A New Year of Resources to Help Amplify Your Web Presence

The crescendo of developments in the digital space are making it essential for eyecare professionals to revisit their presence on the web and social media. Many new tools are available to help build optical retailers and practices' visibility.

With this edition, CLICK, Vision Monday's twice-a-month e-newsletter, kicks off another year for briefing ECPs about web technology and Internet developments.

Past articles, featuring specific examples, programs and tips that you can use today, are available in our CLICK Archive. So, too, are dozens of Cool Tools and important Sites to See which offer content and resource ideas for your sites and your social media activities. The easy-to-access Archives are located under the CLICK button at www.visionmonday.com.

Have you tried something new on your website or launched a special social media campaign? Tell us about it and we'll consider it for an upcoming feature in CLICK.

All the best for a prosperous and productive New Year!
—The Editors

New Hoya Lens Selector Helps Patients Make Choices—And Directs Them to ECP Practices

DALLAS— Technology is driving an important new initiative at Hoyavision.com designed to help consumers make better-educated lens choices—and to drive those patients to ECP practices via the web.

The company has created the Hoya Lens Selector, a new web-based “cool tool” which takes patients through a series questions about their lifestyle and vision needs through intuitive and interactive graphics which provide recommendations about the best Hoya lens solutions to those and points them in the direction to get their specific Hoya prescription lenses tailored at participating eyecare practices.

Noted Ron Barnes, director of project marketing for Hoya Vision, “We launched HOYAVision.com in May 2009 with a consumer focus, aiming to build awareness of Hoya's cutting edge lenses among eyecare patients. Now we are taking it to the next level since we understand that patients need to be educated on the superior quality products Hoya eyecare providers offer.

“We know that many visitors to our website originate from brand name searches and they spend a good amount of time online researching our products. We’ll use the Lens Selector to attract new patients to ECPs. We've set it up to mirror an eyecare appointment questionnaire and the Lens Selector walks patients through each eyecare question. Since one pair of lenses may not be bset for all situations, we’ve even included recommendations for specialty lenses based on unique activities, like golfing and biking.”

As part of the email or print-friendly recommendation, Hoya includes an ECP's location if the patient came from a link off that practice's website. If the patient came to the Hoya Lens Selector on their own, it would include Hoya eyecare provider closest to the patient, with contact information for making an appointment.

Providers are being encouraged by Hoya to embed the HOYA Lens Selector (found at www.choosemylens.com) on their own website as a customized tool for patients. Those doctors and practices that do embed The Hoya Lens Selector on their site will be given extra acknowledgement on their listing on the ECP locator in the form of a Badge (much like a 5-star restaurant), which highlights the doctor on the locator sight.

Barnes noted, “Since our launch of the www.hoyavision.com site, Hoya’s traffic has quadrupled, with over 50 percent of the traffic clicking the Find A HOYA EXPERT ECP locator.” He added, the Hoya Lens Selector is the first of a series of new and exclusive ECP and patient programs and a multimedia networking campaign. “Hoya's goal is to drive patients into doctors' offices and enhance their knowledge of premium lens choices,” he said.

Integrating and Tracking Patient Interactions With Demandforce.com

By Alan Glazier, OD, FAAO

ROCKVILLE, Md.—Demandforce.com, a multifunctional internet home-base for email and text based recall, patient satisfaction monitoring, online review as well as most of your web based marketing and promotion efforts. This is a product we have successfully implemented in our practice for about two months now.

Demandforce emails and texts replace traditional recall cards and include links to your social media efforts. Analytics track which recall reminder emails were opened, enabling you to know exactly who has ignored your recall.

Communications contain a “Like” button so your patients can connect with your Facebook places page, and an icon that let’s them connect with you on twitter. Subsequent to the patients visit, a follow-up email is sent asking patients to complete a satisfaction survey, providing your office with valuable information. The satisfaction survey can be compared to a survey of national averages of consumer satisfaction so that you can be aware of areas where your staff is strong and weak and make adjustments. The survey asks if patients would refer others to you and if they say "yes" they are asked if they would choose 10 people from their social networks to refer; with a click, your promotional material is sent via a trusted source to 10 potential clients, all of this simply and easily maintained by your receptionists.

They have a social reputation enhancing tool that asks patients to review you on the internet, growing your presence on important internet real estate like Google Places and Yelp. The patient is prompted to review you by the review link in the email, and the “review” link provides you a real Google review but the “reviewer” is sent to a special landing page where you are reviewed without having to compete with other businesses adwords, adsense, and 1-800-Contacts adds on the same page.

When the review is posted, it is labeled “certified” by Google as legitimate because your page is part of a Google affiliate network. “Certified” reviews stand out against competitors. If a negative review is posted, your front desk is red-flag notified immediately so you can contact the patient and make things right, and if the review is particularly scathing or malicious, it can be removed easily.

Demandforce integrates with most major optometric practice management softwares and is easy for your receptionist to manage. In our office, our demandforce homepage has become a “hub” of information; it’s the first thing the receptionist looks at in the morning. In December alone, Demandforce was instrumental in the rescheduling of four lost patients, the practice otherwise wouldn’t have seen, generating over $800 dollars, more than double the monthly fee of Demandforce and we expect this figure to triple once we completely integrate it. Schedule an online demonstration by contacting Liz Baker at (800) 246-9853 and don’t forget to mention you read about them on “CLICK.”

Demandforce is being offered to ECPs through a new program from Carl Zeiss Vision. Check out CLICK's report on it in the Nov. 23 edition.

Alan N. Glazier, OD, FAAO is the founder/CEO of Shady Grove Eye and Vision Care in Rockville, Md. A search and social optimization consultant, he is now a regular contributor to CLICK and also writes a regular blog for SightNation.com. Glazier is at aglazier@youreyesite.com and his regular posts can be found via his Twitter handle: @EyeInfo, his blog: eyeinfo.wordpress.com and his website: YourEyeSite.com.