Try before you buy

What if you could let people truly experience your great service before they buy?

Virgin Atlantic brought its legendary "Upper Class" service to a park bench in New York City — complete with fine dining and "live" entertainment. 

In health care, customer service begins with active listening, communication and compassion. You can let people sample that experience out in the community through free events open to the public. 

Making a great connection with potential patients is important, but you must be able to replicate that same level of active listening, communication and compassion in every patient encounter, every day. 

Remember, that experience is your brand.

At Virgin Atlantic we fly in the face of ordinary with all that we do, and we wanted to bring a taste of that to the streets of NYC. So we took over an ordinary bench and gave unsuspecting park-goers a taste of the Virgin Atlantic experience.

I bought new sandals … and cleaned a beach!

Cause marketing rolls on. 

My new Tevas are awesome — and there was more awesomeness when I opened the box.

I learned I also did a little something to improve the environment.

The shoes fit and feel great. And now I have an even warmer feeling about the company, too. 

Health care systems, hospitals and physician groups can be the recipients of localized cause marketing by partnering with selected local merchants.

It already happens regularly with the "buy a star and support a charity" promotions in grocery and convenience stores and with promotions from community-minded companies like Dunkin' Donuts, which supports local blood banks. 

Go out and find your perfect health connection!

Happy 4 (th)!

It's Independence Day! Enjoy the holiday!

Misquamicut Beach, Westerly, R.I.

Is your brand on the map?

Mapping brands seems to be all the rage. Here are two recent brand maps of the U.S. 

Think of what this might look like for health care.

What metrics would you use to determine the single dominant brand in one state — size, reputation, profitability, patient satisfaction scores, commitment to charity care, U.S. News "Best Hospitals" ranking?

In states like Minnesota or Ohio, the brands might be obvious (arguably Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic, respectively).

But what about states like Massachusetts and Texas that have cities rich in prestigious health care brands, such as Boston and Houston?

For most health systems, your brand must stand out in your own market and have the strength to have patients "stay local," even in the face of larger regional and national brands.

The not-so-secret sauce is a blend of clinical quality (skills, experience and top outcomes), organizational culture (a sense that those who work there love to) and a truly exceptional patient experience (when patients and families say, "Wow!"). 

The Corporate States of America from Steve Lovelace.

Red, White and Booze from Thrillist.

Your idea of healthy living is … yours

Healthy living looks different to each individual.

But a healthy community is something everyone can visualize. And a goal to which every community can aspire.

It means better access to healthy foods, safe parks and playgrounds for kids, improved routes to walk and bike to school and work, and lowering the incidence of diseases — from diabetes to obesity to heart disease and beyond.

We can look at aggregate numbers of health behaviors and indicators that we want to improve — easy targets are smoking rates, obesity levels, amounts of exercise and incidences of high blood pressure — but everyone in our community will not be able to achieve every metric. 

But everyone can get healthier.

As we focus on building healthier communities, let's not forget individualism. That's why community minded health initiatives must focus on helping people achieve individual goals while aiming for a community goal. By doing so, we can help everyone find and reach their highest level of health — and improve all those aggregate measurements that give us an overall community health score.

Last month the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America issued a report, Collaboration to Build Healthier Communities, which explored how cross-sector partnerships can foster an environment that promote health. 

Cross-sector collaborations have had a positive impact on the health of many U.S. communities.

The report lauded the many and now widespread partnerships across the U.S. that are beginning to make a tangible difference in people's lives (I was proud to be a founding member of such a group, Voices for a Healthy SouthCoast).

The report offered three recommendations to keep the momentum going:

1. National leadership: Many of these collabortions are local and regional. The RWJF suggests a formal national network to tie them together.
2. Better skills and knowledge: Build an educational and training system that imparts technical and communication skills that will help these coalitions build capacity.
3. Build through measurement: Create evidence-based resources, such as a national database, to help document and promote the progress. This will help bolster existing projects and give rise and confidence to those that are emerging.

It is exciting to see such great momentum, solid ideas and positive energy in the make our communities healthier movement. 

You can download the entire RWJF report here.