By Rich Obertots
AWESOME OUTREACH SYSTEM ELEMENTS – BUT HOW WILL WE KNOW WHAT WORKS – KIMs
In our clinical, communications, aviation, mechanical and program management realms we have infinite metrics to measure to help us determine how we are doing. If we understand their implications – then use these and monitor consistently – we will be effective and succeed. The same goes for Outreach. The question is – each day – what Key Impact Metrics (KIMs) are you using to measure, monitor, course-correct and remain agile to be sure you are astonishing your customers to earn and stimulate flight requests?
As it relates to astonishing your customers you already know the VACC Mission Metrics™ (Velocity, Affinity, Competency and Consistency) if you are one of our clients. And you have all the detailed templates on each of these to be sure you focus on the KIMs that matter most to customers.
We know that Safety and our System Performance – how we execute the core functions of Critical Medical Aviation – propel the highest impact for those that know of us and with whom we engage. However – for those to whom we are obscure or unknown and to be sure known customers are being set up to succeed and helped even when they are not making flight requests – Outreach is crucial to create, sustain and fortify authentic appropriate relationships and drive economic activity.
Now – when you are evaluating your own Outreach Operating System performance – what are your KIMs? And believe me – it is so much more than Flight Requests!
SOME EXAMPLES OF KIMs to MONITOR and ROI
First – many reading this that are non-business may have heard or seen ROI but do not know what this represents.
[Any CPAs or business terminology extremists – please excuse my simple description of ROI]
ROI means Return on Investment. In the most primitive terms – if an organization invests $50,000 for a new asset – it will expect that – over a period of time (the shorter the better) – the increased efficiency or productivity (or both) that will happen will result not only in breaking even ($50,000 is earned back or B/E [Break Even]) but multiples of this will occur, e.g. $50,000 invested – over two years – the yield is $250,000. Simply put, $250,000 minus the $50,000 invested = $200,000. That’s the “Return.” The same applies to investments in Outreach.
As an example – if a Flight Program invests in a full-time Outreach Coordinator (asset) at each base – those professionals – if properly selected, mentored, developed – then provided an OutreachMATRIX™ configured CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform and other required tools – will earn and stimulate far more flight requests than crews trying to do Outreach when they can “fit it in on bad weather days” or when they are allowed.
Investing in professionals that devote their all to Outreach and compliment this with flight crew and education involvement by far outperforms random and episodic Outreach that totally violates the core principles of effective Outreach – rhythm, tempo and dynamics – Outreach Consistency. This is mission critical for success.
You will fail at Outreach if it is done, “When crews have some free time.”
3 WAYS YOU THRIVE: Being Safe – Astonishing the Right Customers and Relentless/Systematized Outreach.
After 19 years at this – we have found the ROI to properly select, develop, support and implement a Full-Time Outreach Coordinator at each base is HUGE! In 10X multiples or more.
Those that have made such smart investments – know this. It remains a mystery why so many in our industry do not do the same – especially when earning flight requests – through safety and system performance – amplified by effective Outreach really drives all economic activity?
A true mystery – when every other kind of enterprise invests heavily in people and processes like Outreach that DRIVE ECONOMIC ACTIVITY by implementing the marketing strategy. A mystery? But a huge Competitive Sledge for those that “get it.”
So let’s make sure you are one of those that gets it! Okay?
SOME VERY BASIC KIMs
The KIMs I will discuss are ideal KIMs to evaluate your Full-Time Outreach Coordinators or your overall Outreach Operating System. I am going to keep this simple and only provide a few – these will be a good basic start.
Medically Necessary and Appropriate Flight Requests.
Why not flight completions? Of course those matter – however – Outreach results should not be subject to weather, maintenance, system overload, lack of crews and other factors. The purpose of Outreach is to understand and astonish the right customers consistently to earn and stimulate flight requests. Before, during and after transports.
Also – Outreach education helps to amplify the number of medically necessary and appropriate flight requests. The great news is – all of this ties into safety! Why?
Back in 2005, I offered a presentation at AMTC that demonstrated how Outreach creating more flight requests actually increases your safety.
Simple math. More requests = more selectivity (therefore more likelihood to not feel pressure to take marginal circumstance flights) = increased safety + overall more completed patient missions.
It’s even better – when your Outreach education is so effective that those initial flight requests are medically necessary and appropriate. Make sense?
ROI: Investment in systematized Outreach – with an emphasis on full-time properly selected and trained Outreach Coordinators at each base with CRM platforms increases safety and flight requests and drives economic activity.
2. Documented Customer Data in an OutreachMATRIX™ configured CRM;
INTIMATE CUSTOMER INTELLIGENCE HAS TO BE CAPTURED – DOCUMENTED & MEASURED
Right now – what is in your CRM and how deeply and intimately do you know each customer or potential customer?
Do you know who is out in your market space that can make or influence flight requests now or in the future – as in your Dormant category?
Do you know the exact number and ratio of Decision-Makers, Influences, Dormants and Bricks being documented each month?
Of these do you know which are Loyal, Neutral and Antagonistic and the ratio?
And – how often are they changing categories – as in – who shifted from Neutral to Loyal – or – who shifted from Loyal to Antagonistic – why and what is being done about this through your Outreach?
In your CRM – are each customer’s 3 Main Intrinsic Drivers documented?
For all of your customers – how many have all three documented – two – or just one – then – which ones?
Do you then know – of these intrinsic drivers – how many customers share similar types so that you can Plan & Orchestrate Peer2Peer TRIAD ™ Outreach Events or Content-Marketing efforts that align directly with their passions, professions and where they reside, work or where they graduated from Medical School?
As my former client and friend Ralph McDaniel says, “I wanted each of my ROCs (Regional Outreach Coordinators) at each base to know their customer’s favorite ice cream flavor. And on a given Friday – get some to them in the early afternoon and tell them to get home to their family to share it before it melts.” That’s customer intimacy.
(Ralph’s Flight Program – Rescue Air 1 in Atlanta – did Outreach right – grew – and was eventually acquired by a Private Equity Firm)
It’s not about birthdays – anybody can get that information (and customers know this) – but do you know each customer’s favorite ice-cream flavor – then do you take action on that – authentically and consistently with other actions that have meaning to each customer? Then monitor and measure results – which are not always flight requests but may be a positive referral by the ice cream recipient to a new E.D. physician to use your services!
This is just the beginning. At a minimum be monitoring the numbers of Loyal Decision-Makers and Loyal Influencers – then the metrics on your Outreach encounters monthly with each in distinct categories. Like;
- Number of Problems Solved (Unrelated to flights; How often were you the first resource of choice and helped that customer with a challenge of any kind? Like helping to find Elder Care for their parent.)
- Number of Relentless Authentic Recognition actions launched – with whom – in each quadrant and sector of your base territory
- Number of Hand-Written Thank You Cards sent and to whom – (Yes – there are still items that are not digital that matter and will differentiate your Outreach.)
ROI: Investment in knowing your customers intimately and astonishing the right ones consistently increases flight requests and drives economic activity.
3. Evidence that those conducting Outreach are doing so using proven methods, techniques and skill-sets specifically designed for Critical Medical Aviation
For these KIMs refer to your analytics in your Outreach / Flight Request Stimulator Learning Management System to begin.
Based on the Seven Core Skill Sets – do those responsible and accountable for Outreach demonstrate competency in the assessments and then are you seeing these transferred to the field with customers?
Are you sure that ratios of listening to talking are at least 90/10? And when talking – are they asking the right kinds of open-ended questions to especially focus on capturing and documenting intrinsic drivers?
REMEMBER – OUTREACH IS NOT ABOUT “GIFT OF GAB” IT’S ALL ABOUT GIFT OF GRAB! Asking the right questions to grab and document information in your CRM about what has meaning for each customer – then taking right and consistent action on this.
ROI: Investing in systems and methods to train Outreachers in skill-sets customized for Critical Medical Aviation increases flight requests and drives economic activity.
4. Outreach Education KIMs for Driven and Embedded Events
For each individual that participated in each driven and each embedded event that your Outreach Coordinators documented in your CRM – which ones made flight requests?
Remember – this is all about individuals – then secondarily about organizations.
The more you know about who actually made the flight request the far better. Because then you can devote additional educational resources and time to the individuals populated in the highest yielding sector of your OutreachMATRIX™
ROI: Investment in capturing detailed data on who engages in your driven and embedded Outreach Events increases flight requests and drives economic activity.
5. KIMs in your Relentless Authentic Recognition™
You know that being the organization known in your market space for recognizing performance is crucial. So what are your KIMs on your doing this? How often. What kinds of RAR are you doing? Where and for whom?
ROI: Investment in Relentless Authentic Recognition – being known as the “De-Facto Organization That Identifies and Recognizes Performace” increases flight requests and drives economic activity.
6. DIGITAL OUTREACH KIMs – The New Outreach Frontier and Outreach Force-Multiplier
The power of Digital Outreach is unfathomable. Better yet – IoT platforms and devices inherently provide instantaneous metrics. For these here are some DO KIMs:
Number of Hybrid (Human & Digital) Outreach Educational Events (Place-Based + Real-Time High-Definition Interactive Video-Streaming) using the EVERlasting Model™ conducted compared to the month/year before
Number of interactive Webinars you conducted and the analytics from these – what did you learn from each one – who attended – what was their activity while attending
Who engaged in the chat – what did they comment or ask
How many podcasts did you complete – who downloaded and which podcasts were most downloaded
The analytics from your BLOGs – the number of shares – comments
How many SFHDVs (Short Format High Definition Videos) did you produce and post in Q1 2019 as compared to Q1 2018?
What are your Vimeo and YouTube analytics from these compared to this month last year?
How often did you curate the audio from these to offer as podcasts?
And how often did you create transcripts from each video to re-purpose as BLOGs? Better this month/year as compared to last or is your commitment dropping off?
The number of aggregate steps taken by attendees at your Annual Trauma Symposium that participated in your Wellness Challenge Competition using the sponsor-branded wireless wristband devices you provided this year as compared to last year?
You are executing on all of these Digital Outreach Activities at each base for territory customization – consistently – right?
Okay – enough DIGITAL OUTREACH. This is the New Outreach Frontier and this topic is far too broad for this BLOG. Learn much more on this in, The Book of Outreach; How to Astonish Customers & Earn Flight Requests.
ROI: Leveraging the power of IoT and Digital Outreach – especially when a great deal of the tools are nearly free – is an almost infinite Outreach Force Multiplier – propels you light-years ahead of most competitors in our industry and will increase flight requests and drive economic activity.
BIG WHOLE NOTE: We’re not talking, “We have a fun FB page.” here. We’re talking ROBUST IoT-Leveraging DIGITAL OUTREACH!
7. NEVER FORGET THE BASICS TOO: KIMs on Flight Requests and Transport Completion Follow Ups
Most customers that make flight requests crave follow up. How are you doing at this?
What are you measuring and tracking?
Do you follow up flight requests that you do not accept?
Are you at 100% HIPAA compliant follow up on completed transports?
If you refer a flight to another program are you at 100% follow up on these so that your customer knows you managed this for them and you are still their first point of contact?
ROI: Outreach follow up that is relentless will increase flight requests and drive economic activity.
BOTTOM ECG; YOUR OUTREACH MUST BE INFORMED BY THE RIGHT KEY IMPACT METRICS
If you are not committed to determining which ones to track your Outreach Operating Plan can rapidly stall and fail.
If in fact, you are the most worthy flight program in your market space. If in fact, those counting on you for the highest probability of a positive outcome will achieve it through your service – then you had better be tops in your market space at Outreach. A relentless commitment to the right KIMs will enable you to succeed.
NOTE: In The Book of Outreach; How to Astonish Customers & Earn Flight Requests, VACC MissionMetrics™ and KIMs are covered in more detail.
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