Is your facility “Hispanic Ready”? Your Store, Hospital, Clinic?

It is surprising to see the blank faces of CEO’s and CMO’s when I ask them this question: is your facility “Hispanic ready”? In some parts of the nation where the Hispanic population has exploded, their answer usually is, “well (hesitation) yeah… uh, what do you mean”?

My response is with questions:

• Do you have plenty of staff that are bilingual?

• Do you have signage in Spanish?

• If someone comes in and doesn’t understand English or isn’t very fluent in English, can that person navigate through your facility? Can they navigate through your services? Do they even know what you offer them?

• Is your entire staff a “welcoming” staff? How about to Hispanics?

• Is your staff culturally sensitive? Do they understand Hispanic hot buttons?

• Are they “Hispanic friendly”?

The Spanish-speaking Hispanic community has a large spending power. They can become very loyal customers or patients. But whether Spanish-dominant or bilingual we Hispanics, have picked up special “antennas” and “receptors” over the years that we use when we go to any new facility. These “antennas” and “receptors” quickly make an assessment, “am I welcome here?” “Do they show they care about me?”

Our work for clients in this arena has shown that if its handled correctly, executed correctly, and show that Hispanics are “welcome”, can develop some very loyal customers.