00:00:00
Katy Milkman: Is there a consequence?
Can we identify a consequence of
00:00:03
a faster versus a longer lag
time after that patient
00:00:07
encounter, for the likelihood
the patient says, "Yeah, I would
00:00:09
like to donate."
00:00:10
Dan Loney: So were you
able to determine
00:00:11
what is kind of that sweet spot
00:00:14
for a hospital, for an
organization, to make that ask
00:00:18
of a person who'd been in it,
you know, in that facility?
00:00:22
Yes. And actually, you talk
about a sweet spot, and that's
00:00:25
because we talked about these—
this tension between the two
00:00:28
competing theories. That, you
know, you don't want to act too
00:00:31
fast and seem grabby, right?
Like, this wasn't done out of the
00:00:34
goodness of the organization's
mission. It was just, you know,
00:00:37
all a ploy to get you to give us
money as fast as possible. It's
00:00:41
almost like a payment. And then
the sort of "We want to
00:00:44
capitalize on that feeling of
gratitude." So we thought there
00:00:47
might be sort of a U-shaped
relationship. I should say an
00:00:49
upside down U.
- A hump.
00:00:51
- Like it might be better to wait—
yeah, a hump— to
00:00:54
wait a little while, but not too
long. And what we actually found
00:00:58
is, you can't act fast enough,
essentially. In our data, we
00:01:01
never saw anyone getting a
mailing asking for a donation
00:01:07
faster than 23 days after their
encounter. But faster was simply
00:01:11
better. We just saw that there
was a pretty linear decline in
00:01:15
giving, and basically every
extra 30 days after an encounter
00:01:19
you wait to contact a patient
leads to a 30% decline in the
00:01:23
likelihood that they will make a
donation in response to that
00:01:26
ask. So a really precipitous
decline, and it continues over
00:01:30
the whole course of the time
that we were able to follow
00:01:33
patients. They— you know, they
don't ask years later.
00:01:35
Right. Is that kind of, you think,
00:01:38
kind of the format that hospitals
00:01:41
will take with all patients? And
I only ask that because I think
00:01:44
some people will react
differently to being contacted,
00:01:48
whatever the time is. You know,
some people, no matter the time,
00:01:51
will feel like, "Oh my god, it's—
it's another ask from the
00:01:54
hospital." Or they're like, "Oh
yeah, they did such a great job
00:01:57
of taking care of me. Yes, let
me write a check to them."
00:01:59
That's right. Not everyone is going to
be affected, but it is
00:02:02
remarkable that you'd see this
30% decay with every 30 day
00:02:06
decline. That's a pretty huge
effect. So it suggests that a
00:02:09
lot of people are impacted by
the time frame in which the ask
00:02:12
is made. Now, I do want to be
clear that, again, the fastest
00:02:16
anyone was asked here and that
anyone got a letter was at least
00:02:19
three weeks after their
encounter.
00:02:21
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