The advantages of the new Widex offering to your online channels
Widex has brought a fascinating new tool to market with the introduction of MY.WIDEX.COM as part of the new Dream platform launch. As discussed in An Interview the tool is primarily designed to assist with the age old problems of rehab and expectation management.
However, I think as a by product the tool serves many of our purposes. I think that it encourages strong ongoing engagement with a Practice’s brand with little effort on the part of the Practice. I think it will reduce what cancellations you may have because of handling issues and miss-understanding. I also think that it will support your main online channel, your website. I would like to hand you over to Walt for an introduction 
It is nice to see the Danes show their sense of humour. There is of course a serious message though, They have trialled it and it works as designed in a lot of cases. It increases engagement and satisfaction on the part of the Patient. It also makes life easier for the Clinician if the questionnaire part of the microsite is deployed. Before I explain any more about what I feel are the possible benefits, let me explain what MY.WIDEX.COM is all about.
Basically it is a microsite that you, the Clinician, can choose to deploy for your Patient. The microsite is a well designed website that is connected to and controlled through the new Widex fitting software, Compass GPS. Because it is connected to the fitting software it allows the site to be custom tailored to the Patient. Detailing collateral pertaining to their hearing instrument and their acoustic fitting.
The site contains details on handling, maintenance, cleaning, testimonials from users all pertaining to the hearing instruments the Patient wears. The site also contains details pertaining to the Patient’s audiogram and an explanation of the Patients hearing loss including a hearing loss simulator. A really interesting and excellent facet is a section of the site is named and aimed directly at family members of the Patient. This section explains the Patient’s loss and difficulties arising from it. It also outlines ways to support the Patient on their journey to better hearing. Have a look at the next video for a quick tour.
As I have said, setting this up for your Patient is a two minute process, it simply involves you entering their e-mail address. Two e-mails are sent to the Patient that allows them complete the process of setting up the microsite. So there is very little action needed from you. As you can see from the video a part of the microsite is a placeholder with clinic details. The Practice can upload a logo or the picture of the clinician, the Practice details and opening hours. The interesting part is that the Practice can and should provide a link to their website.
Consider that from the point of view of SEO, every Patient’s microsite will have a good quality backlink to your website. Backlinks as you know are of real importance in SEO terms, in particular quality backlinks. A gift to you from Widex, backlinks, love it. The other really interesting thing is the Patient questionnaire. The Patient can be asked to fill in the questionnaire at a set time. Once it is done and submitted, the information from that questionnaire will appear in Compass GPS.
This will give early warning of issues that a Patient may have to the Clinician. Compass will also offer fine tuning advice based on the questionnaire that has been submitted which can be easily applied. This is where this tool really comes into its own, it will allow a Practice to head off problems before they become insurmountable issues. The use of a microsite like this can and will also encourage the use of other online channels you deploy. It is a short step from using this site to liking your Facebook page.
All in all this is a powerful and effective tool for any Practice that serves many purposes. It should increase Patient engagement, differentiate your brand, increase your Patient retention and support your main online marketing channel. What is not to like? More details and video information on MY.WIDEX.COM is available at Widex.pro
Regards
Geoff