Designing the Environment for Your Perfect Practice
Ophthalmic professional James D. Dawes provides seven things to consider when designing the environment for your perfect practice in the July issue of CRST.
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Sightpath Blog
Introducing Our New Website, Expanded Customer Resource Library
Sightpath Medical has launched a new user-friendly site that features testimonial videos and an expanded how-to library for ophthalmic professionals.
Sightpath Medical Names New Area Sales Director
Sightpath Medical announced the promotion of Erik Klein as Area Sales Director – East Coast. In this role, Mr. Klein will manage sales performance and implement new strategies, policies and practices that support Sightpath Medical’s vision.
Surveying Your Patients
Patient satisfaction surveys can be an effective tool for practices to create a positive patient experience and encourage future referrals. In order to promote participation, keep in mind the who, what, how, when and why of patient surveys.
What you don’t know will hurt you
Benchmarking your data is just smart business. You became an ophthalmologist to practice medicine, not to angst over columns of numbers on a spreadsheet. But these days physicians must wear several hats — and green eyeshades — to ensure practice profitability. In the past 30 years margins have flip-flopped from 60 percent profit to as much as 70 percent expenditure, says John Pinto.
Revive your LASIK practice
Refractive surgeons share their tips for bringing it back from the brink after the recession. The US economy may be on the mend, but it’s not evident via LASIK surgery numbers: LASIK volumes are fewer than half those preceding the 2008-2009 recession. Top LASIK practitioners recommend a renewed dedication to marketing efforts to remind the public that the procedure is still here, and still valuable. But will that be enough?
Is your practice up to the change challenge?
Whatever adjustments your team faces, you need to be strategically proactive. The changes in ophthalmology over the past 20 years have been substantial, from imaging to surgery. While physicians, by nature, may find it easy to embrace scientific, clinical changes, the reality is that many of today’s changes create unique practice-wide challenges because they affect everyone in the office. For some practices, integrating adjustments can be painful.
How to pick the right promotional products, and why they’re important
Promotional products say a lot about your practice. They are small, daily reminders to your customers that you value their business and will be available when they need you. They can be used both inside and outside of your practice at local events to help generate awareness and connect with potential patients. Consider these facts from the Promotional Products Association International: eight in ten consumers own between one and ten promotional products, with six in ten keeping them for up to two years, and 53% use a promotional item at least once a week.
Going from word of mouth to cyber savvy
Cornea specialist George M. Salib, MD,initially relied on word-of-mouth and referrals to promote his practice, but after about a year of less-than-satisfying results from these strategies, Dr. Salib chose a new course of action: He decided to build a professionally designed, content-rich and search engine-optimized (SEO) website to win new patients for his practice. He also would have a sustained online marketing and SEO campaign that would run in his practice area. Although word-of-mouth marketing is important, Dr. Salib’s situation is a great example of how to incorporate this tactic with other strategies.
Five Tips for Becoming an Exhibiting Rock Star at Your Next Community Event
Making connections and increasing awareness of your practice in your community will help to amplify your brand presence and build your referral base. Through appearances at senior centers, health fairs, and other public events, your practice can take advantage of these opportunities and create a strategy for participation. Often the purpose of events such as these is not to make an immediate sale, instead success can be measured by the number of new contacts you leave with – people who showed interest in your practice by signing up for your newsletter, liking you on Facebook, entering a drawing for a free procedure, etc. In an effort to help you get started, below are five simple tips to keep in mind when creating your event marketing strategy.