Do You Need a Digital Front Door Makeover?
Take time to decorate your digital properties this season for a superb user experience.
The holidays are upon us! From Halloween to Thanksgiving and fall harvest, to Christmas and Hanukkah, people spend time getting their decorations out. It also spurs the controversial debate on should you start decorating for one holiday when another hasn’t even happened yet?!
Prepping the holiday experience
Raise your hand (or share this blog post) if you know a household (or maybe it’s yours!) who has done the following scenario. It’s late October. The front door and outside of the home are decorated with spider webs, ghosts, and pumpkins. Venture into the foyer and living room and perhaps you see more harvest themes and orange leaves. But in a bedroom away from the front door, you hear Christmas music filling the air, and maybe in another room, a Christmas movie is playing.
No matter what happens inside of the house, the front door is matched to the current season. It sets the tone. It drives the curb appeal that makes people take a second look, or linger a little longer. Once someone sets foot inside, the experience can be tailored — each individual in the household may have different decorating preferences or favorite holidays. While the celebration can look different, the front door is the first impression.
Prepping the customer experience
You may relate to the above holiday experience and decorating. I serve clients in the healthcare industry, and there has been a new wave of embracing digital transformation. Healthcare has been slower than other industries to adapt to giving consumers a digital experience.
So, what about the patient experience and revolutionizing it? Hospitals and doctor offices have tried to make their waiting rooms and front-office check-in processes smooth and inviting. But what happens when you have to be socially distant? Like other industries, COVID-19 reshaped how patients want and need care.
“Nearly half of all patients reported that they are now getting treatment at home instead of going to their healthcare provider’s office” — Accenture
Digital health has transitioned from a nice to have to a need to have. The entire patient experience has been affected — scheduling, billing, patient care, and post-care — technology has found solutions to improve the experience.
How can you make sure your patient experience is enhanced? The answer is making sure your digital front door is updated.
What is the healthcare digital front door?
The digital front door is one part of the patient experience that has resulted from COVID. This includes virtual triage, screening patients (especially for COVID) to assure the patients who need care quickest get in, and scheduling telehealth for those who qualify. Tools like chatbots became more widely used to accomplish this.
The digital front door also can include administrative outputs including patient billing or scheduling. The goal of the digital front door is to let patients have a seamless experience and be more involved in their healthcare journey through integrated technology.
From the moment a patient tries to get connected to care to the registration to follow-up communication, a strong patient experience must include a digital front door.
Creating a digital-first impression
Consumers have been crafting experiences and getting what they want in other industries for years. Just like in healthcare and the patient experience, COVID has disrupted other industries, and digital impressions matter no matter who you are serving.
First impressions can be a dealbreaker — sometimes you don’t get a second chance. The secret to a robust digital front door is getting people connected to what they need faster and without hurdles. First impressions have changed during COVID and everyone needs a digital front door when there may not be a chance to meet in person (or have your expression hidden by a mask).
Where you can make a digital-first impression
- Website
Your website is quite often the first way people can learn more about you. You only have a few seconds — maybe even milliseconds to capture attention. Make sure your homepage is eye-catching and succinctly describes what you do or offer. Utilize keywords and SEO to get the right people there and grab their attention even quicker.
2. Social Media
Next to your website, social media is a good first impression for your brand. If your social isn’t updated, it may make potential customers wonder if you’re still in business. Be sure to capitalize on bios and pinning or featuring important content to give people a snapshot of who you are.
3. Blog
Blogs are a great way to dive deeper into topics and show more of your personality and thought leadership. While some blogs are a part of your website, you can also guest blog to extend your reach. Be sure to keep using keywords to target and attract the right audience.
4. Email subscription
When people do want to learn more about you, email sign-ups are one of the first places they go. Make sure you have a welcome email and drip campaign in place to keep people engaged and get to learn who you are and what you do or sell. Nurture them to discover they need what you’re offering.
Remember: your digital front door could be the first experience and impression a potential customer has about you. How they get to your front door and who gets there is important to understand. Knowing your audience and tailoring your experience to them can help grab the right attention. Once your target audience opens the door, you can customize their experience to fit their needs. User experience matters and the customer journey is more important than ever.
