Eyeworld Daily News

EW SHOW DAILY 22 Monday, May 9, 2016 by Vanessa Caceres EyeWorld Contributing Writer ASOA News Today D oes your practice use text messaging to set or con- firm appointments? Do you use video testimonials from patients on your website? Has your practice updated its Facebook page recently? Do you have easy-to-find information on the site about how patients can ob- tain financing for refractive surgery? Those sorts of measures are just some of what your practice should be using to fit in with patients' "frictionless" engagement with tech- nology, according to speakers at the CareCredit lunch on Sunday. Erin Gargan of the company Socialite, Laguna Beach, California, shared her own life examples of ordering from Starbucks via an app (and even paying online), taking an Uber car, having her playlist on Spotify sync with the Uber car, and then using an app to send money to a friend, all in a short span of time. She contrasted this with walking into a doctor's office where she went for a LASIK consult and not having the experience be as tech- or user-friendly. Although the speakers at the CareCredit lunch acknowledged that not all patients visiting an ophthal- mologist are using technology to this same degree, they added that the increased use of mobile technol- ogy is the direction in which many patients are moving. Another key point for practices to consider is that before getting vision surgery, people will often turn to the Internet, their provider, and family and friends for more infor- mation, said Randy Baldwin, vice president of client marketing, vision and hearing, CareCredit. This should prompt practices to have more patient education information on their site. However, many potential patients see cost as a barrier—but 68% are not aware that financing for vision surgery is an option. "The provider needs to be savvy about the procedure and be able to communi- cate about the option of financing," Mr. Baldwin said. To address that area, Michael Dobkowski, CEO, Glacial Multime- dia, Westbrook, Maine, discussed a study of eye practice websites that found by moving information on financing to a more prominent place on the website, users engaged more often with the financing informa- tion. Practices also can benefit from adding online appointment sched- uling onto their site. "If you do this, you will get more LASIK leads," he said. It's a good idea to have the scheduling option shown on every page of the site. Patty Casebolt, Medical Eye Center, Grants Pass, Oregon, shared various digitally savvy moves made by her practice, including patient videos recorded with a tablet, sur- veys, LASIK marketing that involves text messaging, and giving patients the ability to apply for CareCredit Taking steps toward a more digitally savvy practice Innovation and craftsmanship that helps you rise above. Haag-Streit vision spans more than 150 years. Our goal is simple: to develop ever more useful tools for the precise understanding of the human eye. At Haag-Streit, you will see the future clearly. 80O.787.5426 haag-streit-usa.com © 2016 Haag-Streit USA. All Rights Reserved. Visit us at ASCRS 2016 Booth #245 FAMOUS FOR SEEING WHAT OTHERS CAN'T. Octopus 600 Reliance FX920 LENSTAR APS Haag-Streit Surgical Hi-R NEO 900 Haag-Streit BQ 900 LED Haag-Streit

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