By Rich Obertots
(Photo of an Outreach Practitioner shortly after he has been informed that he’d better end his addiction to passing out T-shirts as his main strategy to earn and stimulate flight requests.) Below – he will be shown how. This is not you – right?
END THE HABITUATION: THERE’S A BETTER AND MORE ENDURING WAY
When Critical Medical Aviation began – for some reason flight programs used T-shirts, ball caps, pens, pins and pizza and other “SWAG” to try to earn and stimulate flight requests. This “tradition” continued and did one thing for sure; HABITUATED ALL CUSTOMERS TO EXPECT T-SHIRTS, BALL CAPS, PINS, PENS & PIZZA during every Outreach encounter – which also created a SWAG RACE – where flight programs in the same territory compete and escalate the give-aways thinking this really works to earn trust.
It continues unabated to this day – and it’s a mistake! Yes – we need branding items – and yes – with great discretion – items can be given away – ideally EARNED INSTEAD – however – for those that truly hope to EARN TRUST AND BE HIGHLY CRAVED BY CUSTOMERS – the act of giving stuff away – over time – (note OVERTIME) is minimally effective.
Perhaps the worst thing about this habituation – is that flight crews have been mistakenly led to believe that giving away SWAG works – so they need to be enlightened (rehabbed) too.
Finally – you must decide; what kind of customers do you actually want? Those that make their decisions on who to request based on the free stuff you give them – or those that understand and crave putting their patients in the hands, souls and minds of highly safe – technically capable – high-affinity PROFESSIONALS that are employed by a flight program that operates as a high-velocity-high-efficacy-resource?
SET UP CUSTOMERS FOR SUCCESS
After 18 years in Critical Medical Aviation and 39 years in critical healthcare with thousands upon thousands of customer encounters throughout Australia, Canada and the USA – I can assure you – if you are seeking a method that endures over time to earn and stimulate flight requests and creates a Critical Mass of Authentic Appropriate Relationships (vs. creates a mass of SWAG addicts); YOU MUST ABOVE ALL EARN TRUST. The way to most effectively do this – is to operate with the mindset to SET UP YOUR CUSTOMERS FOR SUCCESS.
Below is a link to a video from our Flight Request Stimulator online learning system. It will provide the very basics about how to begin to operate in the mindset to set up customers for success. Keep in mind – this is very very basic. However – it will help in the transition from hawking T-shirts to becoming one that plays a vital role in the lives of each of your customers. Do what this video recommends right – and do this with relentless consistency – and OVER TIME – you will be regarded as an individual that can be trusted compared to a SWAG Pusher. You will be valued as a RESOURCE and one that truly cares about – and relentlessly takes right action on the three most important intrinsic drivers of each customer.
WARNING:
Be strong – because you will be hounded by addicted customers and flight crews if / when you begin to curtail their SWAG. There are ways to do this that work and we teach this in our online Flight Request Stimulatorcourses. For now – just get started on a new way to succeed yourself. Set Up Customers for Success.
To learn more about our Flight Request Stimulator online learning or our Mastering Competition Bootcampbe in touch.
[email protected] 330.623.5910
BELOW IS THE “HOW TO SET UP YOUR CUSTOMERS FOR SUCCESS” LINK
Note: SWAG = Stuff We All Get
