Any kind of crisis will test us. Not only will it test our mental fortitude and resilience, but also our organizational skills, our adaptability, and the systems we put in place. Of course, this is highly pertinent when it comes to business. 

During the current crisis, a lot of businesses are finding out just how resilient they really are. Can they continue to offer their services remotely? How badly are they impacted by supplies falling short? And are they able to continue at all?

Much of this has to do with the systems that they have in place and just how well optimized they were for unforeseen contingencies. 

It also means that now is the time to dig deep and find that productivity: to work harder and smarter than ever before. Even if you weren’t ready for this outbreak, you can still make the best of the situation by rising to the challenge and finding new ways to improve efficiency and productivity.

What does this mean for the healthcare industry in the face of COVID-19? Read on and we’ll explore the answer and how to be more productive than ever just as the going gets tough.

The Challenge

Let’s start by looking at the precise challenges that you will face as a healthcare provider during the current lockdown.

Chances are that you won’t be seeing anyone face to face unless it’s an emergency. That means that you will likely have adapted your business model in order to offer consultations via video conferencing software or calls.

This can be a good thing. It means you can now see more customers in a day, and it means that things like missed appointments will be less negatively impactful. But it also means that no one is in your waiting room, and it means you could have tons of calls coming in. If you have staff working from home, this creates even more of a logistical challenge!

And then there are all the other tasks you need to handle: such as marketing and messaging clients. This is a great time to double down on that kind of activity, but you need to get the first bit right in order to do so. 

CRM

CRM is a Customer Relationship Management system. This is a tool that you can use in order to manage contacts – keeping them in a database so that you can easily find their details, send them messages, and generally stay in touch. CRMs will often come with built-in email systems, and they will provide a number of options for converting cold leads into potential customers.

This is more important than EVER during the current lockdown. Why? Because customers can no longer come to you: you now need to get in touch with your patients and clients in order to ensure they continue to use your business.

This is the perfect time to offer special deals, discounts, or membership packages that can help you to maintain a steady income and pay your staff. You can allow patients to make future bookings, or you can offer online consultations. 

To make these offers, you need to reach out to your previous customers. And that’s where the CRM becomes essential.

Another challenge when using a CRM is security. If your team is now working from home, then this is more crucial than ever: working from home introduces new security risks and ideally, it would be better to avoid accessing client information on a home network. Using a CRM with the very best security can be extremely useful for this.

CRMDialer is a CRM system that comes with all the tools and features you need to continue working optimally during the lockdown. That includes the ability to support an unlimited number of users, excellent security, easy list cleaning, and so much more.

Appointment Scheduling

One thing that could be extremely useful to help businesses improve efficiency during the lockdown, is appointment scheduling software.

This is basically software that allows you to keep track of appointments and other commitments. For a large organization, this makes it possible to see which members of staff are free on what days and which ones have free slots for customers to book in to see them. Some appointment programs will let users make their own bookings online even, while others will provide your team with information about each customer before their appointment. All this can greatly enhance workflow and prevent mistakes such as double bookings.

But just like spreadsheet software, this is something that shouldn’t just be confined to corporate environments. An appointment program is something that can drastically increase the workflow of any professional, including entrepreneurs and especially the healthcare industry. This is more important than ever where many consultations are now online and where you won’t necessarily be face-to-face with the people you’re dealing with.

For any healthcare organization, there are a number of potential uses that include things like arranging meetings and phone calls with clients or making appointments for things that you need to do yourself even. CRMDialer comes with built-in Task and Appointment scheduling and can sync seamlessly with Google Calendar. That means that no matter where you are, you’ll be able to see all your upcoming appointments and your to-do list. You can plan the work you need to do around your scheduled calls, and make sure you don’t leave anyone hanging!

If you work with a team then you can book meetings with them and see online when they’re going to be available. And if you do provide a service to your clients then it will prove invaluable.

In short, almost all of us have appointments of some sort – even in our personal lives – but appointment software doesn’t just have to be used for conventional ‘appointments’ anyway.

This is actually a very good way for you to think about your to-do list. If you treat a job you have to complete as an unavoidable ‘appointment’ and thus avoid booking other things around that time, then you will be able to work through your list of tasks in a much more efficient and predictable way. You can even use this software to book personal appointments like social events – every entrepreneur knows how difficult it can be to manage work with their private lives!

More Functionality

If you choose your appointment software carefully, then you’ll find it can become even more powerful and really help streamline your life. For instance, some programs will let you get notifications and manage your appointments via smartphone apps, while others still have website integration that allows your clients, business partners or anyone else to make appointments and to see your schedule so that you don’t end up with double bookings. 

Because CRMDialer comes with so many other features built-in, you’ll be able to seamlessly integrate your meetings and appointments with information about clients, with email reminders, and much more. 

For instance, because CRMDialer is at once a CRM solution AND an appointment scheduling program, that means that you can use it to create appointments and then send reminders directly to those customers. Likewise, it means you can message them with your incentive and then let them click straight through the link to book an online appointment or sign up for your insurance package. You can integrate this with your website too, to create a powerful and simple interface for taking bookings that customers have come to expect: and that is all but essential in a post-COVID-19 world!

CRMDialer also comes with other unique features to enhance productivity and workflow. For example, speech recognition makes it easy for you to set appointments or pull out customer data with simple voice commands. Studies show this can improve productivity by as much as 21%!

Be Proactive

The other piece of advice we have is this: be proactive.

You may have fewer people coming into your business, and you may even be unable to see patients. But now is the time to double down on your marketing efforts: on building brand awareness and authority. This is the time to create new offers, to make sure that your patients remember you, and to make offers and deals that can secure you some income in the short term while also benefiting the customer.

You may find yourself working alone to continue running your business from your home office. If that’s the case, you need to double down on self-discipline and learn to shut out external distractions so that you can do your very best work.

It is too easy right now to put everything on hold. To let stress and anxiety get the better of you as you simply bury your head in the sand.

But if you get to work. If you’re productive and efficient… you can emerge from lockdown as a stronger and more efficient business than you were before!