client service / dealing with clients

Consider This: Giving Advice, Making Decisions, and Nuance

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image - giving advice

An email from Helen, a soon-to-be independent advocate, posed this question to me: When I read the codes of ethics and best practices for advocates, I am clear that we can’t make decisions for clients. But how can I give them advice without sounding like I’m making a decision for them? Example: they asked me to find a neuro-oncologist for them. So I did. But now it seems like I was deciding which doctor they should see – making that […]

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Takers vs Givers: Far More Than Nuance for Advocates and Care Managers

1 Comment / 3 minutes of reading
caregiver or caretaker

Once when my mother was still alive (she passed in 2009) while she was in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, I visited my parents from 1200 miles away, seeing them for the first time in several months. Dad looked exhausted. “No wonder you’re so tired, Dad. Being Mom’s caretaker must be exhausting.” Dad, who had always been there for Mom – her incredibly supportive husband – paused for a moment, then replied, “Yes. It can be exhausting. You’re right. But

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What’s Next? Managing Client Expectations

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doors

Years ago, I worked with the staff at a large primary care practice teaching them some basic customer service-type skills to help them better manage their patients and, frankly, improve their own job satisfaction, too. Nurses, receptionists, the referral and billing groups – clinical and non-clinical staff attended. We made lists of patient complaints, then worked together to develop some simple and no-cost approaches they could use to reduce complaints. I then asked them to begin implementing some of those

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The Folly of a Free Consultation

1 Comment / 4 minutes of reading
samples of juice

In the past few days I’ve had occasion to check out more than one dozen websites created by advocates and care managers. Of those sites, all but two offered a “Free Consultation.” Say it ain’t so! Why? Because the great majority of these free consultation offers simply pave the road to failure. I know… most advocates and care managers who are new to business think that a “free sample” will convince people to work with them, sign a contract, send

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Aye, Aye, Aye – Don’t Begin with “I”!

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fudge

One of the simplest and most important rules to effective marketing is one that is broken most frequently by advocates who don’t really understand a few marketing basics. Yet, it’s among the simplest to understand once it’s explained. Further, it’s quite easy to fix. Good, effective marketing is always about seeing the world through the eyes of our target audiences. What we tell them should be focused on THEM and THEIR needs, framed as the benefits to working with us.

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