Posts tagged as:

University of Chicago

Are Your Customers Feeling the Love?

by Daria Steigman on December 15, 2011

Connecting Customers With Your BrandWe talk a lot about connecting with customers (and clients, prospects, and so forth)–but are they feeling the love? In other words, are they connecting with us?

These are not the same thing.

What a Two-Way Connection Looks Like

I’ve always highly valued my University of Chicago education. And I’m the second generation to earn a degree there (my mom was first), and then my brother followed me. But other than sending me an alumni magazine, the only time I ever heard from the university was when they wanted money.

(Except for the awesome local U of C Entrepreneurs Group, but I’ve always viewed that more as a business group than a university group.)

Now, thanks to, UChicagoAlumni, I feel connected to the institution.

It’s not about a Twitter feed. It’s Tracey Swanson (the voice of UChicagoAlumni), who gets that talking to people (conversation), listening to them (he honored my request to change how he identified my affiliation with the university when retweeting me), and valuing what they’re doing (he shares the occasional blog post from here with his audience) are critical in forging a two-way connection.

What are you doing to ensure your customers are engaged with you?

Photo by Worthy FM (Flickr).

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What Happens the Day After Health Reform?

by Daria Steigman on September 14, 2009

Marching for Health ReformEnacting health reform is the easy part. What happens the day after?

The University of Chicago held a terrific forum on health care on Sept. 10 in Washington. It was headlined by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who said that “what we’re really talking about is transforming a system of care in America.”

So what comes next? A panel with some very smart people, including Kavita Patel from the White House Office of Public Engagement, offered their insights and a sense of how much hard work lies ahead. Some key takeaways:

  • Do we really want to reform health care, or do we want to reform the health of Americans? The latter means also tackling related issues, such as food deserts and the lack of sidewalks and open space.
  • Patients and providers need real-time data, which means we need to create information exchanges for outcomes-driven care based on objective, transparent information.
  • We need to reform the payment and incentive systems to get to better care rather than more care.
  • There is a moral imperative for health reform: the health of our community affects us. (Think SARS or H1N1.)
  • How are we going to handle the 46 million uninsured who will suddenly enter the health care pipeline?
  • When did it become socially acceptable for physicians not to take patients because they have no money?

My head’s still spinning. Your thoughts?

Photo by seiuhealthcare775nw (Flickr).

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

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