Tag: branding

Categories
Healthcare Call Centers

Does Your Medical Call Center Need a New Name?

Consider an Internal Rebranding Strategic Initiative

Consider an Internal Rebranding as a Strategic Initiative This Year

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Functionally you may label your operation as a medical call center, a healthcare contact center, or a medical answering service. This identifier may or may not be included in the name of your operation.

Regardless, it might be time to develop a new label. Though this could include a rebranding for marketing purposes, what I’m suggesting is rebranding yourself internally.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

In internal rebranding accomplishes two things.

First, an internal rebranding allows you to refocus your attention on the work you do, the needs of your community, and your strategic plans.

Each one of these initiatives must build upon a core foundation of knowing who you are and what you do. Without first establishing this framework, whatever house you built on it will not be stable.

Second, internal rebranding allows you to reposition your operation to the rest of your organization.

Most people outside of call centers don’t think highly of them. In most instances this includes the rest of your organization: corporate, sales and marketing, accounting, tech support, and healthcare staff.

Few of them recognize the key role you and your staff play in facilitating healthcare-related communications between patients and your organization. It’s time to reposition yourself from a cost center to a central communications hub.

Of course, to have any significant impact, this internal rebranding must run parallel with a fresh attitude, an invigorated perspective, and an increase in professionalism in all that you do.

Don’t let others look down on you because you’re “just the call center.” Instead, reinvent yourself with a new label. And to get your creativity flowing, here are ten ideas to consider or build upon:

Cast a vision for what you want your operation to become and be known for. Move away from being “just the call center,” and embark on an internal rebranding effort to reposition your operation.

This will heighten your staff’s self-esteem and enhance the rest of your organization’s perception of you.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Healthcare Call Center Essentials, available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book.

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of AnswerStat and Medical Call Center News covering the healthcare call center industry. Read his latest book, Sticky Customer Service.

Categories
Writing and Publishing

Public Relations and Promoting Your Book

Public Relations

Book publishing is more than just writing and producing books; it is also about selling them. Selling books requires a host of skills, including marketing, promotion, and public relations. Yes, public relations—PR for short.

At its most basic level, public relations is managing the flow of information from an entity (a company, organization, or an individual) to the public. As in the case of authors, the goal of this flow of information is to increase awareness of a book, both published and soon to be published. The intent is to produce interest in the ultimate purpose of generating sales. In between awareness and sales, lies intermediary goals such as sparking dialogue, fueling a buzz, encouraging word-of-mouth promotion, and even the hope of the campaign going viral, all of which is publicity.

When people think of PR, they think of the time-honored press release. But a press release is just that: it’s the start; it’s not the end. There is also advertising, interviews, email marketing, influencing the influencers, networking, book signings, book tours, and so on.

Though selling books and PR is more the concern of the self-published author, it also comes into play with traditionally published books. Publishers expect authors to promote their books, and often the publisher’s PR department’s budget for the book allows little more than sending out a press release.

While most authors will not master the art of public relations, a little bit of knowledge goes a long way.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

Categories
Writing and Publishing

The Author Brand

As an Author, You are Your Brand

Many authors are uncomfortable with the idea of branding themselves. I know I was. But the reality is that as authors, we are our brand. Yes, there are some exceptions, but they are rare.

And before you decide to become one of those exceptions, ask yourself this one critical question: “If I create a brand for my writing, am I content to write about that brand for the rest of my life?” If you can’t make that commitment or change your mind, then be aware that all your efforts to build and promote that brand will be wasted. But if we brand ourselves, it can follow us, whatever we write in the future.

Whether you brand yourself as an author or decide to build a brand around a topic, series, or field, there is an art to building a brand.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.