Tone

Tone is our brand’s attitude.

Think of our brand voice as what we say to our audience; think of our brand tone as how we say it.

Unlike our brand voice, tone can and should change for different circumstances: depending upon the specific message being conveyed, the specific medium being used and the specific audience being addressed. The same way the sound of a human voice changes when talking about something like cancer or a newborn baby. Typically, however, that tone will be grounded in one or more of our brand personality traits: compassionate, courageous, wise, trustworthy, and visionary.

Make it easy and make it genuine.

We serve people. Whether someone is a patient, a family member, a physician, or an executive, they’re still a person first, and our job is to solve their challenges. We communicate in a caring, accessible way and remember that our audience is broad. Make every interaction as easy, helpful, and appropriate for that specific audience as possible.

We therefore prioritize good information, a straightforward style and honesty over cleverness, jargon, slang, idioms, jokes, sophisticated vocabulary, and corporate-speak. We use active language because it’s direct and energetic; avoid the passive voice. (i.e., “AccentCare will transform our industry” not “our industry will be transformed by AccentCare.”). Make every interaction as easy and helpful as possible for our audience.

Prioritize information; accentuate the benefits. What does our audience need? What is most important to them? How can we help them? Be empathetic and kind, and be specific about the positive impacts we can have on people’s lives. Finally, we get to the point because we’re all busy people.

Communicate compassion.

Caring for people is what we’re all about. In fact, we’re on a mission to revolutionize care for people. Let’s show our audiences that we see our patients’ whole lives and that they matter to us.

The best way for us to show our compassion is by demonstrating our deep understanding of our patients’ challenges and our unique expertise across the continuum of care. We don’t just say we care. We give examples of our awareness and proof points on how we’re delivering on it.

Be hopeful.

Many of the topics we deal with are serious. When they are, we take a professional, straightforward tone as experts who understand, advise, and solve. But we’re an organization that passionately believes in our patients and our people, in the value we give to human lives and in our vision, so we’re also focused, positive, and optimistic. Moreover, research shows that optimism leads to better outcomes and helps us manage difficulty more productively. We will be the better care that we seek, and as such we are hopeful.

Offer solutions.

Always offer a solution and call to action. We inform our audience of the next step they should take.

Consider the audience ...

When choosing the tone we will use in a specific message, we consider the audience’s frame of mind and their situational context when they engage with our brand.

• Are they patients, families, or physicians?

• Do they know AccentCare?

• Have they interacted with AccentCare before?

• Is this a first-time audience looking for some quick information? Or, is this a skeptical physician looking to refer his patient? Or, are we responding to a pointed comment on social media from someone whose past experiences and intentions we simply don’t know?

The tone we take in these varied scenarios can be the difference between a positive AccentCare experience or a negative one.

and put yourself in their shoes.

When we think of our audience, we don’t think of a large group of people. We imagine one real person and write to them as if we’re having a face-to-face conversation. Not only do we communicate to address their needs, but we use the language they use on a daily basis — both of which will vary depending on your audience.

• If we’re speaking to patients or families we remember that the struggles they’re up against are difficult and the system for them is unfamiliar, complex, intimidating, and confusing. Chances are they’re frustrated, scared, or in a hurry for answers — and possibly all three. We lean into empathy and compassion, letting them see how human we are and how committed we are about improving the quality of their lives. Our patients are ethnically, culturally, and educationally diverse, so we use language anyone can understand. While spreading a sense of comfort, we are sure to stay confident. The best hope is always found in the most capable, courageous hands, and we are a trusted guide patients can rely upon to help shoulder the burden.

• When we speak to referring physicians and professionals we emphasize our expertise, breadth of experience, and proven outcomes across the continuum of care. They can rely on us to provide innovative, comprehensive, wellcoordinated services that complete the care plan they’ve begun for their patients. Our quality scores are among the best in the industry, and our proven results reduce readmissions and cost efficiencies. We remember that physicians think clinically and can be highly suspicious of sales and marketing, so our language must be informed but also cooler, crisper, and more precise than that which we use for patients and families.

• Our strategic partners share many of the same concerns as our referral community. But in addition to a clinical mindset, they also have strategic and operational concerns. So when we speak to them, we are outcome-oriented, impressing upon them that we have a successful track record of partnering with nationally renowned health systems and creating value for them. Through innovation, creative technologies, and connected, comprehensive solutions, we help our partners attain quality- and value-based metrics, and we continue to accelerate and scale our programs to benefit patients and partners alike. We speak to them leader-to-leader.

• With our team members, we draw upon our courage and vision — reminding ourselves of our service and patient-first orientation, our problemsolving, our optimism, and our united mission to reimagine care. Our people are dedicated, experienced, and successful. We appreciate them, and we are committed to their growth, training, and diversity in order to deliver culturally competent, inclusive care.

• The hope for prospective employees is that they become team members, of course, so naturally there is some similarity in how we communicate to these two audiences, particularly when we talk about our compassionate care, our courageous commitment to our vision, and our patientfirst, problem-solving attitude. It’s important to remember we’re targeting a wide range of people with varying vocations and education levels — some are clinicians, some are aids, and the language of job responsibilities, etc., will differ accordingly. But it’s even more important to remember the common denominator that all our people — and therefore the candidates we seek — do share: their motivation to make a difference in people’s lives. It draws them to our industry, it is crucial to their success, and therefore we make sure they know AccentCare is the place to pursue that worthwhile cause and find deep personal fulfillment. Our work isn’t easy, and all of it is vitally important, so let’s avoid the terms “unskilled workers” and “unskilled labor” for our lower-wage positions. For clinicians, this motivation to make a difference in people’s lives is often manifested in the desire for more autonomy and 1:1 patient work than a hospital setting can give them. Here at AccentCare, they will have the chance to fully own patient care.

• A final, perhaps obvious, note. Be sure to explain the compensation and benefits of the job, not the least of which is the opportunity to grow with a quality company that is leading the way in our industry.