Staying Current to Maximize Connections

CLICK is the latest in a series of popular e-newsletters from VisionMonday. Every month, CLICK will provide ECPs and optical retailers with tools they need to build their presence online and grow connections with patients. It’s a monthly briefing designed specifically to provide practical insights and ideas about the latest Web site features, tools and Web-based applications.

CLICK will feature a variety of topics including innovative ideas in Web site design, profiles of ECP sites, examples of cutting-edge initiatives. We hope you use it to discover current web technologies and learn how online initiatives can help benefit your business.—The Editors

SmileReminder.Com:
New Patient Communication Tools for ECPs’ Sites

LEHI, Utah—A full suite of e-services for professionals is now targeting the vision care market. Smile Reminder provides practices with messaging solutions that improve office efficiency, enhance the patient experience and increase overall patient loyalty. The company’s patent-pending solutions “use the latest in messaging technology that works for today's mobile society,” according to Carey Van Orden, marketing director. Medical, dental, day spas and other health-related professions are using customized appointment reminders that go to patients’ computers and mobile phones and PDAs. These include “Tell a Friend” and post-exam surveys, e-newsletters, “Smile Dash,” which enables patients to pay bills online, and the new “VSling” technology which enables customers to record video testimonials—at the front desk or via link/webcam at home. With their OK, the VSlings are then posted online and can be sent to friends via Facebook and other social networks—all enhanced by the company’s Google search optimization.

Kevin Gee, OD, FAAO, from Missouri City, Texas has been using SmileReminder since January. “Smile Reminder has greatly impressed our patients. They enjoy the online confirmations and text messages, especially being able to put their appointments in their smartphones via vcard. Our patients get reminders at 1 week, 2 days and 3 hours prior to their appointments—this is completely customizable. It has really helped our no-show rate. The 3-hour reminder is the best because usually at this point in time is when they have something going on and call to tell us that they can't make it. We then have enough time to contact another patient or move patients up earlier.

“We also utilize the surveys on every patient,” said Gee. “We get great feedback on where we need to improve and also keep up the good work. The same goes for the newsletters—if we have a promotion in the office or if I'm being recognized or we're holding a trunk show, it a great tool to get the word out. Patients talk...and on every correspondence that goes out, there is a link to “refer a friend”. Lastly, we notify our patients of their contact and spectacle arrivals via “Groups” that includes the patients' name and notifies them that they are ready to be delivered or picked up.”

SmileReminder, which partners and is integrated with ECPs’ practice management systems, will be at the AOA Optometry’s Meeting in Washington, D.C. later this month and is planning to continue to increase its use among optometrists’ and ophthalmologists’ practices. SmileReminder.com features online demos, or more detailed demos and Q&As can be arranged.

Via ABB CONCISE’s YourLens.com Program, ECPs Create Patient Connections for Contact Lens Reorders

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla.—The traditional ECP method of placing an order with a contact lens supplier for two boxes of lenses then waiting for the lenses to arrive before notifying the patient is inconvenient, costly to ECPs and invites patients to seek alternatives. ABB CONCISE’s yourlens.com contact lens reorder web site provides ECPs a response to the industry’s ever growing online competition.

“ECPs now realize that a growing number of their patients value their time and demand convenience,” notes Angel Alvarez, president of ABB CONCISE.

ABB CONCISE’s yourlens.com service provides its accounts with an Internet reorder functionality that is easy to graft onto existing practice web sites in a transparent manner. The service can also be used as a stand-alone Internet reorder site, enabling patients to order. The newest feature on Yourlens.com is Auto Ship. This tool helps the ECP take patients out of the market if they have difficulty selling them an annual supply. Auto Ship allows the patients to manage their subscriptions on their own 24/7. “In today's tough economic climate this program allows patients to get their lenses on a regular basis without hurting their pocket. It also forces compliance because it makes the patient more aware of their wearing schedule when the yourlens automatic shipment arrives,” Alvarez notes.

Leah Ramos, OD, and Shane Swatts, OD, of Chesapeake, Va., have been using ABB CONCISE and their newly revised web site, lifetime2020.com, features the contact lens reordering function provided by ABB CONCISE yourlens.com.

Ramos told CLICK, “We have been integrating the ABB ordering function into our site for the past several years. We inform all of our patients who have finished their follow ups with us about our website and the capability of ordering online. Once the patient registers, we verify the prescription information and enter the expiration date into the system. The patient is then free to order throughout the year. We verify each prescription via email before the order is filled by ABB.

“We price some of our lenses lower online due to the decreased need for staff time when the patients order directly. We have had positive feedback from all of our patients who have used the website.”