Dryden’s Boreal Audiology & Hearing Services Inc uses tech-focused approach to improve patient experience
Using the $2,500 Digital Transformation Grant, Brendan McDonald has been able to invest in digital marketing and tools to help make Dryden’s Boreal Audiology clinic more tech-forward.
Brendan McDonald, founder of Boreal Audiology and Hearing Services in Dryden, didn’t really see online booking as a priority until he went through the digital training modules at Digital Main Street. “I always thought if patients wanted to come in and book an appointment, they’ll call us,” says McDonald, who founded the clinic with his wife.
But working with Digital Main Street, a program combining grants and one-to-one support from the Province of Ontario alongside partners to help main street businesses strengthen their online capabilities and plan for the digital future, changed his mind.
“It gave a lot of information on thinking outside the box and how you can make your business stand out,” says the audiologist.
He says that while Dryden itself is a smaller community, there is some competition, and Boreal Audiology and Hearing Services is looking to serve the surrounding area as well. “The serviceable area for Dryden has 22,000 people in all the little pockets of communities that come in so there’s a huge need for this service,” he says. “How can we be different and make things easier for patients?”
As he moved through the training, setting up an online booking portal quickly climbed the list of priorities.“I think we ended up getting that up and running within three months,” says the audiologist.
Within that first week, they had three bookings and it scaled up from there. McDonald says it was a bit of an a-ha moment.
“I realized a lot more people are expecting that kind of ease of access for service.” Using the $2,500 Digital Transformation Grant, McDonald has been able to invest in digital marketing and tools to help make the clinic more tech-forward. “(Online searches) are our top one, if not top two referral source,” he says.
Often when he’s asking patients how they heard of the relatively new business, their answer is Google. So he invested some funds in social media and Google ads to see what kind of effect it would have.“We do get referrals from radio or from Facebook, but the dominant source has been online searches.”
He also purchased a tablet for the office and earmarked some of the funding for the subscription fees associated with the business’s online booking platform and office management tools.
“As a business, you want to be able to make things efficient and digital makes things run efficiently.”
A year into the business, they’re finding their momentum and building their base of patients. McDonald says there’s a lot more he wants to explore digitally but right now the focus is on efficiency. And it seems to be working.
McDonald says part of the draw for him and his wife to open the practice together was to have better control over their hours and work-life balance. “
The more efficient things run, the more time you have that you can spend on your business,” he says. “The more time you can spend on the business means the more flexibility you should have to spend with your family outside of work.”
Visit Dryden’s Boreal Audiology & Hearing Services website here.
To learn more about Digital Main Street's programs and how we can help your business visit here.
Digital Main Street was created by the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) with direct support from the City of Toronto. DMS is also supported by a group of strategic business partners, including Google, Mastercard, Shopify, Meta, Intuit QuickBooks, Square, Lightspeed, Ebay and Canada Post.
Continued investment from the Province of Ontario, through the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade (MEDJCT) has allowed the ongoing expansion the Digital Main Street Platform in order to support more businesses going digital across Ontario.
