Customer Satisfaction

It is such a cliche topic - no company will say that they do not want highly satisfied customers. Yet, there are companies that are very successful in delivering customer satisfaction, while others falter and the dissatisfied customer trend becomes rooted in the company. This is hard to reverse, and has significant impact on the bottom line, besides making the company feel incomplete and handicapped. It's amazing how many CEO's and investors talk about growth but very few touch on the topic of LTV - lifetime value of the customer. 1000 customers who stay with you and love you forever is much better (and profitable) than 10,000 who stay with you for few months or years, and then leave.

I hope for my company to develop a deeper and personal relationship with doctors, while delivering solutions which make their life a little bit easier. I strive for compassion in our DNA, and the hunger to deliver on promises to ourselves, our co-workers and the stakeholders. 

Considering the doctor's mobile site will be the #1 Health App in the years to come, our goal is to have 100% doctors LOVE us for the promises we keep, and the services we deliver. 

Amen.

Dear Doctor: Patients seek compassion, knowledge and more..

Speaking with doctors everyday about their perspective on technology and mHealth/mobile healthcare - this thought came to my mind:

If anyone was given 15 minutes to educate a doctor about anything, what would it be, and why?

I left the question open ended to get diversity in perspectives, and posted it on Quora. There were a few key expectations from both doctors and patients that stuck out in the answers, and I believe the following may resonate with majority of the patient population, and doctors. 

Doctor's must:

1) Listen

2) Show Compassion

3) Say it as it is

4) Know how to deactivate a muscular Trigger Point

5) Show Respect

6) Have Knowledge Outside your Specialty

7) Educate patients - pre and post-op 

8) Give Time

9) Read Bad Pharma / Know the affects of old and new pharma.

10) Provide critical appraisal of medical literature 

This is by no means a scientific or research ranking - just ordered by the popularity of answer's and things that stuck out to me. Read some amazing stories, and share your perspective here: 

http://www.quora.com/Doctors/If-you-had-15-minutes-to-educate-a-doctor-about-anything-what-would-it-be-and-why

Mobile Health Is Huge

#1 Health app today is the doctor's website.

Surprising that over 50% docs don't have a site, and ones who do, don't work on mobile.

So let me be the first to declare:

The doctor's website is going to be the most popular health application in the years to come.

Further (inferred) validation in this just released Pew Research study on mobile health (#mHealth).

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Mobile-Health.aspx

Overview

Fully 85% of U.S. adults own a cell phone. Half own smartphones, which expands their mobile internet access and enables mobile software applications.

One in three cell phone owners (31%) have used their phone to look for health information. In a comparable, national survey conducted two years ago, 17% of cell phone owners had used their phones to look for health advice.

Smartphone owners lead this activity: 52% gather health information on their phones, compared with 6% of non-smartphone owners. Cell phone owners who are Latino, African American, between the ages of 18-49, or hold a college degree are also more likely to gather health information this way."

Clever Advertising

DialPad vs Google & Skype

Dialpad was the first VOIP app I used to call landlines. It was simple and it worked. That was ~10-13 years ago. Interesting to see how far we have come from the first pc-to-phone concept to Google & Skype leading the way, along with rumors of a Facebook phone. 

Physical Yellow & White Pages

Why not make these opt-in? Or better yet, why not stop making it all together? Assuming there's a small population that still uses them, make it available for a premium. When are paper directories, flyers, coupons, invoices, b&h catalogs going to go away? When was the last time you used one?

Stack of phone directories sitting in a pile of trash on my street

Sandy - New York Mag Cover

The aftermath of hurricane Sandy captured in a stunning, eerie cover by New York mag. Here's a link to the story behind it - http://nymag.com/thecut/2012/11/more-images-from-new-yorks-sandy-cover.html 

My prayers and thoughts go out to those affected.

What makes a good Business Development candidate?

Most BD roles are either sales or support/partnership driven, some with quotas to meet. Both sales and BD require selling in one form or the other. So then, what differentiates sales from Business Development? In my opinion - All Business Development people are salesmen; all salesmen are not wired to do Business Development"

The ideal BDM is the one who can visualize opportunities from a sales, product, finance, development and operations perspective. At the macro level, the BD person is a jack of these trades, and a master of putting it all together to identify a new revenue or strategic opportunity.

I would look for the following skills/traits in a great BDM in a startup, for a technology product:

• Sales: Is the person able to confidently present, communicate, follow-up and do what's necessary to close a partnership?

• Industry Knowledge: Is the person up-to-speed on what's going on in their particular industry? To what level of detail? Does he have an opinion on What, Why and How of the current happenings, and future possibilities?

• Technical Aptitude: The person should be able to comfortably present the possible implementation of the discussed partnership at a macro level, and get the product team involved at a stage when there is a verbal agreement on terms, and implementation needs to be finalized.

• Curiosity: There needs to be a genuine curiosity about people, things, and      happenings. This can be judged by the type of questions that the person asks when assessing a situation or a potential partnership. The ability to gather intelligence, and not just data is really important.

• Numbers/Spreadsheet: There are x # of ways you can structure a deal from a financial standpoint - does your BD person have the required mindset and skills to frame up various revenue, operational or strategic scenarios?

• Strategic vs Tactical: Maintain a balance of thinking at a macro/company level, and executing at the micro/departmental level. Should be able to follow and/or define the rules of engagement between different departments.

• Contracts: Should know basic legal terms, and identify red flags within T&Cs, Privacy Policies, and other legal documents.

The distribution of time between various aspects of the BD role would vary, but at the end of day, I expect my BDM to be the relationship person who can identify, close and/or manage partnerships, on demand