Seen as progressive – in part due to being an LGBT personality – Ellen DeGeneres has up until recently maintained a positive public persona. However, it seems like there are new “working for Ellen” horror stories every day.
Medical suppliers might ask, “What does this have to do with us?” We can learn a lot from paying attention to current events, whether it’s by observing Super Bowl ads or following celebrity news.
What Happened to Ellen DeGeneres — and Can It Happen to Medical Suppliers?
It’s easy to forget that The Ellen DeGeneres Show is relatively new. She’s been in the limelight since the ‘80s. When she came out as a lesbian, it was a huge deal. Ratings of her sitcom dipped, and the series was canceled. It wasn’t until 2003 that DeGeneres found her footing in Hollywood again.
America empathized with DeGeneres as she rose, stumbled, and got back up. That’s a compelling story! But it also laid the groundwork for what’s happening today.
In a sense, 2020 marks her second fall from grace.
Building trust is powerful – but when people fall in love, betrayal can sting. What could be more hurtful than finding out that someone preaching kindness is a mean person?
What her plight teaches us is that even great brands aren’t untouchable. Anyone can be brought down by a bad reputation. Bad things usually happen fast, just think of 3M getting called out by President Trump a couple months ago in the Rose Garden.
3 Tips for Medical Suppliers to Avoid a Fall from Grace Like Ellen’s
When business leaders think of reputation management, their minds often go to damage control after the fact. The idea is actually to get ahead by influencing what people think of you in general.
This way, unexpected messes can be cleaned up with ease. An excellent reputation could also be the deciding factor that gets a consumer to choose your hospital equipment over those offered by your competitors.
How do you take care of your reputation? Here are three tips gleaned from observing Ellen DeGeneres’ current PR battle.
1. Track What People Say About You Online
In 2016, comedian Kathy Griffin wrote a memoir. The book revealed that it was an open secret in Hollywood that a well-loved daytime TV host had a mean streak. Griffin later confirmed that she was talking about DeGeneres.
That wasn’t the first time people heard unpleasant descriptions about DeGeneres. Remarks on social media platforms surfaced from time to time, finally coming to a head this year.
So medical suppliers: Listen to your audience. Did you know that a business can lose over 20% of its customers if users find even one negative post about their brand online?
That doesn’t mean you need a full-blown social media presence. Just know where your target audience hangs out online and monitor that space.
You can also work with key opinion leaders to boost awareness. Let people know the basics, like:
- What types of products do you manufacture or distribute?
- How can IDNs learn more about your offerings?
2. Don’t Ignore Customer Feedback
Respond to comments, especially if they’re bad reviews. 45% of consumers note that they’re most likely to visit a business that takes the time to address negative feedback.
Rumors of the toxic work environment on The Ellen DeGeneres Show have been going around for more than a decade, but the TV host never confronted them. It took an official investigation into the franchise’s workplace culture for DeGeneres to apologize to her staff and acknowledge the issue.
Allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct by the show’s top executives also surfaced. Some former employees believe executives shielded DeGeneres from the gory details and controlled what she knew of the set’s day-to-day activities.
Ignore a problem, and this is what happens. It grows! Medical suppliers, let this be another teachable moment. Do you read the Amazon reviews of your products?
It’s not enough to know what goes on online. The real world is still out there. Participate in industry events. Subscribe to and get your name in trade publications. Volunteer in industry workgroups, and most of all: respond quickly and recalibrate your work processes when needed.
3. Build Trust and Get to Know Your Audience
This is not so much an observation as it is advice for DeGeneres. Building trust back with her fans — not to mention her current staff — is key, but it’s not going to be easy.
Whether you’re avoiding having something similar happen to you or you’re in the middle of some reputation troubleshooting yourself, the key is to know these two things: your target audiences and value propositions unique to each one.
Decision-making during a B2B transaction involves six people on average. Do you have custom-tailored value propositions for those six stakeholders, or are you only focusing on clinicians making medical equipment purchases? Do your reps come from diverse backgrounds, able to deftly interact with different consumer bases – or are they all middle-aged men?
Brand messaging in healthcare is crucial. When you know your audience, it’s easier to figure out your brand identity. When you know who you are, you’ll be that much more convincing when you talk about why your company matters and why your customers should remain loyal.
How Can Share Moving Media Help Medical Suppliers?
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Interested in finding out more information about what we do and how we do it? Contact us and let us know what you need.