Compassion and business success

Discover how one health sector company transformed its business success by prioritising compassion and infusing it into every aspect of its operations. Practice managers can draw inspiration from this article to align their healthcare practices with compassionate values, fostering stronger connections with patients and enhancing overall practice success

Excerpted from The Value of Values: How Leaders Can Grow Their Businesses and Enhance Their Careers by Doing the Right Thing, by Daniel Aronson. Published by The MIT Press. Copyright © 2024 MIT. All rights reserved

The leadership of a company in the health sector wanted to do more to realise the firm’s purpose while also being more successful in the market and fending off competitors. My colleagues and I helped them see how infusing more of the company’s values into products and marketing could create deeper connections with buyers and increase customer preference.

We started by having the team reflect on the organisation’s values—not just the ones in official documents but also those in the hearts and minds of employees. Out of twelve initially identified by groups of executives, managers, and line employees, compassion was the one that rose to the top. In particular, employees cared about people in service careers, who can be more susceptible to stress and burnout—and who often don’t see those things happening until their physical or psychological health is affected.

Though the value of compassion was already reflected in the organisation’s work, the team identified it as one that they wanted to make more prominent and do even more to embed in their products and services. Together, we went through a process of clarifying how to do this:

• Who the changes would benefit—for example, specific types of customers, important communities, society, and the business itself.
• Where these benefits would be seen—such as in the health of those in service careers, in their families’ health, in their communities, and where there is societal need.
• When the greater integration of values would be clearest—such as in regular communications with those in service careers or when there were major life or community events (including natural disasters, which can place additional stress on everyone and especially those in service careers).
• How expanded compassion would be built into products, services, and policies—ranging from revised educational materials to new policies such as reducing fees when there was a major community event. These and other changes would be built into products and services, which would be modified to better support customers in service careers.
• Who they would work with on each initiative—some changes, such as changing policies on how to react to major community events or natural disasters, could be done within the company’s four walls. But some, such as disaster recovery, community support, and health promotion activities, either required or greatly benefited from the involvement of others (such as suppliers, business partners, and community organisations).

This process generated dozens of candidates for changes, which were then prioritised. The prioritisation process included internal factors, such as alignment with the company’s purpose and capabilities, and external ones, such as which candidates produced the most competitive benefit.

As part of the competitive analysis, we conducted research to see which factors most affected customers’ preference when they were given a choice between the company’s offerings and those of competitors. Then the benefits were quantified financially, including under different scenarios, allowing the company to select the best options.

Understand key customer groups and look for where they share your values. Take advantage of the customer intimacy benefits of values: get to know them, their communities, and their events. Get to know how they think and, more importantly, how they feel.

The healthcare organisation did just this. Employees talked to customers directly, sought input from salespeople about what they were hearing, and went to events with customers and asked what mattered to them. They used “voice of the customer” data and reports on the experiences of customers along with external benchmarks.

Then look for ways to incorporate the values shared by your company and customers. The healthcare organisation focused on deepening emotional connections with customers and prospects through doing more to incorporate its values in its offerings. Values could provide the foundation for meeting customer needs that weren’t being adequately addressed in the marketplace.

The company realised that its offerings already embodied some of its core values, but other strongly held values either weren’t incorporated or were not obvious to customers and prospects. For example, there was already deep concern with the health of people who were in service careers, and there were already some efforts to help them be physically and mentally healthier. But the company’s offerings didn’t make this clear to customers, which meant that even organisations with a lot of service career workers (e.g., educational institutions) didn’t see this focus—and therefore it didn’t change which provider they preferred. Nor was this concern as clear to the service professionals themselves as it could have been, so their health didn’t benefit as much as it could have.

Based on the values the team chose to focus on, they came up with concrete ways to expand how these values were reflected in products and services. Examples included templates, targeted rebates, and guided assistance, more information about work-life balance, and greater financial incentives for healthy behaviors.

After finding ways to incorporate values, test your ideas. You can use experiments, interviews, focus groups, or other research. However you do it, make sure to test your understanding of what customers want to see and hear from you. Putting values into action isn’t about a marketing slogan or a flavor of the month. It’s important and requires effort, so it’s crucial to get it right. It’s worth it.

The company then tested these ideas with customers to see which ones resonated the most. It found two specific ideas that raised customer preference by between 14 and 20 percent. These results were combined with internal prioritisation factors (e.g., their ease of implementation and the strength of their connection to the company’s values) to determine which ideas to pursue first.

In conclusion, prioritising compassion within GP practices can lead to enhanced patient satisfaction, improved health outcomes, and strengthened community connections. By embedding compassion into every aspect of their operations, practices can truly fulfill their mission of providing patient-centered care and fostering a culture of empathy and support within their communities.