BIG solutions your Allied Health clinic can't do without
Micro business, BIG solutions.
A case study into allied health & micro clinics
If you run a micro business or are a sole trader, investing in digital products like a website, mobile app or even google ads can be daunting. Firstly because you are the one to pay for it all and secondly, you are the only one making decisions. And you want those decisions to be the best ones.
For service based business, the truth is, your customers are paramount and retaining those customers is everything to the survival of your business. Retaining existing clients is often more profitable and efficient than acquiring new customers, making it a valuable strategy for long-term success.
Which platform you choose to land your business on depends on what your business does or sells. Service based or product based.
The next important factor is WHO is your main market? Is it busy working mums who don’t have much time to book appointments and 'need-to do-it-now-while-I-remember'? or teens or retirees, business professionals..the list goes on.
Once you identify who your market is, you can determine what the best platform is for your business and what the best marketing and connection tools you should be using.
Let's look at an example of a sole trader who runs a micro Physiotherapy business. The owner has no employees, runs the business under their own name and rents a space in a shared clinic.
In this scenario the business is run mainly on referrals and is growing. Appointments are made via a phone call to the shared clinics admin office.
While a website is a great tool for this business, it may not obtain the referrals required to help grow the business. A mobile app in this case would be an ideal solution and solve common business related problems.
Below are some of the benefits of a mobile app for micro service based business :
| Benefit to the Client | Benefit for the practitioner |
|---|---|
| Having access to what they need, when they need it | The front end of the business is always open |
| Viewing appointments and book online any time of day | Receive bookings after hours, cut out admin time |
| Accessing business information, contacts, multiple locations | Easy tool to direct clients to use |
| Receiving updates, information, news, last minute appointment opportunities | Send scheduled or spontaneous push notifications when you need to fill a last minute appointment cancellation, share clinic hours, updates to exercises, new blog or seasonal information. The options are endless! |
| Receiving rewards for loyalty and referrals | Reward your clients for their loyalty |
| Access additional clinical information or instructions/exercises - without having to remember them! | Eliminate wasted time re-writing/drawing the same stretches and exercises over and over by creating a content library. |
| Practitioner connection | Connect to your clients via social and chat features with dedicated topics. Share additional helpful information to give that next level of service and promote your business. |
| Pre- pay appointments to spend less time after appointments or benefit from bulk discounts | Create a shop to take payments for pre-paid appointments or design a multi pass system (eg.10 pass) |
| Purchase products as recommended for treatment and recovery | Showcase and categorise different products you sell that aid clients treatments or recovery. Take payments and manage stock. |
| Providing an easy share button for users to share the app | Increase referrals by encouraging users to share you app via the easy share function. |
| Having a space to chat to the practitioner and ask quick questions | In the chat space, interact with clients in scheduled manner to answer quick questions and share helpful information. Increasing contact with the practitioner increases loyalty and security for the business. |
| Access exercises/stretches etc on the app to eliminate losing hand drawn sketches or instructions. | Develop an exercise library to refer patients to, share exercises with them directly. Eliminating the time cost spent on repetitive paper work. |
| Receive more time with hands on treatment. | |
| Manage your payments online, feed directly through to your accounting software. | |
| Book with multiple practitioners | Take payments and booking for multiple staff when you grow. |
Adding to the above list of benefits, an app can also enable your business to provide
'targeted marketing'. This means you can send targeted marketing messages to specific client groups.
For instance, if the clinic wants to recognise a special event like Men's or Women's health weeks - a push notification can be sent directly to those specific user groups offering health checks or promotions that are tailored to their specific needs. By delivering personalised marketing, the clinic can increase bookings, customer engagement and stronger loyalty.
