One of the best projects I’ve worked on in a long time is a client opening up a new urgent care center in Danbury. My job is to help him maximize his online exposure and create the online buzz that the center will need to drive traffic not just to his website but through his door. Way overdue, this center is the first urgent care walk-in clinic Danbury has seen. It is a long overdue and welcome sight and is deserving of a big, warm welcome.
How can I create maximum buzz for Doctors Express Danbury? I love a good challenge. I’m lucky, first of all, to be working with a business guy, someone who gets that you can no longer just build it and expect people to beat a path to your doorway. The days of doctor’s reputations and neighbor –to- neighbor word of mouth referrals are petering. The Field of Dreams vision of build it and they will come are way done. These are ‘dreams’ and nothing more. Today we are finding doctors, like new restaurants, like hotels, like books, online. We are judging, often pre-judging them online and we are certainly more in control of their successes or failures than ever before.
That being said, advances in apps and online awareness are opening the doors to all kinds of possibilities for doctors and healthcare providers especially, and you will see them being applied at Doctors Express. Awareness is key. It’s not called urgent care for nothing. Quick, targeted service and information is what people are hungry for, what they’ve become used to and what an Urgent Care center aims to deliver.
You’ll be seeing super cool services such as
- Real time community health alerts (The flu is coming! the flu is coming!)communicated the community you via email, Twitter and Facebook.
- Healthcare Education, available services, and informational video’s on their Youtube channel and website, so that folks can not only get to know the medical director but can get comfortable with him as well prior to meeting him, a meet and greet with the staff and more fun video’s which will unroll over the next year.
- Occasional service specials on services like camp physicals, blood pressure screenings, flu shots, and more, again, brought to you via online newsletters, email blasts, Facebook and Twitter
- Downloadable forms that can be filled out at home which will cut wait time in half
The way that healthcare is being delivered today is changing. Its’ ability to reach out to you is easier than ever before and important to strive for, so that the services you receive are efficient, portable and most of all effective. Interaction and connection is encouraged. If you are engaged with your healthcare providers, trust is formed and then a relationship. And that’s how you stay sticky.
Take note, other service industries, and get on board. You too can use the tools available to you to engage, grow your traffic and build your community cred.