry and
region as a highly
desirable place to
work
Bad employer brand =
–Losing star
performers
–Experiencing an
uphill climb to
replace them

20. “Your Culture is Your Brand”
Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos
“With the Internet
connecting everyone
together, companies
are becoming more
and more
transparent whether
they like it or not”

21. “Your Culture is Your Brand”
Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos
“The fundamental
problem is that you
can’t anticipate
every possible touch
point that could
influence the
perception of your
company’s brand.”
Employee culture is
the best way to build
a brand for the long
term
“Protecting the
company culture and
sticking to core values
is a long-term benefit”

22. Your Culture Defines
• The face you ultimately
show to the world
• The way you align your
behavior at a corporate
level
• The way you present
yourselves to the
evolving healthcare
system
• How your employees
treat your clients
• How you treat your
employees
• What you will not do
• What you will not
tolerate

23. A Culture of Delivering Happiness

27. Uber -When a Dysfunctional Culture
Blights a Brand
• Culture = Upstart, arrogant, misogynistic
• Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
– Brags that his position as CEO helps his sexual
conquests
• Nicknamed the app "Boober."
• One Uber promotion tried to connect riders
with "hot chicks."
• Data mining for "walk of shame" documented
in Uber blog

28. Uber-dumb continues
• Exec. Emil Michael – $1 million to smear the
reputations of journalists who are critical of
the company.
– Sarah Lacy of PandoDaily
• #DeleteUber = trending hashtag as Uber users
delete the app in growing numbers
– Spiked to 40X/hr – Twitter
– #1 on wikiHow page on how to cancel an Uber
account

29. GM – A Culture of “No Responsibility
• The situation
– Faulty ignition switch is estimated to have been responsible for
over 107 deaths
– GM has set aside $400 million to cover compensation through
the program
• The report
– GM personnel didn’t address the situation for 11 years
– “While everybody who was engaged on the ignition switch issue
had the responsibility to fix it, nobody took responsibility.”
– “No demonstrated sense of urgency”
– “The ignition switch issue was touched by numerous parties at
GM – engineers, investigators, lawyers – but nobody raised the
problem to the highest levels of the company.”

30. When Culture and Reputation Align
• “Customer”
loyalty
• Interest &
acceptance by
hospitals & other
providers
• Halo Effect
– People trust you
– People give you
the benefit of
the doubt in
tough times

31. What Can Homecare Agencies Do?
• Understand the role of
the hourly worker in
carrying your
reputation into the
community
• Acknowledge that
they have the power to
– enhance and define
your reputation
– secure the future of
their agency
• Emphasize that
responsibility with them
• Supervise those
who are your brand
on the street
• Educate them
about their roles as
“keepers of the
flame”
• Empower them to
be a positive face of
your reputation

32. Remember…………

33. The Keeper of the Flame?
Help them to understand
that you and they are
judged on their:
– Dress
– Attitude
– Personal hygiene
– Cell phone use in front
of clients

34. What You Can Do
• Treat them with the
respect they deserve as
community
ambassadors
• Acknowledge their
efforts in this area
– Public recognition for
those who do it right
• Offer incentives for in-
home care providers
who do the right thing
• WORKSHOP QUESTION:
How can you showcase
good behavior?
• WORKSHOP QUESTION:
What incentives can you
offer to successful
community
ambassadors?

35. Set and Measure Customer
Satisfaction
• Set expectations with t
in-home caregivers and
clients
• Take client satisfaction
seriously
• Find creative ways to
measure customer
satisfaction
– not in front of the in-
home caregiver
• Create ways for clients
to report issues when
the in-home caregiver
is not present
• Learn and share results
• Reward improvement

36. Fall 2015 Home Health Aide
Teleconference Series
The Aide's Role in
Communication
Dec. 10
3:00 to 4:00

37. …and why do this?

40. Andrea Obston
Andrea Obston Marketing Communications,
LLC
860-243-1447
aobston@aomc.com
www.aomc.com
@aobston
facebook/andreaobstonmarketingcommunications