What is brand voice?
Our brand voice is how we communicate with the world. It shapes how people see us & helps our message stand out.
Why is it important?
Using a unified brand voice ensures consistency across all communications, no matter the audience or channel. This consistency builds trust, demonstrates our credibility, and makes our brand easily recognizable.
Every interaction should reflect our brand voice, reinforcing athenahealth 's dedication to curing complexity in healthcare.
How do we speak as a brand?
Brand voice
Our brand voice is how we express our unique personality. It's consistent, recognizable, and memorable across all messages and audiences.
Tone
Tone is the adaptable part of our brand voice. It changes to fit the context, audience, and purpose of the communication.
Narrative persona
A narrative persona helps us connect emotionally with our audience and stand out from competitors. It also helps writers maintain consistency in our communications.
Our narrative persona
The Trusted Guide
More than just a partner on a journey, a trusted guide leads and speaks from experience. Even in the face of adversity, the trusted guide's bold calmness, confidence and approachable demeanor helps establish trust and a deep awareness that they have other's best interests in mind. The trusted guide removes obstacles and provides the training and resources to enable others to achieve their absolute best.
Imagine climbing a mountain without a guide. You may have a general sense of the summit, but you have no idea how to get there – countless obstacles complicate your route. Even if you had a friend walking beside you, you still don 't know the way. You need an expert hiker who has been to the summit and can clear the path so you can reach your destination as quickly and effortlessly as possible.
Our role as Trusted Guide
athenahealth is that Trusted Guide
The healthcare industry is a rough landscape, and while we can't solve every issue facing healthcare today, we have 25+ years of expertise navigating the inherent complexities that make our customers' lives unnecessarily complicated.
We help our customers make sense of the unknown by providing the innovative technology and embedded services they need to succeed. More than just advising from a distance we guide our customers to success because we know that their success is our success.
Attributes of the Trusted Guide
Like a person, our brand voice is defined and informed by specific attributes.
When used together, these attributes help make our communications consistently sound like the Trusted Guide. There may be times when an attribute is dialed up more than others to strike the right tone for the context of the message but overall, our communications should aim to balance all three attributes.
Courageous
Credible
Compassionate
Courageous
We boldly shine a light on the complexities that make healthcare so difficult to navigate and are brave enough to take a stand and tackle them. We don't take the easy way out, because we 've seen the good that can happen when healthcare works as it should.
When we communicate, courageous means we use confident, bold, engaging and declarative language to call out complexities and are honest, optimistic and proactive in articulating how we solve them.
We are not pessimistic, arrogant, unimaginative, or boring.
A trusted guide inspires by boldly calling out the unnecessary challenges and complexities prevalent in our industry. They're honest in voicing problems and focus on what's possible while keeping a keen eye on our destination. That sense of optimism, persistence, and encouragement should come through in our communications to help customers see what's possible, while keeping their goals in mind.
When communicating DO
- Be bold and confident.
- Reframe problems as solutions.
- Be realistic and talk about what's possible.
- Use humor and wit tactfully to shine a light on complexity.
When communicating DON'T
- Point fingers or linger on the problems in our industry.
- Try to be too clever. Remember that we are bold, not belittling.
- Overpromise.
- Be arrogant.
Example
Do: “We're building a thriving ecosystem for all.” (Points to something better and what's possible)
Don't: Due to complicated interoperability issues and bad actors, the industry is sabotaging itself.” (Too negative and accusatory. Not solutions-focused.)
Credible
We leverage our deep industry knowledge, experience, and scale to build solutions and embedded services to eliminate complexity in healthcare.
When we communicate, credible means being accountable and demonstrating a deep understanding of our customers, the industry, and how we can support them. We speak confidently while humbly acknowledging that we may not always have the solution but we're committed to finding a resolution.
We are not vague, a know-it all, smug, or cocky.
A trusted guide is confident in their experience and expertise and leverages them to eliminate complexity. That should come through in our communications. We leverage our deep understanding of our solutions, industry and customers to help them make informed decisions so they can be successful. Their success = our success.
When communicating DO
- Be specific.
- Use data and examples to support your message.
- Be honest and accountable.
When communicating DON'T
- Over-explain or over-complicate.
- Be condescending or pretentious.
- Use industry jargon or internal shorthand.
Example
Do: “We're here to help you get paid faster.” (Cuts through the noise and addresses the customer's pain point and showcases thebenefit athenahealth can deliver)
Don't: “Our solutions optimize delayed billing processes by addressing silos in the healthcare ecosystem.” (Too wordy and product focused)
Compassionate
We understand our customer's pain points and frustrations in dealing with complexity because we 've been in the trenches alongside them.
When we communicate, compassionate means we are conversational and meet people where they are. We connect on a human level and speak in easy-to-understand, approachable language.
We are not fake, robotic, verbose, sugarcoating, or overly sentimental.
A trusted guide understands our customers' frustrations in dealing with complexity and knows they want to find a better way. Showing compassion in our communications helps establish trust and builds a sense of belonging that can lead to a deeper relationship that goes beyond the transaction.
When communicating DO
- Get to know your audience.
- Be relatable and conversational.
- Use familiar language.
When communicating DON'T
- Be overly sentimental or emotional.
- Be wordy or long-winded.
- Judge or assume.
Example
Do: “Let us take the weight off your shoulders so you can get back to what matters most.”(Human-centric and addresses the customer's pain point)
Don't: “Life convoluted? Our products are the perfect solution to optimize the business of care for your practice.” (Too arrogant, wordy, and focused on product)
How the Trusted Guide communicates
The Trusted Guide is:
- Human
- Approachable
- Conversational
- Informative
- Specific
- Confident
- Trustworthy
- Humble
- Clear
- Optimistic
- Honest
- Proactive
- Engaging
- Bold
- Accountable
The Trusted Guide is NOT:
- Robotic
- Superior (or Better-than)
- Dominating
- Condescending
- Vague
- Cocky
- Salesy
- Arrogant
- Overly descriptive or technical
- Discouraging
- Fake
- Passive
- Goofy
- Timid