1. DRAFT FOR TREATMENT MAGAZINE
TREATMENT ORGANIZATIONS AS A CONSUMER BRAND
(Responding to new technologies and changes in consumer behavior)
This is undoubtedly an era of unprecedented disruption caused by the unceasing advances of
new technologies and their impact on consumer behavior and expectations. No industry sector
is exempt and it calls for innovation on the part of organizations that wish to succeed and grow.
The status quo is akin to the “status slow’ and will allow the more agile companies to develop a
compelling and sustainable competitive advantage.
Enterprise value and effectiveness is driven today by customer relationship management, the
size of customer databases and the productivity and outcomes of customer engagement
strategies. We see this in every industry as exemplified by Facebook, Amazon, Google and
many others. Healthcare is no different and as competition increases and consumer choice
expands, this relationship management challenge becomes more critical to ensure enterprise
success and sustainability.
According to SAMSHA data from 2013, there are 24m people in active recovery and 21m
suffering from some form of substance abuse. Funding restrictions have dictated that little has
been done to ensure long term engagement with these two groups in terms of recovery
management. Technology can potentially have a dramatic impact on this as engagement tools
and lower costs are developed.
The only accurate prediction we can make about the future is that change is the new constant
and change will only accelerate as new technical breakthroughs occur. Being a leader today is
no assurance that you will be a leader tomorrow. Just ask Blockbuster, Blackberry, Borders and
even Licensed Taxi Co’s etc, and they will tell you how technology made their customer
proposition dated and uncompetitive. So often we see innovation coming from new “players”,
who do not suffer from the entrenched bureaucracies hindering the creative thinking of
established organizations. Once the genie is out of the bottle, consumer demand will dictate
there will be no going back.
One need only look at hospitals to see how new technologies, practices, consumer preferences
and financial realities, have significantly reduced the number of hospital beds required within a
given geography. The change has been profound and has changed the face of medical
services, lengths of stay and attitudes toward recovery management. With my partners, we use
data, research and analytics to access the origin and beliefs of existing models and help
management visualize a radical new approach toward these business models. We participate
with management in developing new concepts of innovative redesign for testing and verification
and embed these new beliefs into a new competitive business model.
We believe that the consumer is the driver of change, especially once they have embraced a
new technology and the service attributes/convenience associated with it. As such the
healthcare industry is already repositioning itself from one of providing services to one of
providing service innovations that are customer centric in nature. At MOKA, we think about how
customer behaviors are changing and how businesses need to respond to the following:
.From Loyalty to Empowerment
.Impact of the digital world

2. .Lower cost acquisition
.Consumer driven search
.More assertive and informed consumers
.Engage customers in decision making and choices
I agree with others in the industry who recognize that while healthcare organizations should
continue to think of their consumers as patients and clients, those same consumers view
healthcare providers as consumer brands and compare attributes of the different providers
available to them. They are empowered by choice and search engine exploration is the the new
normal. There is something to be learnt from the way Apple and other smart retailers behave,
because they have created sophisticated digital integration for the customer relationship
interfaces. This is forcing all industries to undergo a fundamental reexamination of issues such
as customer convenience, simplification, communications, marketing and of course product
innovation. It sounds a little foreign but is definitely not in conflict with the heroic nature of the
addiction treatment mission that has become so well established and necessary in the USA.
MOKA and I work with QWASI, a Customer Relationship software technology partner, to
provide real time tools that support customer retention, customer record consolidation, loyalty
programs and other customer communication initiatives. These are delivered at great value to
our clients and are “agnostic” and work with any client legacy system. The importance of
monitoring outcomes, consumer behavior and improving recovery support should be profound
and will have a clearly visible value to the patient/client/consumer and a distinct competitive
advantage versus more traditional providers with a weaker technology platform.
In an era where recovery management is critical and tracking “customers” is a clearly desirable
attribute, we believe these customer relationship tools are ideal for the evolving needs of the
addiction field and we intend to adapt them accordingly. Research shows that an effective
ongoing engagement with “customers/clients/patients”, produces improved outcomes and we
are committed to helping bring these to interested organizations. Our team understands data,
analytics and strategy and we assemble specialists to address the needs of every project
assignment, to ensure we deliver a tangible improvement to those we work with. This is an
exciting period of transformation and it will favor those with the courage to embrace new
technologies, data management and changing consumer behaviors.
For many smaller organizations there is the question of affordability, therefore industry
associations should consider how they might consolidate their members needs and employ
these new technologies and tools on their behalf.
We are here to help innovate for the future.