We Need a Brochure!

By Patricia Evans

It can be a real challenge helping clients find the path to success – but no consultant can afford short-cuts on this journey.

In a past life, I headed the public affairs and communications office of a major regional teaching hospital. I can’t count the number of times an internal customer would come into my office and declare confidently, “We need a brochure!” Over time, I learned that they were almost always wrong.

Even when we delivered the best brochure possible, it was usually at the department’s peril. Invariably the brochure failed to deliver what the customer expected, and they laid the blame for this “failure” at the feet of the people who created the brochure.

It wasn’t about the quality of our work, either. I soon learned that the root of the problem was assuming my clients knew what they needed! As a consultant, I now encounter the same issue on a regular basis. Thanks to past experience, I know the right answer is not to respond to the request by saying “I can do that!” but instead by asking, “Tell me about what you need.” By the time we’re finished exploring those needs, the answer is rarely the “brochure” my client originally asked for.

Clients engage consultants to bring skills, expertise and/or capacity that they believe are lacking within their organizations. While their diagnosis of a shortfall may be accurate, they are often not as effective at identifying the required solution.  The following example illustrates this gap.

Scenario A: “We need a brochure,” says the hospital’s imaging department manager. “Sure,” says the communications consultant. “Who’s your audience and what do you want to tell them with the brochure?”

The information is collected, the copy written, the illustrations selected, the brochure printed and distributed. Two months later, the manager complains to the consultant, “Well this brochure really is a dud. The doctors’ offices still don’t understand that we only book appointments between 8 am and noon. They still get annoyed when they try to call at 2 pm and get our voicemail. Your brochure was no help at all.”

Scenario B: “We need a brochure,” says the hospital’s medical imaging department manager. “Okay,” says the communications consultant. “Tell me about the problem you’re trying to solve.”

“Our budget only allows for a half-time receptionist,” says the manager, “so we only staff the phone lines on weekday mornings. Doctors’ offices are frustrated when they call after noon and get our voicemail. We need to send out a brochure so they know when to call to reach a live person.”

This brief exchange has the potential to completely alter not only the consultant’s understanding of the challenge, but also their chances of providing services that lead to success.

“So let me see if I understand,” says the consultant. “From your perspective, success would be doctors’ offices that know when to phone, don’t expect to get a live response at other times, and believe you offer an acceptable level of service. Have I missed anything?”

Note that the consultant didn’t say “success would be a brochure”. She’s already starting to open the client’s mind to other options, even if the manager doesn’t know it yet.

“That’s right,” says the imaging manager. “I want to reduce their frustration and improve the use of our receptionist’s time in the office. And I’m sure it would be nicer for the receptionist if she didn’t have to listen to all the complaints from the medical office assistants (MOAs).”

“Absolutely,” says the consultant. “So how about this: put me in contact with a few of the doctors’ offices you deal with. Let me talk to the MOAs and find out how they get their information, and what would be the most effective way to get your message out to them. I want to be sure we deliver the information in a way that is complete and relevant to them, but also in a way that lasts. I’m concerned that a brochure could work in the short term, but it could also get misplaced or not reach the right person in the office.”

You can see where this is going. After doing a little research, the consultant determined that a multi-pronged communication strategy was most likely to deliver the results the imaging department manager desired. The consultant proposed a suite of integrated activities to which the manager agreed:

1. Mailing a brightly coloured flyer to doctors’ offices, to the attention of PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR SCHEDULING MEDICAL IMAGING APPOINTMENTS, with details of the imaging department’s service hours and contact information.
2. A confidential scheduling mailbox, created so MOAs could send requests during times the department’s phone wasn’t staffed. This mailbox included an auto-reply message to acknowledge receipt of requests. That response included information about the department’s service hours and contact information, for the MOA’s future reference, and an electronic V-card they could save in the office computer with that same information.
3. A high-profile notice on the imaging department’s website regarding service hours and contact information, including the address for the scheduling mailbox and a link to download the V-card.
4. Scripts the receptionist can use to provide information to callers in various situations, including:
   1. Responding to frustrated callers, i.e. “I’m sorry you weren’t able to reach us when you wanted to. For next time, do you know about our scheduling mailbox option?”
   2. Ensuring callers know about service hours, i.e., “While I have you on the line, can I confirm that you know the best times to reach us, and how to reach us when we don’t offer phone service?”

Then the communications consultant offered an unexpected value-add: a suggestion to consider adjusting the receptionist’s office hours. Research had revealed that most MOAs preferred to make appointments in the afternoon and at the end of the clinic day, when the requests for referrals were received from doctors reflecting their entire day’s appointments.  Shifting the receptionist’s office hours to afternoons meant MOAs would be more likely to reach a friendly voice directly and book an appointment without having to wait until the next morning.

“We had no idea,” said the imaging department manager. “I’ll look into it – and thanks! It sounds like that could make the difference we’re aiming for.”

Lessons learned: a brochure might have worked in the short term, but real success lay in gaining an understanding of the underlying dynamics of the communication challenge, and addressing those factors. It’s a value-add piece that is easy to skip if we assume our clients know what they need. The consultant’s skill lies in helping help them discover what they REALLY need, and gain a new understanding of what will achieve their desired outcomes.

This example comes from health care communications, but over the years I’ve found the same diagnostic approach works in many other consulting contexts. What does success look like? How will we measure it? Will we know it when we see it? Only when you have the answers to those questions can you confidently make recommendations about getting from here to there – resulting in a journey you can lead your client on, with confidence in the outcome.