Hopefully by the time you read this article, the Obamacare website will actually be working as intended.
Regardless of your political affiliations, and the website’s actual cost to build, there is one lesson we can all learn from this misadventure: “Test before launch.” This philosophy doesn’t just apply to launching a new web site, though.
Before you decide to “go live”—with anything—make sure to put it through the testing wringer. Trust me, you’ll thank me when you do. Here are three examples that demonstrate the principle of “test before launch.”
Website
Even if you’re not selling health insurance, or anything else, take the time to make sure your website actually works before you decide to unleash it on the world.
Now, let’s define exactly what it means for a website to “work.”
It ensures users that the site functions on the most popular browsers and smart phones, pages load quickly, art work is being used free of potential copyright infringements, any forms used on the site work as intended (for example, “fill in the form to request an appointment”), all links are functioning and directing visitors where they should, etc.
An often-overlooked aspect of a website is its grammatical accuracy. It’s essential that the site is free of all typos and is grammatically perfect. Hire a professional to proofread your site before launching it. If that’s not possible, have several people read it before setting it live. Then, once the site is officially launched, take the time revisit it a few weeks later and make any changes that may have initially slipped through the cracks.
New Contact Lenses
Before you decide to announce and promote a new contact lens, make sure you’ve fit enough patients to ensure you’re clinically comfortable with any and all nuances it might bring. Make sure your staff is up to speed on available parameters, the ordering process, how many trials to have on hand, and finally pricing.
Pricing is perhaps one area that is rarely—if ever—tested by practitioners. Surprisingly, it’s actually the easiest one to test!
Try this: instead of simply starting with a fixed price and keeping the lens that price forever, raise the price after a few months. Gauge the impact it has on your practice and see if it has any bearing on patients’ willingness to purchase the lenses. If not, keep raising the price.
Similarly, you can test decreasing the price of the lenses to see if more patients agree to start wearing them. If the reception is good, and your margins hold up, consider dropping the price even further. The “how low can you go” philosophy is a viable strategy only if increased volume can support it, and the price/volume curve continues to show a positive net output. If this isn’t the case, raise the price again—even if more patients are wearing the lenses.
Office Hours
Try testing new office hours. For example, are you open Thursday nights? If you aren’t, why? Assuming you’re able to staff appropriately, test the new hours out for a few weeks or months instead of agonizing over whether you should or shouldn’t.
After a trial run, evaluate whether or not it was a good decision. Did you gain new patients? Or did you simply cannibalize your schedule from other slots during the week? Did your patient satisfaction scores change for those patients coming on Thursday night?
If you start to see favorable results, continue with the new hours after your test. If the scores aren’t favorable, stop.
What Does Success Look Like?
With any of the above tests, as well as most others, it’s smart to first define what success looks like for you.
For example, if you were about to consider embarking on a new marketing campaign, with a goal of increasing your number of corneal reshaping patients, what would you consider a success? Would two patients per month for four months be successful? What about three patients per week for two months?
You define your own success. It’s just like getting back an optics exam in school with no grade—how will you know whether or not you “passed” your test? To help answer this question, set up a budget and define success in advance.
Even with the website hiccups, it looks like the Affordable Care Act is here to stay. Whether or not it will pass “the test” and get a good grade in the future still remains to be seen. Regardless, use this recent website misstep as a lesson.
Before you decide to move forward with any significant new endeavors, make sure to always put them through a good, solid test with clearly defined outcomes.
