Pucker Up: K.I.S.S. Communications in Healthcare

Let's keep it clean and simple for a Friday (it'll get plenty dirty and disorganized tomorrow as Holland healthcare/tech luminaries cluster for the first Dutch Health 2.0 unconference).

It should be ridiculously simple to establish trust among consumers, and communicate the value your healthcare organization provides.

All you have to do is be sure each and EVERY message and interaction ('touch') reinforces the patient's perspective that we are receiving consumer-centric care designed just for us.

This doesn't have to be painful for your communications team, and it doesn't mean you relegate good medicine and safe patient care to the sidelines.

Case in point: the short, very sweet message I just got when I confirmed my subscription to Method's email blast.

Instead of a boring line telling me how to perform the almost inevitable future-unsubscribe, I was greeted with this little bundle of literary cuteness:

"Welcome to our cozy club of people against dirty. You know that scene in "It's a Wonderful Life" when the bells ring every time an angel gets his or her wings. Well, you can imagine the cacophony of bell-ringing right now in our little office in Richmond. Not real bell ringing. It's more of a metaphor. But that'll give you an idea how excited we are that you've joined our little cleaning revolution. "

Really, it's high on the cheese quotient, but it brought a smile to my face, and I actually read the whole confirmation message.

Plus, now I'm blogging about it for you wonderful people, so it just goes to show a little investment in creating a corporate style reading as highly personal secures a high rate of return.

While we're on the subject, Method's whole site is clean, crisp, and easy to use. They obviously subscribe to the frameless manifesto.

Your hospital site should do the same - now's the perfect time to clean up your act.