S1: EP 010: People and Partnerships - trust, transparency and a collaborative approach drive success
Download MP3Hi. What's the health tech listeners? I'm your host this week, Rob Place, product training manager at Radar Healthcare. This is the podcast where we tackle some of the trending topics, ideas, and best practice in health and social care. This week I'm speaking to Mark Harrison, customer success manager at Radar Healthcare.
Rob Place:Mark started his career 22 years ago and joined Radar Healthcare as a customer success manager 2 years ago. His experience helps us provide our clients with complete confidence in his ability to help them deliver true organizational improvement. Mark's approach to client success is to focus on creating long term partnerships, where our clients see Radar Healthcare as a key partner in identifying the crucial points they need to address in order to drive that improvement. Outside of work, Mark is a passionate sports fan having played both, played and watched rugby and cricket. This passion has left him to put his knowledge to the test by coaching his son's rugby team for the past 12 years.
Rob Place:He also enjoys cooking and reading, combining both passions into creating a huge comprehensive library of cookbooks. So hi, Mark. Welcome to What the Health Tech.
Mark Harrison:Thank you very much, Rob. You make me sound ancient with 22 years of experience.
Rob Place:Not at all. 22 years of excellent years of experience. So today, I want to talk to you a bit about why partnerships between supplier and healthcare organizations are so important and what our listeners should look out for when speaking to new potential suppliers.
Mark Harrison:Hey. That's great. Yeah. I'd love to help if I can.
Rob Place:Right. So we get started then. So, I think first, let's just go back to basics then. So as an experienced customer success manager, how should a relationship work between supplier and organizations?
Mark Harrison:It's an interesting question, isn't it? Because, you know, everybody sort of pays lip service to the idea of partnership working. That, you wanna work in partnerships with your customers, that so you wanna give the the best value you possibly can, that you wanna try and drive the the the real sort of those improvements we talked about in the introduction there. But it's how you go about doing that because partnerships are 2 ways. You know, people are in civil partnerships, marriages, you know, working relationships.
Mark Harrison:Partnerships works in lots of different ways, you've got to actually have that give and take. But there's gotta be honesty in there. There's gotta be trust in there, and there's gotta be a way to make sure that actually the 2 parties are working to the same aims and the same objectives. So it all comes back to that one piece which is why are they doing this? So as an organisation, you always want to understand what the customer is trying to achieve with whatever product it is that you're placing with them.
Rob Place:Yeah. So to go into that relationship knowing exactly what what the focus of it is or
Mark Harrison:A little bit. I suppose it it it's like meeting someone for the first time, isn't it? You know, when you meet someone for the first time, you ask all sorts of remaining questions. There's lots of little sort of small talk. But But the idea of that is to try and get yourselves comfortable with one another so that then you can start to look at and listen for certain key points in conversation that you can then start to build on.
Mark Harrison:And it's a little bit the same with the relationship with the customer. What you're trying to do is understand their business. Then you're trying to understand where does your product fit into their business. Then what you're looking for then is to understand why. Why are they wanting to implement your product?
Mark Harrison:What are they looking for? What are the real sort of objectives and key key outcomes? I'm gonna mention that word a lot today. I'm really sorry. Outcomes is where it's all about.
Mark Harrison:If the customer knows what they're wanting to achieve, it makes our life as suppliers so much easier. It hopefully makes their life easier in the long term as well.
Rob Place:Excellent. So, I mean, you've gone into a little bit of detail there anyway, but I was gonna ask about your approach with our customers. So you're going to a little bit more detail about that.
Mark Harrison:Yeah. As I say, I apologize quite often because I ask a lot of why questions. It's always the why. Why do you want to achieve something? Why does that matter?
Mark Harrison:Why are you doing it? You know, why is this important to you? And if you start with those types of questions, yes, it drives the customer absolutely insane. But at the end of the day, what you're trying to do is to understand and get under the skin of what is the real purpose, what is the real problem, and then you can start working on that. So if you start from that outcome based sort of improvement plan, you're always got a point that you can refer back to.
Mark Harrison:You know, I I talk about that single point in time, don't you? If someone says that this is my problem, this is the reason why I bought the product, you can always refer back to that because the problem with software is that you get bogged down in the malignutia of the delivery. You think that you should do something just because you've got the ability to do it, and what you've got to always come back to is the reason why. Why are we doing this? Why are we actually embedding this product?
Mark Harrison:Mhmm. What is it to do? And I think that's hopefully, my approach to things is always take that big picture view. What's the objective that you're aiming to achieve and how we then gonna help you achieve that.
Rob Place:Yes. Because it can be very exciting, Kylie, when you you get a new toy to play with that's gonna just make everything so much better, so much more fun, and so much easier. And then, yeah, I can imagine it's quite easy to lose sight of those original objectives, especially 6 months the line or a year down the line when, you feel like you may have achieved that. But how do you know?
Mark Harrison:Yeah. It's it that's a very good point because part of the problem and one of the biggest risks with software implementation is they don't happen overnight. Mhmm. They take time. And people often forget that key objective, that key reason for purchase.
Mark Harrison:What's the reason why you have brought the software into your organisation? And because software costs and and it's not cheap, you know, usually the people that purchase and make those purchasing decisions are in those sort of senior levels. So what they're thinking about is how do we how do we improve our organisation? They then pass this down to a different team to actually implement. The idea there is that then there's a disconnect.
Mark Harrison:So all of a sudden, you're now not speaking to people that have made those buying decisions. Whereas if you identify the objective and the outcomes initially while everybody's in the room, you can always bring people back to that point. And I think that's sort of the approach that that certainly I try to take, and I know that we're trying to take a lot lot more at Radia Health Care.
Rob Place:Excellent. So do you have an example of that where this sort of relationship and those ways of working have actually driven that sort of impact?
Mark Harrison:Yeah. I mean, there there's a few. Hopefully, it's all my customers, but, you know, you never know. But yeah. Certainly, probably one example is we we've recently changed the way, I say recently, the last 12 months, we've changed the way that we work with our customers.
Mark Harrison:We are constantly looking at evolving that sort of customer journey and making it better for our customers. So one customer that we've been working with, T Half on, in Wales, hospice and charity, I've been working with us for for 12 months on on on this project. Now when they started, their project sponsor, Deborah Ho, was, very involved with the process. She was very involved with our sales team, very involved with what Radar would drive as a solution for the organisation. And part of my role with that was to help them sort of understand how that worked.
Mark Harrison:And it's it's really interesting because, in their words, they have never known an organisation sort of, work so closely with them and introduce a sort of a, you know, that customer success manager or account manager, whatever you wanna call that sort of that long term point of contact, never introduce them at the beginning of the process. It's always been at the end of the process. So they were utterly shocked when I turned up on the call and sort of started talking about, what do you wanna do? Why do you wanna do it? This type of thing.
Mark Harrison:And what's ended up happening is we've been able to sort of really meet their key their key targets, their key objectives in a way that they probably weren't expecting. Yeah. We've had to and throws. There's been ups and downs as as every sort of project will have. And I think there are lessons that we've learned throughout that process as well to get even better.
Mark Harrison:But it's lovely when your customer tells you at the end of that journey when they're about to go live with a product and launch it across their organization that this has gone way smoother than they thought it ever would, that it's gonna deliver real impact and real change to their organization. And the fact that we are constantly sort of bringing them back. So Deborah was involved in a call we had recently, and it was looking at true outcomes around sort of, really sort of better patient care and better patient experience and how they can start to sort of drive that and how our system will help them drive that. So it's, because obviously the people they're dealing with are end of life. You know, they're never gonna get better.
Rob Place:Mhmm.
Mark Harrison:So they need to ensure that actually the quality of care they're receiving is absolutely the best it possibly can be. And that's where, you know, our product, our solution, and the way that we've worked with them has really helped them to achieve that.
Rob Place:And what what a goal to to come back to all the time of it's not just around, you know, the goal of being, we're gonna implement this, and we're gonna save costs here, or we're gonna, get rid of, you know, all those endless spreadsheets we've got on all those endless files. But, actually, the improvement there is to have real impact on their their service users, the the people that use their service, the to really have a a beneficial impact on their lives.
Mark Harrison:Yeah. And I and and that's it. You know? If you can find that that real underlying factor, that really important issue that drives your project forward, and that's how you then create that true partnership working. Because trust doesn't happen overnight.
Mark Harrison:You have to work at that. And and as I say, partnerships are very much a two way street. Yeah. As much as they may question why we want to do something in a particular way, we will very much question how and why they want to achieve certain things as well. Yeah.
Mark Harrison:Because if we're not, we're not doing our job. We're not actually delivering the value that they would expect from us. And that's that's why we've got that's why we've got to do what we do Yeah. Because it's all about getting that customer to that point in their journey whereby they're seeing real value from whatever software solution it is that that's been implemented.
Rob Place:So just on that and the the sort of two way street that you mentioned. So, I mean, I'm assuming the answer is yes, I'd like an example of this, but, of when you've often taken their advice.
Mark Harrison:I'll never take advice. Always take learnings, but never take advice. Because, I
Rob Place:know that's not true.
Mark Harrison:No. I I Absolutely. No one has got an exclusive right to know everything. You know? You you you listen to people speak.
Mark Harrison:People are constantly learning, constantly evolving. We're doing it as an organisation. Our customers do it in their roles. And if I didn't take on board what was coming back the other way, how could we ever get better? So, you know, perfect example is the way that we are refining our customer journey at the moment, to move from that sort of that view of that role that we were in before of being very sort of support driven, there to answer problems, to to help with queries and issues, but not actually to drive true change.
Mark Harrison:And, you know, we've invested in in a lot of time and effort and a lot of different ways of working and brought in new people into that team to actually get even better at that process. And we're still ongoing with that. And I'm still ongoing with that. I've been doing it 22 years and I know nothing. So, yeah.
Mark Harrison:What I need to know is is what our customers think of of the way that we do things. And, yeah, I've got this way of talking. It's all about improvement. It's all about continuous improvement. If you're gonna talk to a customer about continually improving your organization, why would you not continually improve your processes and get better in your role?
Mark Harrison:So, yes, he's always taking feedback from customers, but never advice.
Rob Place:So one of our partners and I have a I have a quote here. The Radar Healthcare team have been exceptional from day 1. Their ethos is clearly to be a partner and to try to support their clients, making the system work for them and resolving any issues efficiently and effectively. So how does that make you feel when, someone who you work really close with gives you that sort of quote, sort of testimony?
Mark Harrison:It's really nice, isn't it? Because it it it reinforces that we're doing our job properly. And actually, it's it's coming across in that way as well. You know, if if your customers are starting to see you as a true partner and a and a and a key cog in their organisational sort of workings, then you'd you're doing something right. And and that's what we've got to not just pat ourselves on the back and say, oh, we're doing well.
Mark Harrison:It's still ask those questions. Yes. It went well. Yes. We've delivered this service, but what could we do better?
Mark Harrison:And what could we constantly do better? Because it's, again, it's it's about that for our point of view as well. Our outcome is to make our customer see value in the product. Mhmm. That's our one point of source of truth, and we have to keep coming back to that.
Mark Harrison:And if our customers aren't seeing value, we aren't doing our job. So it's all about being able to do that. So it's lovely to listen to it, feel it. You get a little warm, fuzzy feeling inside, but then you move on to the next step, don't you?
Rob Place:You never next on your laurels.
Mark Harrison:No. Absolutely. Because the next email comes through tells you how poor you are. So, you know Absolutely.
Rob Place:Yeah. You'll never get those. But that there's quite refreshing from the kind of so I'm thinking from my experience in different software companies and the role of customer success customer success manager and the variant titles that they have is that to for the sole goal to be the success of that of the customer, to be your your objective, is really refreshing.
Mark Harrison:Yeah. It's well, success is is could be anything, couldn't it?
Rob Place:Mhmm.
Mark Harrison:You know? That's why that's why my focus is about objectively. So then you know what success looks like. Because to ask that question to somebody, what does success look like? You know, if someone asks it to you and you've no idea what context they're asking it, and it's, how can you possibly give an answer?
Mark Harrison:Yeah. So that's why we start with that sort of process of identify the outcomes. What is important to you and your organisation? Because it's only then that you get to understand whether you've succeeded in what you were trying to do or not.
Rob Place:Yeah. And I understand you you use some tools in that methodology as well. So not just sort of open questions, but you use do you have a a tool that you use to be able to measure this?
Mark Harrison:So we use KPIs. We use key performance indicators. As I said right at the beginning, I can be a little bit of a pain. I tend to use thing something called 5 whys.
Rob Place:Mhmm.
Mark Harrison:So it's really drilling down to that understanding of why is it you want to do this. You know? So a little bit like an interview process, really. Someone gives you an answer. The next question is not to to move on from that answer.
Mark Harrison:The next question is actually to drill down more into the answer that you've just been provided, and then drill down again and then drill down again because what you eventually get to is the real problem, and that's what you'd need to address. And that's the outcome that you need to then have in mind. So what we try and do with our customers is identify what those are, and then they become that key objective and that key goal.
Rob Place:Mhmm.
Mark Harrison:But part of that then, those performance indicators that we're talking about, those could be multiple things. You know? For example, someone's got a complaints policy, and their procedure is within their organisation that they respond to their customer within or their client or whoever's made that complaint within 20 days, and that they have it all tied up and everything done within 40 days. Mhmm. So your key performance indicator might be that you're actually hitting those timescales.
Mark Harrison:Yeah. So something as simple as that. And then it could be something else that's actually, you know, patient experience or patient, you know, welfare and safety, etcetera, is something that's exceptionally important to your organization. So what you might be looking at is that trend analysis over time as to how many of these incidents are happening. What are we putting in place to make sure that these don't happen again?
Mark Harrison:What learning outcomes can we share with our organizational, other parts of the organization so that they learn the lessons from ourselves. And that's the bit that sort of, you know, helps us with our customers track success. Mhmm. But again, we should be doing that ourselves. We should be tracking ourselves against these p key performance indicators and setting ourselves goals to make sure that we're constantly getting better.
Mark Harrison:And and that's how relationships should work Mhmm. Is you take that feedback on board, you build from that, you learn from it, and you do something better next time around. Fantastic.
Rob Place:Do you have an example of that then, when you've taken that feedback and changed your way of working?
Mark Harrison:Yes. Yeah. Sorry.
Rob Place:That's not, that's not the answer I was looking for. Have another go.
Mark Harrison:Yeah. End of conversation. No. Yeah. There's a few really.
Mark Harrison:Organisation that we're working with, a large NHS trust for example. We're dealing with a fairly senior leadership team that that that are on board with the project. Mhmm. Now they have one goal in mind initially when they sort of came on board, which is to look at the way they deliver their maternity services. That was the key sort of driver behind it.
Mark Harrison:But they were so impressed that the way that, a, the sales process had worked, b, what we were doing with other you other NHS trusts within the marketplace, c, the way that we dealt with them as a customer, looking at that constant big picture, that constant sort of refreshing outcomes driven sort of approach to improvement, that they've actually gone ahead and and, you know, increased their own. They've they've effectively bought the full system now going from one sort of module to to the full product because they see the value that it's gonna add to their organisation. And and, again, that's a really refreshing thing to see is that a customer that had a very niche requirement all of a sudden sees the bigger picture because you've helped them to that point.
Rob Place:And in my mind, when you're saying that as well, it it takes away from just that when you're looking for a solution for a problem that you've got, it's not just the actual tangible software. It's everything else as well. You you're not just purchasing that, and, you can buy the best tool in the world. But if you don't know how to use it, you're not getting the level of support, you don't understand how to achieve your goals using it because that support mechanism and everything around it is not there, then then it's not gonna go anywhere.
Mark Harrison:Yeah. It's, again, really, really valid point because people look at software as being something you just pick up and use Mhmm. Because we're we're so used to it nowadays. You know, you you go online, you order something, you plug it in, or you you start playing with it, and it works straight away. And you don't need that sort of learning experience.
Rob Place:Mhmm.
Mark Harrison:So that sort of instant gratification that people are expecting is very different with our type of solution because it's not that instant gratification piece. What you're looking for is more about how do we build towards that and how do we get them to see that sort of bigger picture initially.
Rob Place:You talk about, yeah, a con I've got a configurable system as opposed to a, proprietary one. So when you get an iPhone, you're buying an iPhone, and you use the iPhone. It has the iPhone that's been designed to use, and Apple want you to use it. Absolutely. Whereas your our software is designed to be configurable.
Rob Place:So we work with the customer to make sure it works for them.
Mark Harrison:Yeah.
Rob Place:It you don't do it the radar way necessarily. We will give you all that support and mechanism, but it's tailored to your organisation.
Mark Harrison:That's that's the point. It's tailored. So we are not, a bespoke tailor. Mhmm.
Rob Place:You
Mark Harrison:will not walk in and we measure up and build something that, is unique to you. What we do is we take our core system and then tailor it to the requirements that you that you need. And and that is part of my role, and that's part of our project's role, and it's part of our whole ethos is making sure that actually what we deliver really meets the requirements of our customer. And you're absolutely right. If we don't support them properly, train them how to use it, Talk about the pitfalls and the risks involved with implementing software.
Mark Harrison:People often forget about just how hard it is to get people from using one method to using something completely different. You know, you've got to look at how do you put that across, what does that communication strategy look like, how do you engage with your end users, what sort of feedback loops do you put in place so that you're constantly evolving and improving your own processes. And and this is what we talk about, and this is part of my role and our you know, hopefully, any good CSM should be doing similar Mhmm. Is looking at how they work with the customer to understand all of that, get those across, but don't just tell someone the risks. Tell someone how they could overcome those.
Mark Harrison:Mhmm. What things what mitigations can you put in place to make sure that this doesn't happen? How can we ensure that you're constantly touching base with your end users, your target market? An example I often use is you don't go to market with a finished product. You go through the surveying.
Mark Harrison:You go through the sort of the market development. You go through all the market research piece. You go through all that improvement piece. And then finally, when you're ready, after a marketing campaign, you go to market and hopefully you sell some things. But that doesn't start by just going straight to market because nothing works that way.
Mark Harrison:Mhmm. You know, no one creates an Apple iPhone and then just goes to the market and says, buy my phone because they won't. Because they don't know why. They don't know what it's gonna do. They don't know why it's different.
Mark Harrison:They don't know what benefits it's gonna drive to them. So we've gotta
Rob Place:help that process. Yeah. Excellent. So, it's been mentioned a few times that our partners, haven't worked this way before with other suppliers. So why do you think people are surprised by our approach and why it's quite rare?
Mark Harrison:So I think the the role of sort of customer success manager is, I'll say, it's relatively new. Obviously, it's not brand new. People have been doing it for a while. But I think, certainly in the UK, something that's sort of starting to embed a lot more into software as a service providers. So, organisations like Radio Healthcare, other organizations that are selling software into the market are now starting to look that look at that sort of nose to tail customer journey of their first point of contact through the marketing team, into sales team, into the projects team.
Mark Harrison:And it it used to be very compartmentalized as in marketing would deal with you here. Lead generation would deal with you here, then sales. Then you'd be projects. Then you'd be introduced to your account manager at the end of the project. And then you'd be introduced to your support team only if anything went wrong.
Mark Harrison:You know, the the whole point of the CSM is to bridge all that and bring all that together so that, actually, you are that one source of truth for the customer. We talk about an objective being a point in time that you can come back to. Your CSM should be exactly the same. You should understand that customer all the way through their journey and effectively be their advocate. So you're speaking on their behalf when you talk about potential product development pieces, when you're talking about how software should be implemented, when you want to talk about best practice and how people do things.
Mark Harrison:It's all about that type of, that type of support that we should be giving. And, you know, that's where the CSM's role probably has started to develop much more over the last few years because people are starting to see that that siloed, compartmentalized journey is not right for anybody.
Rob Place:So a key question here, I'm sure our listeners want to hear, is what advice would you give to our listeners who are thinking about choosing a new software supplier?
Mark Harrison:Yeah. That's a good question. What advice would I give? Treat it with the respect it deserves for the first thing. So research.
Mark Harrison:Look at the market, but understand why you're looking at the market. So sorry. I'm gonna say that word again. Start with your outcome. What is it that you want to do?
Mark Harrison:Why is it important? And what do you want to try and achieve by doing it? That way when you're looking for software that's gonna meet those requirements, you know why you're looking for the software. You're not just trying to fill a load of sort of functional pieces just because they look nice. What you're actually trying to do is find the best piece of software for your problem.
Mark Harrison:Mhmm. And then you start to sort of build from there. So research the market. Look at reviews, but not reviews on customers' websites. So don't don't go sorry, marketing team.
Mark Harrison:Don't go to our website.
Rob Place:Hey. Don't listen to this.
Mark Harrison:I suppose my point is I wouldn't expect an organization to tell me 100% truth about their software. What I want is I want independent advice to tell me that, actually, I'm buying a piece of software that really works. So go to things like Captura. Go to things like sort of independent review sites. Go on to their websites.
Mark Harrison:Look at their customers. Phone their customers. Speak to them and find out. Is this software doing what you expected it to do? Is it is it doing what you need it to?
Mark Harrison:So you would never go and walk into a garage and buy a 40,000 pound car without having looked at least half a dozen of of the garages Mhmm. Looked at other suppliers, looked at exactly what you want in a car before going to buy. So why should a software comp why should a company that wants software just buy the first thing that pops up on their Google search just because it looks good. You know, do the research, find out it's gonna address what you really need, and then buy from there.
Rob Place:Excellent. Okay. And what what sort of things should people look out for, and what sort of questions would it should they be asking? So when they do ring up those those fat those, software users, what should they be asking?
Mark Harrison:I suppose what you want to know is, are they are they trying to meet the same sort of objectives you are? Mhmm. Are they doing it for the same reasons you are? So you'd probably wanna find people in the same sector. You'd probably wanna find people of a similar size.
Mark Harrison:You wanna get people that are as as similar as possible to your environment, and then you can start to make sure that the information, the questions that you're asking are pertinent and the information that you're gonna get back is actually gonna help you make a decision. There there's no point, as I say, an organisation that runs 360 care homes, for example, speaking and and sort of build from there. And, I think that's, yeah, that's probably the best way I can try and sort of explain it is just make sure that you're asking about things that matter. So support, how good is that level of support? How quickly do you get responded to?
Mark Harrison:You know, do you have a point of contact that you can speak to all the time that understands what it is that you're trying to do? Those types of sort of questions will give you a flavor for whether that customer well, sorry, whether that organization and that software that they're providing is gonna be right for your organization Mhmm.
Rob Place:Because
Mark Harrison:you've gotta find a match there as well. Yeah. Because, sometimes, you know, there's a clash of cultures.
Rob Place:Yes. And it comes back to that that wider piece. It is not just the software. It's the whole package of what what what your support you're gonna get around it, and how is it how are they gonna help you deliver those sorts of things. And, I say the best the best software in the world is no good if you're not gonna get any help.
Mark Harrison:No. And and and that's it. And, you know, again, support and help is is often associated with problems, but it shouldn't be. It it it should be associated with, you know, potential. And and that's where it should be looked at is Yeah.
Mark Harrison:How do I get the best from this product?
Rob Place:100%. You never so product I mean, come come into my job now. But in terms of, like, the long term with product is, products don't sit still. Yeah. But if you if there if you don't have support, if you don't have the resources, if you're not given the the training and things like that, you'll just stay where you are.
Rob Place:Like, you'll just carry on using the product as you were. So I think there's a real thing around, you know, support isn't about, you know, I don't know how to do x, y, and zed. It's actually also about, okay, how can I make this better? How can I improve on this? Let's let's learn a bit more.
Rob Place:Oh, this has happened. Great. Let me let me let me learn about that.
Mark Harrison:Yeah. And that again, that's where a good organization will share experiences. Mhmm. You know? You take learnings.
Mark Harrison:We talked about this earlier about I personally take learnings from every customer that I deal with. And as a as a as an organisation, right, our health care do exactly the same. Mhmm. We are constantly sharing best practice about how we can do things differently to make sure that we are delivering the best possible outcomes that we can. The customers are starting to see real value from our product, and and that's the big difference.
Mark Harrison:If you to answer your question from earlier, look for a product provider provider that is gonna drive value for you. You know, just just because you're paying x amount per year doesn't mean that you get x amount of value out of it.
Rob Place:Mhmm.
Mark Harrison:You wanna be able to tangibly see how much value that system is gonna drive. And then a good organisation, a good company to work with, a good partner will then push you to get better. And that's what partnerships are about again. It's about pushing the other person or the other partner to get better. So our customers will push us, and we need to push our customers to get better at what they do, obviously, around the software that we provide.
Mark Harrison:Mhmm.
Rob Place:Excellent. Okay. So to summarize, coming down now to the final few questions. So to summarize, what are your 3 points that people should take away when it comes to partnership working? Now you can imagine there's already one because you mentioned it a few times.
Rob Place:But
Mark Harrison:Yeah. Trust. Yeah. Let let's start there. So you've got to be able to trust your your the organisation that you're working with.
Mark Harrison:You've gotta be able to trust the the the company that is providing the software that you're purchasing. They've gotta be transparent. They've gotta be honest. If you can't do something, don't pretend you can because it will only end up in in disappointment. So be transparent in what you're actually saying.
Mark Harrison:And I think that the last one's sort of almost twofold, isn't it? It's be consultative. Mhmm. So ask questions. Ask the whys.
Mark Harrison:Understand what the customer is trying to achieve, and then work from there so that actually what you're delivering is that real change. Because, as I say, it all comes back to those objectives and those outcomes. If we identify those and we move forward from there, you'll always, always be able to say whether something's been a success or not.
Rob Place:Brilliant. You nearly caught me out then because I was expecting outcomes straight away, and I was like, oh, Mark, you said a curve ball there. You said it in the end, so I'm glad to back.
Mark Harrison:Just not checking up a little bit.
Rob Place:Excellent. Okay. So the final question is our what the health tech moment. So the end of each episode, we ask everyone to describe their what the health tech moment. This question is for a bit of fun.
Rob Place:We want to hear your weird and wonderful stories that you've experienced in the health and social care industry. Or if you can't think of anything weird and wonderful, that's made a real impact on you, then a life changing moment in the industry. Is there a life changing moment in the industry for you?
Mark Harrison:Yeah. I suppose there is. So my wife is a mental health nurse and runs a care home, and, my daughter is also a general practice nurse, working for the NHS. And seeing what has happened in the the health care sector over the last 2 years through the pandemic and the amount of pressure that they've been under to deliver whilst being constrained in what they're allowed to do, actually, is is is utterly eye opening because it just shows you how hard people work and and how hard, they they have to work to just meet what they're expected to do, not actually exceed that. You know, it's all about just they're trying to catch their tail all the time.
Mark Harrison:And and it's it's a little bit scary actually because it sort of makes you really appreciate just how hard the people in the care sector, the health care sector work. And, from our perspective, I suppose I it's not weird and wacky. It's just how can we help? If we can help at all just by giving a little bit of time back so that people have got more time to spend with their residents, with their patients, with their service users, and actually be able to ex you know, make their experience better. And and that's what, you know, that's where hopefully, you know, we can we can make a difference.
Mark Harrison:And that's what's probably had the biggest impact on me is just, where radar can radar healthcare can sort of really help our customers and help the individual components of that because it it's it's it's the staff. You know, it's the foot soldiers. It's the people on the floor. It's the people doing their jobs every day that if we can help them in any way, shape, or form, it just means that their lives just a little bit easier because it's really, really difficult in that sector.
Rob Place:It was astonishing, wasn't it? I remember having a call with someone, video call, obviously, as we all got very used to. And they they'd come in, and they had layer upon layer upon mask, and they'd stripped everything off, and they were absolutely glistening and, in sweats. And I just thought, oh, wow. And then we had the lovely chat and the massive smiles, and it was just so lovely.
Rob Place:But it was quite an emotional moment for me of suddenly was real. Suddenly saw it, because we couldn't couldn't visit. I couldn't actually see it for myself, and I saw it in a video call. And they were absolutely astonishing. So, no, I really appreciate that moment.
Rob Place:That's a an an excellent moment to end on. Thank you, Mark.
Mark Harrison:Oh, it's fine. As I say, it had a very big impact on me.
Rob Place:Yeah. So thank you very much. So thanks again for joining us this week, and thank you all for listening. Next week, we're going to hear from Lottie Moore, about the work she's doing to promote and improve women's health. So please don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Rob Place:And if you have any questions for us or our guests, please email what the health tech at radar healthcare dot com. Thank you.
