Ocula is an independent optometry business with three practices in Christchurch, Queenstown and Wanaka in New Zealand’s South Island. Ocula first joined MyHealth1st in 2018 to facilitate an easy, online booking process, but has since expanded its range of services to include EasyRecall, EasyEngage and, most recently, MyHealth1st’s Managed Digital Advertising Services.
Like many optometry practices, Ocula originally tried to do everything in-house, says Danielle Winstone, director and optometrist at Ocula. “We use Optomate and we were doing our own quasi-online bookings using another piece of third-party software. Obviously, that didn't link automatically into Optomate. It was an incredibly manual process. We realised the huge importance of online booking and how important it is to consumers to be able to make appointments online after hours. But we were having to do our own kind of band-aid approach to make it work. It was great for our customers, but it was a nightmare from the back-end side of things.”
OnlineAppointments by MyHealth1st is a fully integrated online booking solution, allowing instant booking and real time availability. If someone cancels an appointment, the availability is instantly available in your schedule for another patient to book; no manual input required.
Since opting to use MyHealth1st across the Ocula practices, Danielle has seen close to 2000 online bookings made, including 884 new patients. “Before we came to MyHealth1st, we were actually doing everything that you guys do for us. It was just taking us 10 times as long to do it, and our staff hated us,” explains Danielle. “But the ability for a patient to make an appointment online, or to be able to give instant feedback about their experience with an optometrist, is incredibly important.” Ocula now uses EasyEngage by MyHealth1st to gather patient feedback after an appointment.
Joining MyHealth1st has not only saved Ocula time, it’s saved them money as well as the practice no longer needs the same amount of staff dedicated to IT issues, including online bookings and feedback.
Ocula is a proactive optometry practice, so implementing online bookings is only part of the plan. The Christchurch practice has recently contracted with MyHealth1st for digital marketing to drive more patients to the door. “We've spent tons of money with digital agencies in the past, and it’s really difficult trying to get them to understand what we're trying to sell. They just don't understand us,” says Danielle who says she doesn't care about fluffy numbers, like click numbers or impressions. What she wants is real results.
