Is your local Long Term Care (LTC) community communications clear as mud? The right message can build a mountain of great support while disjointed communications tear down and stick to a LTC operations’ reputation like muck on a white wall. Even after the event has passed, it can still leave a memorable stain on the minds and attitudes of residents and local supporters. As Long Term Care managers develop and maintain their relationship programs it is important to remember that many audiences don’t always accept messages the same way. What may be obvious to the person who created the information might not be meaningful to recipients. Therefore, it is always best to take the time to architect an outreach effort to be as simple and relevant to the audience as possible. The rule is: what you want to say is important and what your audience wants to hear is critically important.
Every time a message is passed on in the chain of communications the value and meaning is in danger of dilution between 20% to 50% at each transmission point. This is especially true if a human being is a gatekeeper or transmitter in the chain. The bad side of this equation is if the message is fragmented the potential for a facility’s brand to own a bad experience magnifies. In a post at the Marketing Interactions blog, Ardath Albee tells the story of a phone call from a favorite charity. The caller, an inarticulate young man, explained that he wasn't calling to ask for a donation. Unfortunately, his purpose was not immediately evident. "He launched into reading a script that was supposed to make me feel good about sustainable support for the charity," Albee says. “he stumbled over the words so badly that it took me a bit to figure out the charity was trying to thank me." At the end of his script he told Albee to have a nice day and abruptly hung up. There’s a good chance this caller had engaged up to hundreds of supporters in the same manner.
The Point: The way Long Term Care facilities communicate to their communities is critical. When developing outreach programs it is essential to rehearse and test the message for clarity, relavancy and, if possible, have a few people review it before sending. After the communications has been launched always follow up to monitor how the message is being delivered and received.
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