THE ONLINE EXPERIENCE WILL BE CRUCIAL FOR THE PRACTICE OF THE FUTURE

SOME OF US are reading this article online. Most of us shop online, or at least do product research online. Most of us have ordered something online. We talk online. People see what we do, and we see what they do online.

We are either always online or feeling connection anxiety of being out of touch. Our real life and our digital life are no longer separate but, instead, a shadow of one another. The online culture feeds our craving to know what others are doing to compare, to copy, to envy, to brag. If these things weren’t part of human nature, then Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others wouldn’t exist.

WORKING IN PERSONAL CAVES

It also is part of human nature to want to shop for what’s out there, in the comfort of our own space. Face it, people like the perceived anonymity of working from their personal caves and, as our worlds become more distorted from reality, this trend will continue. Companies like Google and Facebook know more about us as consumers than we know about ourselves. They know more about our consumers than we do!

Digital campaigns influence people at a root level. Call it an avenue, a platform, a channel or whatever, but in the end it is about connecting with a person or group that we don’t know but would like to influence, so they will want to do business with us.

Unprecedented online access into consumers’ lives makes us want to have this, be like that or be that other person. In other words, to be successful online, we must create an experience that draws our consumer/patient to our sites, entertains them, educates them and, most importantly, keeps them coming back. Remember that being successful in the online space means making the experience about our audience, not about us. Translating an in-person experience to an online experience is — and will be — crucial to the survival of the businesses of the future!

WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY?

Most would agree that doing business online is a part of life. That being said, what is your strategy? It must be more than just, “Do you have a website? Do you have an online store? Do you have a social media strategy?” A deeper question is, “What is your online brand and experience?”

In the near future, our entire retail strategy will largely be focused around our online presence. Like many of the retailers worldwide, we will need to have a dominant online presence. This will extend past contact lenses and glasses. The reality is that our concerns will extend past online refractions and more toward online exams.

This is not a popular statement with some, but if we fail to change and adapt, we, as a profession, will go the way of pharmacy. No sociopolitical organization can save us. So, I challenge you: Focus your online presence on something that creates value for your consumer. Give the onlooker a true representation of what you are. And create an experience that will bring them back. OM