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Imagine you are a heavy smoker with a bad cough. You visit the doctor.
Dr.A is courteous, polite, professional. He examines you quickly, prescribes a cough medicine, and hands you a brochure about the ill-effects of smoking. He even signs you up to his newsletter mailing list – for free.
Dr.B does all of this – but in addition, he goes an extra mile.
- He explains that your smoking is responsible for the cough, and urges you to quit
- His secretary calls you 3 days later to check if you’re read the brochure and if you have any doubts or questions
- He quizzes you on the information he shares with you in his newsletter each time you visit
Which one would you continue visiting for your treatment?
It’s an obvious choice. Dr.A is good – but impersonal. Dr.B actually cares about you, your health, your treatment.
Practicing medicine influences my online business in many ways. That includes extending attitudes and approaches of a doctor-patient interaction into the Web-business marketplace.
And I care about the people I’m in contact with – on email, on Twitter, on my blog, in my private group – more deeply than many others.
Because such personalized assistance can’t be extended to a huge audience, I constantly prune down my networks. My email lists have thousands of subscribers, not millions. My Twitter following will soon be restricted. My blog is being placed behind a password shortly.
And some people wonder why. Isn’t it ok to just deal with people using a “take it or leave it” attitude? Why not just “put it out there” and let folks decide?
But to my way of thinking, that would be like a doctor leaving a collection of medicines and ‘do it yourself’ booklets in his waiting room – and just billing patients for what they pick up on the way out of the door!
You can’t just let the people you care about do anything they like or want.
A client is someone under your protection. In my clinic, the little children I treat are under my protection. In my online business, the struggling business owners I help are under my protection.
Just call me Dr.Business!
{ 5 comments }
What you say is true.. and we all know that there are still way to many A’s out there.
However, I think you’ve left out what I think is the more important part of social media.. (it matters in medicine too)
The best results come from LISTENING!
Taking actions to show your patient that you care is great. I’m all for it, but in studies I’ve seen, the outcome is greatly influenced by how a patient feels about being heard.
On hulu.com I’ve seen public service announcements where they are begging patients to speak up and let the health care professionals know what’s bugging them, or what questions they have.
I don’t know what a doctor thinks.. but from my perspective, they have never listened as much as I’d like. I often leave thinking that I’ve not got my chance to be heard, and I certainly feel better when I can chat with him.
Not rational at all. But human beings aren’t rational.. we’re emotional and the feelings matter.
It’s not the information. It’s not just tactics and procedures.. human beings are a crazy, emotional lot.. and will judge you and the experience by factors that just don’t make sense.
In the “good old days” patients thought the GP was all knowing.. seeking the town’s MD for advice on just about everything. How could it be? By the time they got good, they were years out of med school, and back then did fly off to conferences and seminars or cruise the net to keep up to date.
The reason we think of the old family doctor as the best bet in medicine is the relationship. Over the years, they would get to know patients outside of the clinical data.
Was this better? Maybe not.. but it sure felt nice.
Now the challenge is how to use the new technology to reach out to many more people.. touch more lives.. give a better experience.. Listening instead of pushing information (or pills to get them out of exam room.
That’s a great point, Warren.
As a surgeon, here’s an interesting tid-bit. Study after study
has shown that surgeons who are sued for negligence or
malpractice are NOT the most incompetent ones – but those with
the lowest level of ‘relationship’ and ‘trust’ with patients.
In other words, the surgeon who took time to relate with his or
her patient, get to understand their fears and concerns, and
try to allay them by sharing not only information but by
empathizing, were least likely to be sued – even if they messed
up big time.
Patients, like all other people, want to be acknowledged,
listened to, appreciated. Jay Abraham teaches that every one
of our clients/customers is walking around with a large sign
that reads: “I’m important. Listen to me.”
As far as you and I can relate to that universal need, fulfill
it, and build upon the ensuing relationship, we will benefit in
greater abundance than our people.
Other related posts on my blog that talk about this are:
* You Matter – That’s Why
* WHAT are you ALWAYS selling?
* At the Root of Terror (about ‘empathy’)
All success
Dr.Mani
The more I study, the more I’m convinced that we all we are all a complex bag of emotions.. far beyond anything science understands.
We try to be rational.. I’d call it rationalization.. making a pattern where the is none, following ideas that feel good, and pretending to be logical
In “Black Swan” there is a test of doctors and other experts that show they are more likely to hang on to a mistaken idea.
In “Predictably Irrational” I saw many examples of people doing what any outside observer could see was exactly the opposite of best for them.
And then I read “13 Things We Don’t Know” and learned of problems in such basic theories as Newton’s law of Gravity.. that all physics is based.
I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re on this planet to form relationships and have experiences.. I’m for meaningful connections and collecting stories.
Of course I’m wrong on many things.. but it FEELS right
That’s an interesting observation, Warren.
As an informal experiment, over many years, I tested how
often people were able to admit they are (or might be)
wrong about something… but would still do it anyway.
It happens VERY rarely.
We are all too often ‘ego invested’ in what we do, that
we are unable to separate the “me” from the “act”. If
the ‘act’ is wrong, then ‘I’ am wrong, by extension.
Personally, I classify things as those I will do, and
those I will not – and do NOT base the ‘rightness’ or
‘wrongness’ of things just because I will or won’t do
them.
Stated differently, there are things I know and agree
are wrong – but will still do. And not try and justify
or rationalize JUST BECAUSE I’ve done them!
That dichotomy of thinking/rationalizing comes from
sustained practice and training to separate the ‘reason
why’ or ‘moral value assessment’ from the decision to
take action.
Many hard core scientists and reasearchers have that
ability, to separate themselves from their experiments
and analysis – which is necessary to avoid ‘bias’
creeping in. However, the richness and variety of
human emotions precludes such assessment ever being
possible.
All success
Dr.Mani
P.S. – Speaking of Newton’s theory of gravity, I was
stunned to learn, from Michio Kaku’s book, “PARALLEL
WORLDS”, that the ‘conventional’ theory of gravity
was pretty convincingly dispelled in the late 1960’s.
Yet, school books STILL teach us how “objects attract”
and not even attempting to address “time space” and
how it bends to create apparent ‘attraction’.
Knowing how human emotions work, I can imagine how
teachers would react to the suggestion they teach it!
@Warren Whitlock
Well said Sir:
“Of course I’m wrong on many things.. but it FEELS right”
Does this boil down to that phrase used all over, by every one
—- concocted in varying ways “getting out of the comfort zone”.
All along I ‘ve understood it – yes, but never knew that simply what it meant
Warren! you made it possible with “Of course I’m wrong on many things.. but it FEELS right”
A very interesting topic Dr. Business – I feel it’s right to comment further.
One problem – would you publish it???
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