Do you see a role for support staff from pump/meter companies here?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Cathy on October 7, 2009 at 10:50am

I think it may be a good idea. Like you said, as long as he/she was not trying to persuade a purchase in that pump type. It would give people a way of asking pump questions that are thinking of pumping or having a pumping issue. Nope no problem here.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kelly Rawlings on October 7, 2009 at 11:08am

If the individual is properly identified as representing the company, I'm all for more dialogue. As long as the individual has an "I'm paid to participate" tag and is featured only in a special section or during a live event.

To me, that's what marks the true distinction between passionate participants with personal investment in the community versus paid-for participants (who may be passionate, also, but reimbursed in some form).

Let's not kid ourselves. Many people on social networks are subtly marketing themselves--whether to promote their blog or Website or fund-raising efforts, etc. That's not a bad thing. But loyalties should be clear.

I participate on this network as myself. I can't disassociate myself from my job—editor of Diabetic Living magazine --because so much of what I read, edit, and write every day directly concerns this community. But I am not paid to participate. It is not part of my job description or assignments. And I personally donate to the Diabetes Hands Foundation to help fund the future of this network and other diabetes outreach efforts.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Terry Keelan on October 7, 2009 at 11:36am

Transparency and boundaries are deal breakers for me. It would be great to have a direct line to a company, especially if I used its prodcucts. It would suck to have them start trying to sell me stuff or sending me e-mail because they got my name from this forum.

If you put them in their own forum or group, it could be ideal.

Terry

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by tmana on October 7, 2009 at 11:45am

To some degree, the groundwork for this has already begun. We have onboard two members who are also on staff at Wavesense. When they post about Wavesense meters, they usually disclose their interest. One also posts as a PWD, and does not mention his professional affiliation where no conflict should arise.

What I see here is the idea of using communities (such as TuD, DR, DD, etc.) as another channel through which to provide customer service and support. (The "call center" of ten years ago is more often the "contact center" of today, including phone, e-mail, Web chat, company-sponsored forums, and sometimes direct-connect-to-device channels of communication with the customer -- which can be a win-win situation -- but which entails potential legal liability issues, of which DHF, TuD, the corporate entity in question, and the Clinical Manager must be aware.

To-date I note that as far as I can tell, the Wavesense liaisons have only discussed their products in technical specifications, how to use the features, and what to do when it doesn't work right (e.g., how to contact customer service). I believe that at one time they also passed feature requests up to the appropriate groups (IIRC one of the contacts is a member of the design team).

I might be a bit more lenient with what I might allow a non-sales, medically-licensed individual to do within the community than others: I would set up a special "ask the expert" forum for questions directly posed to the individual, for which general responses could be posted in the forum and for which more-specific questions might be direct-messaged, but I would not a priori restrict that person from perusing (and/or being active in) other forums. I would actually expect that a company looking to delight its customers would want to pro-actively search the site for both positive and negative comments regarding the company's products, and I would expect that TuD would set up an SLA with the Clinical Manager that questions posed in the designated forum would be answered within a specific delay. (I would also put some basic disclaimers in the forum re: specific medical advice, when to call instead of posting, when to call your medical team first, etc.).

As far as being afraid to post something negative about the company... well... they can read everything we write here whether or not they are members of the community, so the only difference is having a contact with a name and a position.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Patricia on October 7, 2009 at 12:09pm

Can see pros and cons. If they would be allowed to join and post as representatives of their companies...I would say their "photo" would have to be a logo of their company...no matter what someone says, they are representing their interests when they post...that would be the only reason they are here...unless they are also diabetic. What makes Tu and other user driven networks special and useful, is that we are sharing w/ each other our unique perspectives as patients and support systems for patients. I am sure they could provide technical data and keep our community informed...maybe finding a specific way for them to do that w/o participating like members may be more appropriate. Maybe special forums for product updates, Q and A's, etc. I suspect they are already here in some form. Good idea to make it more legit and up-front. Thanks for asking for our input:)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mark on October 7, 2009 at 12:46pm

I believe it would be excellent to have the expertise of manufacturers on this site. I have mentioned TuDiabetes to many employees at Minimed.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mike Ratrie on October 7, 2009 at 1:16pm

Um...it's already happened. I welcome them to provide both insight AND to understand how their products are truly perceived and used in the hope that this will lead to better tools.

I would not restrict them to posting in any forum as long as they are identified as you have noted. After all, many of these folks are diabetics.... and they are people too :) ! My guess (and hope) would be that their companies are going to restrict how they post.

As in many other forums that I participate in, the good ones quickly become identified and the bad ones do to.

Fair Winds,
Mike

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by MelissaBL on October 7, 2009 at 5:01pm

It hasn't exactly already happened. What we have now are members who work for companies in the industry but that are here on a member-basis, not as representatives of their companies. We have members here who work for Lifescan, Roche, Wavesense, etc. What we're talking about now is designating a pre-determined forum or group area for people to answer questions about how best to use products and outlining how they may participate in the community.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cheri on October 7, 2009 at 2:58pm

Hmmmm....I know this probably sounds paranoid, but what if we restricted it to those who are PWD?

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kelly Rawlings on October 7, 2009 at 3:36pm

Well, that would be reverse discrimination. Plus, people who live without diabetes can still have great info to share. Just not experiential info.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cheri on October 7, 2009 at 4:01pm

Well, then I guess I'm guilty.
I realize non-diabetics can be wonderful - hey, I'm married to one.
But I view Tu as "my" place - and the place of other PWD.
My opinion.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kelly Rawlings on October 7, 2009 at 4:29pm

You're right, PWDs are what makes tudiabetes special. But so do the parents of PWDs and the loved ones who also read and post.

▶ Reply to This

• First
• Previous
• Next
• Last