When the Obama administration launched its healthcare website on October 1st the President’s most prized project quickly turned into an unmanageable disaster. Healthcare.gov was riddled with technical problems that made it almost impossible to use, causing enormous public backlash. But there are a few valuable PR lessons to be learned from healthcare.gov’s disastrous rollout.
Launching late is better than launching poorly
If the date of a product or service launch is looming and there are still glitches that are far from being fixed, it is always better to postpone the launch. Although the company may receive some criticism it will still maintain its customers’ trust, which is much more important.
When the Obama administration decided to launch a faulty healthcare website they lost the trust of the American people. President Obama’s approval rating has dropped below 40 percent, the lowest it has been in two years, and his unpopularity is almost certainly linked to the healthcare fiasco. Now in addition to fixing the faulty healthcare website President Obama must find a way to win back the public’s trust.
Speak up if expectations are too high
When a client’s expectations are not in line with what your experience knows to be true or are unrealistic, speak up. This requires a lot of diplomacy, but better to voice your concerns early so that you and your client can agree on the expected outcome.
Despite being warned by an outside health advisor that no one within the Obama administration was up to the task of overseeing the healthcare.gov project, President Obama insisted on putting his health policy team in charge. When healthcare.gov collapsed no one on the project knew how to fix it, so the Obama administration was left scrambling for outside help. If the Obama administration had appointed an outside technology expert earlier some of the system’s flaws might have been caught before the launch, and someone would have been readily available to fix the problems that occurred afterwards.
Always be transparent
Despite our best efforts, mistakes happen. When a crisis occurs be straightforward about the situation and don’t try to cover anything up. There are too many examples of what can go wrong if you don’t take this approach. The press and the public will be much more forgiving if they are provided with all the details.
The Obama administration were not as forthcoming as they could have been with data on the number of visitors, enrollments and purchases on the healthcare.gov website, which might have been part of the reason several media outlets that are usually supportive of the Affordable Care Act became highly critical. The Huffington Post, which has been fairly supportive of the Affordable Care Act in the past, recently published a critical blog post asserting that the Affordable Care Act is flawed.
Although the healthcare.gov rollout was a disaster, the website is fixable. The biggest challenge for the administration will be changing the public’s opinion of the Affordable Care Act. Any suggestions for how the administration should earn back the public’s trust?