Power of the People

Master of trivia, I’m not. Nor am I one of those who remembers movie lines – however classic – beyond the epymonyous “Luke, I am your father.” and the less-remembered but fun “Cyrus, this here is your barbecue, and it tastes good.” espoused by honor-bound Nicholas Cage in ConAir. But I digress, for I do have an interesting bit of trivia that’s niggling at the corners of my mind.

According to emarketer.com, a full 61% of survey respondents say that they checked online reviews, blogs, and other customer feedback forums before buying a new product or service, with search engines being the preferred way to research purchases. Eight of ten looking for reviews said these evaluations had some level of influence on their purchases. Huh.

Let’s think about that again. So it’s safe to assert – to some degree – that for considered purchase items/services, that the opinions offered by others factor into the buying equation for over half of the purchases, and that for the most part, those opinions influenced a person’s decision to commit (euphemism for “buy”) or keep looking.

Wow, that’s powerful medicine.

Living in an era where it’s nearly impossible to escape the likelihood of being evaluated (which naturally opens the door to potential, and possibly public, criticism) gets to the heart of reputation management (if you ignore it, are you really managing it?). I think your reputation (which is symbiotic with your brand) is really all you have.

Consider health care and the all-important family physician or pediatrician. How did you choose yours? Did you do some research? Maybe, but I’ll bet it was the old fashioned kind – you asked a co-worker who is a mother of three, or you asked around at junior’s day care. I mean, it’s not like you pick a doctor from the yellow pages. You wanted the suggestion of someone you trust, even if that trust is a lowercase “t” because is built on a pseudo-relationship with someone who shares a commonality with you (in this case, some exposure to children) rather than someone who has earned your admiration, loyalty, and Trust.

But the result is the same. You chose Dr. McDonald because you heard Hunter’s mom say that she liked Dr. McDonald’s bedside manner and he had a nice nurse who helped get prescriptions without office visits for things like pink eye and seasonal allergies (hey, my last pediatrician had me at “Oh, just send me an email if you need. . .). Bingo, Dr. McDonald is in. Chosen. Score. No direct mail, outdoor billboard, Little League sponsorship, nothing. That Dr. McDonald has it easy. Talk about organic referrals!

So there are two interesting angles to consider in this scenario. How important is reputation management to a physician? Are they proactive and intentional about it? Or do they kind of just let things happen, and maybe get lucky enough to succeed by virtue of happy accident. The other angle is how progressive would a health organization have to be in order to incorporate a ratings or review system right into their Web site (Find-A-Doctor function on their site)? Or to post the results from a physician rate card survey in the waiting room?

And if reputations are preceding physicians (therefore, presumably important), wouldn’t it be wise to embrace the reality that consumers are questioning which doctors are best – and provide the conversation forum and (gasp!) even moderate it? Just who has the power then – the physician or the people?

Maybe both.