Monthly Archives: April 2009

Five reasons GCs should blog

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Last week I gave a presentation to a group of genetic counsellors entitled “Health 2.0: What it is, and why we should know about it.” My hope was to generate some interest among GCs in becoming more engaged with the online community, be it patients, other health professionals or researchers. Thought I would take this concept a step further here.

FIVE REASONS GCs SHOULD BLOG

  1. Personal development. It is easy to become caught up in the minutia of our everyday lives. Blogging demands that we consider the bigger picture, a viewpoint that I feel is essential.
  2. Professional development. Create opportunities. Scan this list of blogger’s favourite stories for the infinite ways that blogging can benefit your career. Network, without the expensive conference fees.
  3. Enhance the visibility of our profession. As a small and relatively unknown profession, we can benefit from the exposure.
  4. Contribute to (and help define) a global conversation. Clearly, genetic counsellors have a lot to say. But all too often our online contributions tend to be reactive, rather than proactive. So why not be the one to start the conversation?
  5. Stay relevant. The web has revolutionized the way in which people communicate and connect. As I have said before, for such a cutting edge field, we are surprising stagnant when it comes to innovation with the counsellor-patient interaction. Becoming more active participants in online conversations will enable us to adapt and stay relevant in our community.

I am happy to report that very soon a GC-authored group blog will be a reality! Thanks to some hard-working like-minded colleagues, the blog will be up and running soon. Please give me a shout if you’re interested in getting involved. Otherwise, stay tuned…

Your Service Is Broken

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Building Brands With A Fix

Today Seth Godin re-posted his classic customer experience presentation This Is Broken (watch it now if you haven’t) and reminded us that sadly little progress has been made.  What strikes me when you hear his 7 points again are how many are service specific. I guess it’s easier to fix products than people.

A while back I read an interesting post from Richard Branson on Virgin. He states that ‘of the Top 20 brands in the world, Virgin is the only one that does not play in a well-defined trade’ (i.e. Nike in athletics, Microsoft in computers). Virgin, rather, is a $5B way of life brand that aims to make people happier across a range of business activities, including airlines, trains, holidays, mobile phones, media, financial services and healthcare. As Branson says this “really gets up the noses of people who think they know ‘the rules of business’ (whatever they are).”

In an article last week from the economist, Zappos’ Tony Hsieh spoke of how he admired the Virgin Group’s exceptional growth model, and might one day take Zappos down a similar path:

From its origins as an online shoe-retailer founded in 1999, the company has expanded into selling clothes, consumer electronics and other items. Last year it rang up a record $1 billion in sales even as other retailers were struggling. Mr Hsieh muses out loud about the possibility that Zappos might one day enter the hotel or airline industries, perhaps in the offline world.

He reckons Zappos can cultivate a reputation for outstanding customer service to the point where it, too, can become a springboard into several markets. He once described Zappos as “a service company that just happens to sell shoes”.

What all this says to me is that in this fragmented, small brand, value-based market, there is still a role for larger companies that stand for consumer trust. But trust today is less about product quality than ever (because pretty good is price of entry). Instead, companies like Virgin and Zappos will succeed because they offer an exceptional service fix.

Risks, Benefits and Patient Empowerment

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I read an interesting article by Dr. Roni Zeiger about the importance of asking your doctor to outline all of the risks and benefits of any treatment or procedure prior to consenting to it.

In his own words

Your job as an informed consumer of healthcare is to make sure that the
benefits outweigh the risks. The stakes are too high for you to assume
that your doctor knows this…Demand the facts and make informed decisions. Your life depends on it.

I posted a comment on the article directly, but thought I would elaborate a little bit here. I think this argument particularly interesting in the context of a genetic counselling session. Part of my job is to outline the benefits (such as providing valuable information for family members) and the risks (such as the potential for future insurance discrimination) of pursuing a genetic test. After reviewing the risks and benefits,  we will ask the patient if he/she would like to proceed. I have always personally felt this to be a strength of my profession. Based on Dr. Zeiger’s argument above, we are ahead of the game.

However, I occasionally get the sense that people are confused by this process because it goes against the general flow of most other medical appointments. Also, there are some people who would prefer not to hear any of the risks, benefits and limitations of the test. Instead, they are only interested in hearing what we think they should do.

I don’t think there is any right or wrong way to be a patient. But if you align yourself with the patient empowerment camp, you’ll find like-minded healthcare providers in your genetics clinic. If you’d rather not hear the details, it could be a frustrating experience for you.

Size Matters

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Trust In Small

I’ve written about people, size, and trust plenty, but Harvard Business always says it better. This post connected a few ideas currently swirling around in my head, and put them so succinctly. Some snippets:

The gap of confidence between small companies and big ones is growing. We used to rely on the security of big companies. That’s why we worked for them. And hired them. And put our money in them.

But with the virtual collapse of AIG, Lehman, Citibank, GM, Chrysler, and many more — now even GE is in trouble — all that’s changed. Now it’s a risk to do business with the big ones.

We simply don’t trust companies anymore. We trust people. And in big companies, it’s hard to even find a person to trust as we scream “operator” into our telephones only to get transferred to another menu whose options have changed.

Small is the new big. Sustainable is the new growth. Trust is the new competitive advantage.

Everyone is Small On The Internet

So what do you do if you’re big? Act small of course. And if you look at the growing list of CEOs joining twitter, you realize many are – because social media helps us realize CEOs are people too.

A few days I ago I stumbled onto this slide from Undercurrent. It’s a handsome offer:

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uc_we_help_giants_05

Being Small Off-line

Obviously small brand tactics aren’t limited to the web. Newer successful mass brands like LuLuLemon and Innocent are built on smaller, non-corporate attitudes. Being human is hip. So have I mentioned this idea to Take Your Customer To Work on May 28th?