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The aged care industry is currently facing big increasing levels of competition, transforming into a far more consumer-orientated and undergoing reform.
There is an increase of expectations and needs that aged care providers need to understand, including their target market and digital platforms such as social media as a marketing and customer service tool.
The current pandemic issue has put big pressure on the healthcare business, leading to fast digital technology adoption in order to maintain productivity and continuity.
Forcing the industry to digitalisation speed up and moving to the new era of aged care will provide long-term benefits to the business, and providers must seek visibility and flexibility to manage future disruptions while moving into the new digital era with confidence.
How Digital Transformation Can Revolutionize Your Aged Care Business
Digital transformation has become a buzzword across various industries, and the aged care sector is no exception. Digital transformation is the process of using technology to improve and modernize a business, and it can bring numerous benefits to aged care businesses.
Here are 8 ways digital transformation can improve your aged care business:
- Enhance Communication: With the use of technology, aged care businesses can improve communication with residents, family members, and staff. By using mobile apps and web-based platforms, it is easier to share information and updates about care plans, medications, and appointments.
- Streamline Workflows: Digital tools can simplify and streamline administrative processes, such as scheduling, billing, and data management. This can free up staff time and allow them to focus on more valuable tasks, such as providing care.
- Improved Quality of Care: By leveraging technology such as wearables, sensors, and remote monitoring, aged care businesses can improve the quality of care they provide. Digital tools can track vital signs and alert staff to potential issues, improving early intervention and reducing the risk of adverse events.
- Better Reporting: Digital tools can automate the process of data collection, storage, and analysis, enabling more accurate and comprehensive reporting. This helps aged care businesses to identify trends, track progress, and make informed decisions.
- Personalized Care: With the use of digital tools, aged care businesses can offer more personalized care to residents. By collecting and analyzing data on their health and well-being, staff can tailor care plans to meet individual needs.
- Remote Care: With remote monitoring and telehealth services, aged care businesses can provide care to residents who may not be able to attend in-person appointments. This can improve access to care and reduce the burden of travel for residents and their families.
- Improved Staff Training: Digital tools can help aged care businesses to provide more effective and efficient staff training. Online training modules and simulation tools can be used to upskill staff and improve their knowledge and confidence.
- Increased Efficiency: Overall, digital transformation can increase the efficiency of aged care businesses. With streamlined processes, better data management, and improved communication, aged care businesses can operate more effectively and provide better care to their residents. By embracing digital transformation, aged care businesses can stay competitive and provide the highest level of care to their residents.
How to Digitalise and Improve?
One of the biggest yet common mistakes that businesses can make in today’s age is not to effectively raise their presence on digital platforms. By failing here they will lose an enormous number of potential customers online, and not be viewed as a reliable authority by not meeting these digital channel needs. Digital online presene is very important.
When your potential customer looks up your business, ideally you want them to get an impression that will make them believe in your company as well as spark an interest to find out more about you and assess it what you offer can meet all of their needs.
In the digital world, first impressions matter incredibly and the way a business present itself is one of the crucial keys to gain trust and grow an audience.
Here are few digital transforming ideas to improve your aged care business:
Ads (Adwords, Social, Youtube)
If you set the target audience right, marketing tools such as Ads could boost your content and attract enormous traffic to your page. Video ads are great examples to increase awareness and defined audience segments in a specific location.
Active Digital Marketing Automation
Email communication and marketing automation is also an effective way to market your aged care business online. By reaching your potential visitors you will generate interest online and can easily send them offers and updates about your business.
Check out our services in Digital Marketing Automation
Digital Devices (IOT, Kiosks)
A networked digital device can help you to attain complete control and visibility over the activity of messaging and to receive feedback. Kiosks or other smart devices (IoT) can be used to gather instant feedback and update workers, visitors, and customers. It also allows the head office to be in charge and control messages across sites while giving facilities freedom to make updates such as activity listings, while still being able to measure interactions and success.
Landing Page (Website)
Having a landing page (website and social media) is important for any business in this digital era, and not to mention the most effective way to market your business. A website is a vital tool for you to tell a story about your business, brand identity, marketing content, and services. It's important to set a standard of quality for your content in order to convey the message of your brand and services and to assist you to stand out from the competition.
Search Engines
By using marketing tools such as SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing), you are ensuring your business stands apart from the competition. It will boost awareness and will enhance your brand and increases visibility to attract more traffic to your website and any specific location or landing page.
Reach us out for more information SEO & Analytics
Social Media
If a website acts as the landing page that will provide all the complete and detailed information about your business and services, social media acts as the promoter, one of the most effective tools and platforms to enhance awareness and for you to gain more traffic.
Social media is the main platform where engagement happens. That is why it is very important to put in effort into creating quality content and visuals that make sense to your brand DNA for your social media channels. This content and imagery may be those first points of contact for many and creating that initial impression for your potential customer to decide whether to visit your website and get in touch or not.
This can be a very effective way when it comes to marketing retirement villages, aged care or nursing home businesses, as children and potential customers friends may share across their networks. which can help to boost the overall community engagement.
Virtual Reality (VR)
VR (Virtual Reality) has become a great digital tool for the aged care industry. This transforming technology can provide contactless experiences to improve everything from staff training through e-learning as well as improving the back office processes by "taking" key staff to a multitude of site locations without them having to leave their desk or home.
Of course, there is always the fun or gaming element to Virtual Reality that can provide "jaw-dropping" entertainment. VR is being introduced into the aged care business as a way to engage and entertain, assisting interactions, stimulation and alertness with games such as brain-stimulating games.
Virtual Reality can also help with mindfulness and wellness helping participants maintain positive emotion and relaxation, which in turn can reduce overall healthcare costs over time.
Virtual Tours
A Virtual Tour is a simulation of an existing location, it helps recreate a realistic representation of a physical asset such as an aged care facility or residential unit in a retirement village. It allows people to visit physically locations virtually and helps them to experience a "real-life" walkthrough, while accessing views to areas that might normally be inaccessible for them, for example due to restrictions such as Covid-19. Virtual Tours allow viewers to explore each room completely with 360° movement for as long as they desire, and examine each room from every angle and perspective all from the comfort of their computer or mobile phone.
Having a Virtual Tour of your physical assets can really assist, both with safety and speed, the process of finding the perfect nursing home for their ageing loved ones. This in turn can make things much less stressful as locations can offer virtual tours to anyone around the world, which makes the whole process much more efficient and quicker for families
Virtual Tours are great tools to increase engagement and visibility to encourage people to choose the perfect senior living homes without having the need to travel, especially during this global pandemic where it could be very risky for some seniors. By taking a Virtual Tour it allows them to have a full contactless virtual experience and potentially make a booking online without the need to be there physically.
VR tours can also be a perfect tool for seniors to eliminate any fear of change, as using the Virtual Tour to "onboard" them into a new living environment before they arrive, provides familiarisation with their new surroundings and facilities, helping avoid the fear of the unknown.
Please check our previous VR tour project, where we had the opportunity to create a 360° virtual tour for The Brighton: Catholic Healthcare - The Brighton (Croydon)
And please check more of our Virtual Tours and services from our Propviz Virtual Tour Service: VR technology service
Transforming through digital ideas is and will be an essential part of the growth of the aged care business and digital design and technology offer big potential gains for the industry, to help providers to deliver tailored and efficient services to their audience. We hope that these ideas will help Aged Care providers seek out new ways to deliver, educate, engage and promote their business.