Social media and healthcare

I have been busy visiting hospitals and presenting my ideas/thoughts on application of social media in a medium and large hospital set-up. I have also been busy commenting and micro blogging on leading healthcare blogs and magazines.

Today, I wrote about the social media and its impact on healthcare industry. The article was well received and published on Infosys blogs, follow the link below to read the article:

http://www.infosysblogs.com/healthcare/2011/09/improving_the_patient_experien.html?shr=twtm

I aim to keep my personal blog updated moving forward :)

Best Customer Service - email

Today I received a follow up email from the Customer Service Manager that was both personalized and unexpected. It knocked my socks off! I've included the entire email herein:



Hello Raghav!

It has been seven days since your order was shipped so hopefully your order #14077740 was delivered without any problems. We made sure to ship your order as QUICKLY as possible! I hope our service beat your expectations.

I noticed you ordered a protein powder. Smart! We have seen the best results from customers when they use a protein powder everyday like clockwork. The Met-Rx Meal Replacement, 18 Packets, Chocolate Peanut Butter is a great one.

I found this new article for you about protein that will help you get the best results:
Protein Bio-Availability Explained! It was written by Joey Vaillancourt.

Don't forget that taking a multi-vitamin can help you get better results.

Sincerely,
Neelish K
Customer Service Manager
XYZ.com

WOW! That's the best friggin' follow up email I think I've ever received. The reason I think it was so good is because the unexpected email was:

* Personalized based on my order
* Specific with regard to what I ordered
* Reinforced the purchase decisions I made
* Encouraged me to use what I bought
* Provided additional value-added references
* Provided contact information

How does your customer service messaging measure up? I hope this example will serve as a way to motivate all of us to think about our communications with customers after the sale. As marketers we know that keeping a customer is often much more affordable than acquiring a new one.

Take a closer look at your follow up processes. If you are communicating after the sale, is your communication personalized? Does it provide product purchase information? Additional resources that are related to the purchase? We can always make our follow up communications better!

Wear heart on the sleeve – redefined

I always wondered why we live so much for the society, neighbors, relatives and friends. Why don't we live the life the way we want? No matter how many movies you see (3 idiots, tare zameen par) we still feel engineering and medicines are the only freaking professions on this earth. Why don't we encourage innovation and out of box thinking? Have you ever seen (I am talking about things 20 years ago) someone telling their kids to become a wild life photographer or actor or beautician in India, no ways.

Now the best part is things are changing in India and I feel great about it. I have been visiting various pre-schools and day care centers in Bangalore (exploring them to get admission for my daughter Yukta). I have been talking to so many kids between the age of 3 to 6 years and I was startled to listen to these bright kids talk. What are their plans for life? (I thought it's too early and immature question for these kids). Here are few things that these younger generations are aspiring for: Astronaut, Writer, Photographer, commercial pilot, police and there was one girl who said she wants to be a doctor (obviously her mom and dad are doctors). The strange things, in fact the good thing was there was not even 1 kid who said he/she wants to be an engineerJ.

I always loved interacting with people, travelling, speaking (I am a chatter box), I had this fantasy to wear suit to work every day – not anymore though (mostly influenced by Hollywood movies) and making money. After my engineering I chose to be in sales and customer facing jobs. Initially I had too many NO's and DONT's from everyone I knew. Now I enjoy being a sales guy and being successful in what I do J.

Okay, here are few outstanding examples of what you call Wear heart on the sleeve. Vaibhav Gupta (B. Tech in Chem Engg from IIT Bombay and PGDCM from IIM Calcutta) resigned his full time job to start a Tea stall, do not believe it check out the website. It is a chain of tea shops across different malls in the country. They offer 30 different varieties of tea.

Prabhkiran Singh of IIT Mumbai runs a lassi shop after college hours. Here is a brief extract about the shop: "The 20-year-old from Punjab who came to IIT-Bombay three years ago, didn't find a decent lassi joint in the city, and hence would rely on his mother's recipe every time he craved one. That marked the birth of Khadke Glassi — now a stall set up on a computer trolley, operating after classes at IIT close. The Rs 10,000-venture now has a fan following of close to 500 on Facebook and apart from IIT students, alumni and faculty, residents of Powai, crowd around this little corner every evening". Here is the link to the complete story.

I am hoping we will soon see a paradigm shift in India when it comes to choosing the right job/career.

Tele-selling DO’s and DO NOT’s

I landed in my office an hour late due to hectic travel over the weekend. I was little busy checking and responding to my emails and planning my day…. I got a call from a salesperson who breathlessly told me what she did, her products and services, about her organization and why I must buy her product.

That's it.

No rapport-building, no questions about whether I might actually need what she has, no asking for permission. She just assumed I'd be happy to set aside some of my valuable time for her to make a more detailed sales pitch. As if I sit around my office twiddling my thumbs, wishing a salesperson would stop by to break up the monotony.

The technique she used—asking an either/or question rather than a yes/no question—is an old one. The supposed idea is that you don't give the prospect the option of saying no, so you're more likely to secure an appointment.

I can't believe big companies (and some so-called sales experts) are still training salespeople to use garbage like this! The tactic didn't work when it was first conceived and it doesn't work now.

On the contrary, it can work against you. It's a manipulative, annoying, high-pressure approach that makes prospects uncomfortable, angry and skeptical. Not how you want to start out a sales call.

I've done business with this company before, but this salesperson's ham-handed attempt to set an appointment annoyed me so much that I'm actually less likely to buy from them in the future. (At least their competitors don't call me up and try to force their way onto my calendar.)

When you're making cold calls, keep these principles in mind:

1. Respect your prospect's time.
   
2. Ask permission for everything.
   
3. Offer something of value. (And no, your brochure, informational DVD, or catalog is not something of value)
   
4. Make sure you do not call your prospects during peak business hours.
   
5. Do not assume every prospect you call will be waiting to buy your product.
   
6. Make the pitch more interactive.
   
7. Be clear and pleasant in everything you speak.
   
8. DO-NOT-REPEAT your sales script. Understand your product or service…not your sales script.
   

Thanks Giving!!

This is the most common thing but still ignored by most of us "Thanks Giving". The literal meaning of Thanks is to express our gratitude. How many of us thank or express gratitude to every small things that we encounter in our day to day busy life? Do we thank Auto wala or taxi wala after we get down from auto? Do we thank the hotel servers or cook when we face them? Most of the times the answer is "No".

The Thanksgiving holiday celebrated each November in the United States is known worldwide as an American custom, but its roots extend far back into human history. According to research conducted by The Center for World Thanksgiving at Thanks-Giving Square, the first Americans observed rituals and ceremonies to express gratitude to a higher power for life itself. A Seneca Indian ritual, for example, states, "Our Creator ... Shall continue to dwell above the sky, and this is where those on the earth will end their thanksgiving." Another quotation attributed to American Indians before Columbus is, "The plant has its nourishment from the earth and its limbs go up this way, in praise of its Maker ... like the limbs of a tree."

It is very important that we thank God for everything he has given us, its also equally important to thank every human we encounter in our day to day activity for all they do.

Isn't it nice when someone sends you a short note thanking you for the lovely dinner you shared, or the weekend you spent together? Doesn't it make you feel good - even great?
Sure it does.

If, I am asked to pen down the advantages of thanking, I would say it is tough to do that but some of the important advantages are:

1. You make the person feel very good and happy
2. You acknowledge the work in a very positive manner (you motivate them).
3. Thank You notes are thought of as gracious and well mannered
4. Thank You notes build trust
5. Thank You notes demonstrate your commitment to service. (In Business or work)
6. Thank You notes are the perfect way of introducing new products and services to your customers (and sleepy distributors). In other words, Thank You notes build relationships - the cornerstone of your business.

Every time someone buys something from you, send them a Thank You note. Every time someone gives you a referral, send them a Thank You note. Every time a new person signs up in your organization, send them a Thank You note. Every time some one does a seemingly insignificant task for you send a thank you note (The task may be server serving a cup of tea in a hotel e.t.c)

Here's the sweet story, I got from a reputed business magazine:

Tracey, a personal fitness trainer and friend of mine, sold a box of chewable vitamins from her Networking company to one of her clients. She sent a Thank You note as a follow up and included three business cards for possible referrals.

About a week later, during a baby shower at Tracey's client's house, one of the other moms there picked up the box of vitamins and asked about it. This prompted a conversation and the client passed out the rest of Tracey' s business cards.

Two moms bought vitamins, not only for their kids but for themselves as well.
Tracey sent out more Thank You notes to them. One of her new customers referred her sister, who bought a box, too. And on and on...

At the end of just one month, Tracey had eight new customers. One of them was seriously looking at joining her business!

Tracey didn't know these people from Eve.

The power of a Thank You note is awesome. It's one of your ultimate secret weapons. And isn't it great to live life and work with a sense of appreciation, anyway? As a side perk, you may even find that writing Thank You notes makes you feel great.

Don't prejudge this process, just do it. Please send me feedback on how the Thank You note process is working for you.

Truly yours,

Raghavendra Hunasgi (Raghav)

The Future Googlers with DP Rule!!!

It had been a long time desire for me to start a blog, which will consist of all the useful stuff (Technical and Non Technical). This idea turned into an action on April 3, 2006 after, I told sunya (My cute chaddi dost Sunil) about my plans to fly to New Zealand.

I want my first post on the blog to be very impressive (coz, I believe first impression leaves a deep impact).

I would love to introduce a concept called DP Rule (which is been coined by Vineetha Athrey and Swaroop my blog friends with very good blog's)

"The DP Rule:

The concept is "Determined about being determined, passionate about being passionate". Punch the next 6 months with the very best focus we can ever conjure up, and to hit upon exactly the kind of work we would want to do for the rest of our lives... In short planup the heighest things you want to achive and work towards it (Initially chosse the short term goal’s 6 months may be).

Here are the 3 best things about DP Rule:

1. First of all: DAP would stand for Determination and Passion.
2. Secondly, I love the meaning that "Dapper" stands for; which is, being elegantly stylish without being overtly flashy or ostentatious about it. It spells sophistication, and a sleek appearence.
3. Thirdly: If a person who blogs is a blogger, a person who DAPs ( Follows the DP Rule for success: Patented by Swaroop and Vineetha) is "Dapper"!!! :)

”We even thought, that 7 months down the line when we succeed in achieving our targets, we could even go out and market this 'DP Rule for Success' and start an "Art of Dapping' cult and that will be a religion in itself. And you never know, we might even be the Larry Page and Sergei Brin( Google) of the success-mantra genre! ;)And the members of this 'Dappers' Corner' would be known as 'Dappers' . So that makes the two of us, 'The GodDappers' ;)

And it looks like Dapping is gonna work.... I have been able to consistently achieve all the small-term targets I've been setting for myself. Mom commented this morn' saying,

"Vini, you are acting like your life depends on this. Chill!

"But I realised that if I chill now, the rest of my life will be frozen!!

PS: What exactly is my plan for the next 7 months will be discussed, after 7 months. In the meanwhile, keep watching this space. Sometime later you all will be able to say, "We got to watch the growth of Dappers from scratch!" ;)” By Vineetha Athrey

Truly your's

Raghavendra Hunasgi