The word IT can be a scary word in business when taken outside of the IT department. We know we all use computers at work, but how they all connect, how they are used to improve the productivity of your business and how to get “under the hood” to change the programming so that you can make your business even more productive, this is an whole other level of scary that we are not always willing to tackle, to the detriment of our business growth and advancement.
In this article, I will not pretend to know all things IT and tech, but give real life examples of how we have used IT in our business to improve our productivity, our ability to work together and improve the overall customer experience.
The ability to customize with scale
One of the most important systems we ever developed at our centre is our full body assessment system program. This program allows our practitioners to assess clients head to toe, to determine all their major issues, weaknesses and strengths to able to plan and give direction to their individualized program. Essentially, it’s a project management tool, set up to test and plan the program for every client. This allows any practitioner to pick up the client’s program at any time and know exactly what to do, even if they hadn’t seen that client before.
The original program started as a word document with a grid, measuring strength scores only. This was not very sophisticated, but it was a starting point. Testing injuries and issues was outside of this system, so it was converted to an excel documents that contained all the major testing that picked up most physical injuries as well as testing strength scores. The cells in excel allowed us to build basic formulas that could build basic predictive formulas. This made our job easier and allowed faster and more consistent decision making between practitioners. However, this was still limited. Change was very hard. Individual spreadsheets had to be changed if we wanted to add new features and data was not stored in a central location that could be analyzed, so insights in the information were still based on observational “guesswork”.
Our final stage was to take the leap and build an application, with a database that stored the data for central analysis and a front-end application that can be easily changed to add new tests, features and diagnoses. This was a MASSIVE learning curve and this process is not perfect. However, this has allowed us to customize client’s programs across 4 sites with ease and implement changes as quickly as we can build them.
This degree of scale and customization would not have been possible if we would not have stepped out of our comfort zone, expanded our IT knowledge and “given it a go” of building programs that enhance our communication between practitioners about client care.
How can IT potential enhance the quality of the care that you provide your clients?
The ability to work anywhere
For many of us, the pandemic has been an accelerator in using IT tools to work remotely and from home. For us, utilizing cloud technologies has been a game changer to allow all of our IT systems to be linked, accessible and of each quality at each site.
This did require a bit of faith in our IT service provider. Previously we had kept all of our systems and data on a server, kept on site, because it “seemed” to be easier and cheaper. But the IT world has changed. Amazon web services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure have really changed the landscape.
For us, moving all of our systems to Azure and Microsoft 365 has meant that each staff member has access to all the information and tools of equal quality and standard at any site or from home. Change is very easy and can be organized centrally, very fast, as opposed to individually upgrading each computer and server.
Practically, what this meant was that when we opened up our Paddington practice, all the systems, processes and service delivery was instantly available to our Queensland clients at the same quality to our Victorian practices within heartbeat.
Will online services give you the ability to work anywhere with equal quality? Have you spoken to your IT service provider about this?
The ability to improve the overall customer experience
There are 2 tools that are utilized on a daily basis to enhance our customer service experience and these are our CRM and our website.
Our CRM allows records and reminds of all communication with our clients (specifically our personal conversations with them). For us this was not about sending automatic messages. Clients can tell (maybe) when they are getting automated messages, however, having and tracking regular, personalized communication with the clients has significantly enhanced the client experience.
I personally keep in regular contact with clients who are unwell and unable to attend the clinic, even for an extended period of time. This is NOT to sell to them, but to genuinely maintain the relationships and show that I actually care. This has meant a lot to the clients who would have otherwise felt “forgotten about”, especially after the pandemic.
Secondly, we make constant and rapid changes to our website. This is not just for client acquisition, but again, another communication tool to maintain relationships with our clients and potential clients. We regularly update our articles (like this one), podcasts, fact sheets and exercise sheets, so that our clients have the best information about topics of health, from our words and curated by us, to focus their attention on health topics relevant for them.
Is your IT systems helping you maintain regular, personalized contact with your clients?
Group Mastermind – Do you want to get involved ?
Every Wednesday at 11.15am – 12pm, we hold a group Mastermind session to:
- Brainstorm strategies
- Discuss marketing ideas
- Work on each other’s business problems
It is FREE of charge and a great way to interact and pick the brains of other allied health business owners.
Join the discussion and have your say?
- Comment below!
- Call us on (03) 9857 0644 or (07) 3505 1494 (Paddington)
- Email us at admin@mdhealth.com.au
- Check out our other Health Business blog posts here
Our clinical staff would be happy to have chat if you have any questions.
