These are unprecedented times. We have been through 9/11 and the recession of 2008 but nothing has interrupted our industry like the current COVID-19 pandemic. With so much uncertainty, here’s what we know: we WILL get back to helping our patients through eye care and improving lives through vision correction. The WHEN is unknown, but we will open our doors again to welcome patients and get back to the passion we have for helping.
With that being said, your practice can’t go dark and expect to pick up where you left off quickly. In fact, we must do the opposite. Our upcoming blogs will walk you through what you should be doing to keep your practice in sight as well as ideas on how you and your services can stay top-of-mind so when this passes, your phones will once again be ringing, inboxes dinging and staff nagging the doctor to stay on schedule.
Our first blog brings you the 5 Things You Should Have Already Done as business as we know it has changed. Hint: if you haven’t done these already, consider this today’s to-do list.
- Construct your COVID-19 notice. Explain your practice’s current status (is it practice open as usual, limited hours or seeing emergent cases only), what measures you are taking to keep staff and patients healthy and safe and how patients can contact you.
- Communicate through essential channels. This includes your website, Google My Business page, social media channels, and email. Patients are going to these places regularly to find out the status of businesses, whether you are a local coffee shop or Apple. Your COVID-19 notice should be prominent on your home page and pinned to the top of your practice’s Facebook page at the minimum. Be sure to also update this information in all places it is posted AS SOON AS anything changes. Outdated information can cause frustration with patients and provide a poor experience even without them stepping foot into your office.
- Don’t neglect your co-management network. Communicating your notice only to your patients is neglecting one of your most valuable assets and partners in business – your co-management network. Keeping them informed and up-to-date can show your commitment to the partnership and continue your flow of incoming referrals.
- Make a plan to continue to manage incoming leads. Understanding that layoffs and furloughs of your employees may be and have been necessary as practices are shutting down or slowing. As this happens, strongly consider ensuring you have staff that is able to continue communicating with leads as they come in. Our clients are still seeing multiple leads every day across all service lines, the best thing to do is to work these leads like you normally would or even better! With less patients and more time, now is the time you can dedicate a staff member for online communication. You’ll find more information on how to best capture and nurture leads during this time in our next blog!
- Review and revise your current marketing messages. Now may not be the best time to use messages such as, “schedule your consultation or exam now,” or “Now is the time for LASIK.” What is important during this time is keeping your branding efforts strong and maintaining consistent presence with messages that are relevant and responsible. For more information and ideas on current marketing, stay tuned to our blog.
We will get through this very difficult time, and when we do, we want to be ready to hit the ground running. Use this unprecedented “down time” as an opportunity to prepare to emerge from this crisis as a stronger practice. We are here to help and support your practice – please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions or need some assistance or advice.
