From restaurants to healthcare facilities, digital signage is everywhere. Research shows that the global digital signage market is on the rise. As for its growth potential? A climb to a $27.8 billion valuation by 2026 is expected.
Businesses across every industry are continuing to discover that printed banners and ads no longer cut it. They’re impractical and ongoing use is expensive — not to mention environmentally unfriendly. Besides, they fail to meet the ever-changing need to keep customers in the loop about important announcements and product or service offerings.
Leaping from traditional printed signage to a digital signage solution doesn’t need to be complicated or break the bank. You can turn your TVs into dynamic and engaging digital displays easily with the right digital signage software powering your screens.
Digital signage is a display technology and communication channel shown on different display monitors and used by businesses to connect, engage and create an experience for their customers via on-screen multimedia (i.e., webpages, videos, audio and more).
Some of the ways businesses use digital signage include:
If you’re eyeing the TV screens in your business and wondering if they can accommodate digital signage, much less how digital signage works, you’ll want to start with the basics.
To turn your TVs into digital signage, in addition to an Internet connection and any necessary hardware, you’ll need digital signage software that creates value and provides:
The last thing you need is for your TV transformation process to be complicated or create more work (or a headache) for you and your team. The right digital signage software solution will always give back to your business.
Focus on investing in digital signage software that offers the following capabilities and features:
When setting up hardware and a power source for digital signage, it's important to make sure that the hardware is properly installed and that the power source is reliable. First, you will need to determine whether your hardware works with your signage software. Once you've figured out your hardware requirements, the next step is to install the hardware. This includes mounting the display, connecting all necessary cables, and setting up any necessary software.
Next, you need to choose the right power source for the digital signage system. This includes selecting the right voltage and amperage, as well as choosing the right type of power supply. It is important to make sure that the power source is reliable and can handle the load of the digital signage system. You also need to make sure that the power source is protected from any potential power surges.
Once the hardware and power source have been installed and set up, it's time to set up your digital signage software. This includes setting up the display resolutions, brightness, and other settings. You also need to install the necessary software for the digital signage system. Finally, you need to ensure that the system is connected to a wireless network with a reliable connection.
Digital signage can play a significant role in your marketing strategy. Once you get the ball rolling with content creation and displays, you’ll want to monitor how they perform so you can optimize over time.
For instance, if you advertise your clinic’s latest product offering or a discount on a future service, the digital signage software you choose should offer on-screen analytics to follow customer engagement, interaction time and more.
Now that you know how to turn your TV into digital signage, you’ve opened your business to a world of possibilities.
There’s no need to continue ordering batches of printed wall displays to meet your marketing demands. Not only should content creation be convenient and on-demand, but it should also be easy to navigate. With UPshow’s in-platform Canva integration, your business can design content any time you need it, in-house.
UPshow can tackle your content needs by giving you access to the following:
UPshow will turn your TVs and screens into an entertainment epicenter. The type of entertainment you display will depend on your customers' interests. UPshow’s advanced entertainment options have a little something for everyone, including:
Access to key insights and analytics is necessary to reach and ultimately engage your customer base effectively for the long haul. You’ll see what they’re clicking and opening and how much time they’re spending or engaging with (including what they’re clicking out of or otherwise ignoring).
As a result, you can step back, analyze and re-strategize to publish the content they want and pave the way to driving better business outcomes for your company.
With UPshow’s digital signage analytics, you’ll benefit from the following:
The last thing you want is to use your TVs for nothing more than playing a random talk show or, worse yet, taking up space and collecting dust. Instead, consider your digital screens an opportunity to deepen and maintain a long-lasting connection with your customers.
With UPshow’s on-premise performance marketing cloud, you can turn your TV into digital signage and so much more. Sign up for a free demo of UPshow today, and learn how to take a meaningful digital experience for your customers and transform it into a revenue-generating initiative for your business.
Before the global debut of digital signage in the early 1990s, industries across the board relied on old-fashioned, printed advertising methods before moving on to analog displays, with information stored on VHS and later DVDs.
Fast forward to the modern day, and electronic displays across every industry are powered by traditional on-premise or cloud-based digital signage software. Together, they make up a global signage market expected to climb to almost $36.9 billion by 2028.
Cloud-based digital signage software has changed how businesses and healthcare facilities engage customers and patients. But you may not know that cloud-based digital signage software can give your business far more than just on-premise signage capabilities.
Before cloud-based digital signage solutions entered the market, businesses were limited to traditional on-premise digital signage systems. They had to store their data on a server they either had to build or purchase, which is a significant up-front investment. They leaned on local or otherwise in-house IT support, too.
Unlike on-premise digital signage systems, a cloud-based digital signage system gives you access to the software via a remote server from anywhere you have an internet connection. Some of the other advantages of a cloud-based digital signage system include the following:
Depending on your industry, you’ll have different must-haves and nice-to-haves on your checklist for a cloud-based digital signage solution. But if you want a seamless transition into the cloud-based digital signage world, there are three must-haves that should top your list.
Chances are you’re not a graphic designer or artist by trade. Instead, if you run a busy restaurant or healthcare facility, you need a cloud-based digital signage solution that will help you create content effortlessly.
We recommend partnering with a cloud-based digital signage solution that will allow you to:
Your top priority is running your business as smoothly and efficiently as possible. You likely don’t have time to create new content daily or even weekly.
Choose a cloud-based digital signage software with advanced scheduling options that allow you to:
Your customers want you to engage with them in a way that meets their needs. You’ll want to choose a cloud-based digital signage software that lifts the curtain behind the scenes, providing you with insights and analytics about what your audience is engaging with and what they aren’t.
On-demand analytics will enable you to optimize your content displays and drive engagement. Choose a cloud-based digital signage software solution that can:
UPshow CONNECT is the premier on-premise cloud-based digital signage software solution that ticks every box on your list of must-haves and nice-to-haves, no matter your industry.
With UPshow, you’ll be able to use in-app Canva integration to create customized, engaging and revenue-driving digital displays.
Say you want to highlight a limited-time discount, but you also want to display a cooking tutorial by your chef. You can also show more than one type of media content at a time with our fixed-panel and multi-panel displays.
Are you looking to create more of a calming waiting room or dining area experience? UPshow Connect has a diverse selection of entertainment channels (500+), including hyperlocal and live stream content — an entertainment palette that will mirror your diverse customer base.
Digital signage should be anything but a passive experience for your customers or patients. Suppose you run a dental practice, for instance. In that case, you may want to create an anxiety-reducing atmosphere with the right music while also informing your patients of the latest dental payment plan options you offer.
UPshow Premium Audio's 50+ channels of streamable, ad-free and fully licensed content will help take the edge off your patients’ pre-exam jitters.
Aside from technical and content-creation capabilities, cloud-based digital signage software has leveled up how businesses interact with their customers. Gone are the days of tacking up a poster for a new entree du jour or displaying an aesthetically-dated digital sign.
Customers and patients expect a rewarding experience when they do business with you. If they can’t get that from your business, you risk them trying out your competitor.
Try a risk-free demo of UPshow and let our cloud-based digital signage software power your establishment’s screens with more than just signage. We’ll empower your customers with an experience every time they step foot in your door.
As digital technologies evolve, our educational systems should take advantage of them to make learning more accessible for all students, regardless of their socioeconomic background or learning capabilities.
According to research centered on access to digital learning opportunities, these technologies in educational settings have the potential to shrink the learning gap and create a more inclusive learning environment for all students. School digital signage, in particular, is doing its part to lead the charge toward closing that gap.
Spend five minutes on any school campus, and you’ll see students toting around cellphones, tablets, laptops or some form of wearable technology. This way, students get the information they need when they need it. Make school digital signage a natural extension of what they’re already accustomed to (and benefit from).
Student engagement refers to the level of interest, enthusiasm, involvement and passion students show during the learning process. One of the top drivers behind student engagement is getting them motivated in the first place.
What does that entail, exactly? Research reveals that a student’s sense of “relatedness” is a pillar component that facilitates their motivation in an educational setting. Meaning students are more motivated when they feel they belong and can connect to their learning environment.
Motivating students with school digital signage will help them achieve this necessary level of belonging and connection so they perform at their best. You can use digital solutions to build an engaging digital classroom that will:
Recognition and praise for student progress, achievement and behavior are positive reinforcements that will motivate students to engage and reach for new heights. Studies show that public recognition and praise for good performance serve as a model and motivator for other students. When digital signage solutions populate a school setting, students will enjoy a front-row seat to that recognition for themselves and their classmates — creating a stronger sense of community for all of them.
Educators can use digital school signage to praise students in many ways, including:
To motivate and engage students, you’ll need to give them access to the information and resources necessary to succeed. By placing digital education signage throughout the school, you can create effective channels for communication— keeping the latest information and resources visible at centralized points.
School digital signage can foster improved student-to-student and student-to-faculty communication by:
Many, if not most, of your classrooms, libraries and social gathering points already have TVs or other digital screens. With school budgets tight for many districts, getting the most use out of your existing resources is critical.
UPshow is the leading on-premise digital display software that can transform the screens at your school into learning tools that will motivate your students and boost their engagement. That transformation is seamless, and creating educational content is as easy as ABC.
Every student has a unique learning style. Some are visual learners, while others may be kinesthetic or even neurodiverse. Accommodating their diverse learning styles with engaging content can be easier said than done.
Add to that; educators are busy from the time the morning bell rings until well after dismissal. UPshow makes content creation effortless, never adding to their workload.
Instead, our education-themed templates and in-app Canva integration will allow you to effortlessly create content and easily accommodate your students’ diverse learning styles by:
Attempting to get student feedback on any issue via old-school methods (i.e., pen and paper) is time and cost-prohibitive. With UPshow, you can use QR-code technology to direct students to fill out a form or survey from their personal or mobile devices long after the final bell rings.
Or, you can remind the student body to complete a poll or assignment by displaying a notice via a fixed panel or multipanel display that won’t disrupt the lesson plan or other content you need them to see simultaneously.
The future of every industry, without exception, falls on the shoulders of upcoming generations. With international news and cutting-edge research available at our fingertips, giving students access to what they need to succeed will allow them to innovate and compete globally.
At UPshow, our innovative education engagement platform can enrich your students’ learning experience all school year, leaving no student behind.Schedule your risk-free demo today to see how digital school signage can light the path toward better engagement, inspiring your students to blaze trails for years to come.
K-12 school administrators across the U.S. each have a hierarchical checklist for creating an affordable yet meaningful and engaging learning experience for their student body.
From sign-posting and information sharing to emergency notification, digital signage in schools can improve real-time communication between teachers, staff and students. Here are the Cliff Notes on what digital signage can do for your school.
Digital signage is an interactive display technology that can show multimedia across several screens and locations. Today’s K-12 students are often referred to as “digital natives”, and they aren’t as familiar with learning off of a chalkboard or with keeping up with endless reams of handouts as the generations before them.
K-12 digital signage solutions are a natural extension of how students want to learn — by engaging with videos, tutorials and countless other informational media to improve their understanding of any subject they’re studying. Its uses are widespread.
Consider the web of people in your school who need to be in the know about any number of things every school day. For instance, students require access to their schedules and requirements for their assignments.
Likewise, teachers need access to interactive resources to make information sharing more engaging and to create a more inclusive learning environment. As for parents, they’ll want to know about school closings, after-school events and fundraisers. The cafeteria needs ways to keep students in the know about daily menus and important allergy information. And of course, everyone on campus must know what to do in an emergency.
The best K-12 digital signage allows you to improve interpersonal communication with everyone by sharing important information and updating it in a split second.
Does your school have a mascot? Do students sport their school colors on game days? Research shows that students with a strong sense of school spirit are happier, exhibit higher levels of engagement and perform better academically.
Rallying students and getting them in the school spirit doesn’t need to be complicated. K-12 digital signage makes it even easier. You can build a stronger community in your school with digital signage by:
Nothing can be more nerve-wracking for a new student than not knowing where their classroom is or, even worse, walking into class late. They should feel oriented as quickly as possible. Likewise, adults and visitors in the building should be able to find rooms and locations without wandering through halls. This not only keeps students and staff safe but minimizes the need for hallway roaming.
You can display school maps with digital signage or even use QR-code technology to put maps and classroom information in the palm of your students’ and visitors’ hands. Students can scan them and keep the logistics on their mobile devices accessible anytime.
Our K-12 teachers and librarians need far more resources than a 300-page textbook to engage their students.
Digital signage enables your teachers to build more interactive learning environments with access to the latest news and resources available with just a click of a button.
Teachers can use digital signage solutions to:
With COVID-initiated federal aid due to sunset in 2024, research indicates that school-district leaders anticipate a “financial cliff.” School budgets are once again on the chopping block. Fortunately, you can outfit your schools with UPshow’s indoor digital signage solution by using the TVs and LCD screens you already have around campus—keeping your district’s budget on track.
If you’ve already started doing your homework to find the best digital signage solution for your school, you may have found that many options are available. The two main options are on-premise digital signage and cloud-based digital signage.
UPshow’s easy-to-use digital signage solution is an affordable, on-premise performance marketing cloud that can power your school’s digital screens—giving your students an engaging experience in the classroom and across your campus.
Because UPshow uses cloud-based technology, you can give your curriculum support staff, teachers and anyone else the keys to easy content creation. UPshow’s Canva integration doesn’t add to anyone’s neverending to-do lists either. With education-focused templates, supplementing daily lessons or disseminating school-wide announcements has never been easier.
Teachers and school administrators are skilled planners, often mapping out their lesson plans, initiatives and to-do lists semester by semester or for the school year. Similarly, several schools in your district will all have unique needs. That’s where UPshow’s playlists can serve as a teacher’s aide or administrative assistant, allowing you to plan and control when content runs and which screens it should show up on.
Some content will engage the student body more than others. With UPshow’s insights and analytics, you’ll get a front-row seat with access to performance and engagement metrics you can download and analyze to optimize what you display at any time during the school year.
Teachers and school administrators shoulder significant responsibilities in keeping students safe, informed, engaged and prepared for the future. UPshow’s K-12 digital signage software can alleviate some of that pressure. Try a risk-free demo today, and witness how UPshow’s best-in-class digital signage solution can help your students reach their greatest potential.
So, you’re looking for a digital signage vendor. You’ve narrowed down your options but are debating whether UPshow or Atmosphere will be the ideal platform (and partner) for your business.
We’ll cut to the chase with this TL;DR:
UPshow is the top digital signage company powering screens for businesses. We offer robust entertainment options and, most importantly, features that enable you to better market your business and grow revenue. We transform businesses’ on-premise screens into revenue-generating tools by curating exceptional customer experiences. With our technology, organizations get their own private TV networks they can fully control and customize. Plus, our ad-free approach means your customers won't see anything on your screens that you don't want them to.
Atmosphere is a digital signage provider primarily focused on entertainment. They describe themselves as “the world’s largest streaming TV platform for businesses.” While their Atmosphere TV product is free, that doesn’t mean it comes without a price. As an ad-based platform, their service is free so long as you run their third-party ads on your screens. Your valuable on-screen real estate is used for advertising other people’s businesses and offers instead of your own. Beyond entertainment content options, screen customization is limited and Atmosphere’s platform doesn’t facilitate customer engagement.
Want more details? You’re our kind of reader. We’ve outlined essential points of comparison between UPshow and Atmosphere so that you can make the most informed decision for your business.
Your TV screens should be used to market your business, not anyone else’s, which is why our platform is 100% ad-free. Why risk having a competitor’s ad play on your screens? Yes, we’ve heard this has happened to customers of other digital signage providers (yikes!). With UPshow, you choose what you promote, when you promote it and for how long, giving you peace of mind.
With all of our packages, you have complete control over the content you select via your own private network. At no extra cost, you get access to our best platform features such as campaigns with UPshow Connect, interactive content like branded trivia and custom content creation for compelling on-screen displays.
We believe your screens should always look and feel like they belong to your brand; that’s why we don’t upcharge to create custom displays that your patrons will recognize. You likely have areas in your business for specific activities and different customers that visit each area. For example, in a restaurant, barstools might be occupied by sports fans and people looking to relax after a hard day of work, while booths are filled with families out for dinner. As a business owner, you want to be able to curate the right experience for each on-premise area. UPshow allows you to do that with customization at the individual screen level. You can either create your own content or fully customize pieces from our robust library of templates as well as choose the programming that makes the most sense.
However, customization with Atmosphere’s platform is not possible: every screen has to run the same content. This means if you have multiple screens in your business that require different content (which most do), you would be out of luck.
Knowing your customers and tailoring your on-premise experience to their needs is critical to ensuring satisfaction, generating more repeat visits and maintaining your business’s profitability.
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As mentioned earlier in this post, Atmosphere is a platform primarily focused on entertainment. They offer a wide selection of entertainment options that appeal mainly to small and medium-sized businesses, especially those in the hospitality industry. However, they do not provide curated channel packages, nor do they enable interactive entertainment like trivia.
UPshow has more than 500 entertainment channels, including hyperlocal sports, live entertainment, breaking news and viral videos. We also provide channel packs made specifically for businesses in the hospitality, healthcare, fitness and automotive industries at no additional cost.
Interactive content is another unique way to captivate and entertain your customers. For example, trivia could be an excellent option for healthcare clinics or hospitals to inform patients and distract them in the waiting room area as they wait to be seen by their doctor. Trivia is entirely customizable to each of your locations and your brand, like all our other on-screen content.
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Campaign tracking comes standard with our packages at UPshow. We understand how important data is to demonstrating ROI. After all, why would you invest in a technology that can’t prove the value it’s driving for your business?
Our easy-to-understand in-platform analytics help you gauge which campaigns are the most successful at driving customer engagement and revenue for your business. Insights gleaned from the data are what will help refine your marketing and further improve revenue as time goes on.
For example, if you own a multi-location fitness business and want your members to download your new app, you can create a campaign with app downloads as the goal. You can track metrics like the total number of app downloads your on-premise promotions drove or specifically which locations received the highest number of app download scans via the campaign QR code.
Atmosphere doesn’t enable marketing campaigns nor QR code technology. As a result, there is no verifiable way to identify the ROI from their platform.
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At UPshow, we partner with you to curate the ideal on-premise experience for your customers. We want to understand the nuances of your business and use our technology to support your growth.
Our team provides thorough training on how to create on-screen promotions and offers strategic guidance on the best ways to maximize campaign success and analyze results for future optimizations. We aren’t just there for you during the onboarding period – we’re always there for you with our 24/7 online help center and email or text support.
UPshow provides a dedicated team to support you every step of the way from implementation to execution and even complete white-glove service with our Managed Services option.
As with the other features we’ve covered in this post, Atmosphere falls short in this category due to its limited customer support options. We all know that technology is imperfect. Things come up, sometimes at the most inconvenient times, and help is needed. You should select a partner you can trust and rely on during those situations.
That just about covers it! We hope you feel more informed and confident in deciding between UPshow and Atmosphere. If you want a reliable and strategic partner that will help you enhance your on-premise customer experience and grow your business’s revenue, we would love to show you our platform in action with a custom demo.
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FeaturesUPshowAtmosphereDigital Signage Editor[svg id="checkmark"][svg id="checkmark"]Canva Integration[svg id="checkmark"]Promotions[svg id="checkmark"][svg id="checkmark"]QR Code Generator[svg id="checkmark"]QR Code Campaign Creator[svg id="checkmark"]Multi-Zone Content Support[svg id="checkmark"]Mobile Landing Page Creator[svg id="checkmark"]Smart Paper[svg id="checkmark"]Entertainment500+ Channels37 ChannelsLivestreaming[svg id="checkmark"]Ads[svg id="checkmark"]Insights + Analytics[svg id="checkmark"]Custom Scheduling[svg id="checkmark"]Prebuilt Scheduling[svg id="checkmark"]
Your youngest patients likely don’t enjoy waiting in a pediatric waiting room, much less anywhere else. Ten minutes can feel like an eternity in an unfamiliar place, where they aren’t surrounded by their books, toys and other comforts.
This lack of familiarity can leave them on the verge of a potential meltdown. As for their parent or guardian? They’re on the edge of their waiting room seat, willing away that possibility.
Outfitting your pediatric waiting room with entertaining, home-like comforts that will engage them can keep their meltdowns at bay — and prevent them from spreading faster than the flu.
In waiting rooms, it’s not uncommon to see teary eyes and to hear unpleasant cries that come from worries about what is waiting for them during this visit, even if they love their doctors.
To help reduce their anxiety and acclimate young patients to your waiting room, you’ll want to create positive distractions.
Positive distractions are popular tools used by clinicians to reduce anxiety in patients of all ages. It involves helping patients manage stressors by introducing positive sensory experiences that are associated with positive emotions.
For adults, this might look like a serene water feature or calming music. For little ones, the approach might be totally different.
For example, even your youngest patients are likely to come to their doctor's visit with a screen of their own. QR codes make it possible to offer games that children can play on their own devices, with parent permission, of course.
Loading your pediatric waiting room with plushy animals or teether-inviting books may spread joy, but not serving as an epicenter for germ-spreading. With kids running around or laying about with runny noses and croupy coughs, it’s important to be mindful of the distractions offered in your waiting room.
if you’re going to offer toys, it’s best to use non-porous, easy-to-sanitize options.
An even better option is to think about how to leverage your TV and tablet screens to entertain and engage your diverse 0 to 17-year-old demographic.
Lean into communal entertainment by using a patient engagement system to keep them content while waiting (and at ease before they head into their appointment).
Since not all TV programs are suitable for all ages (or welcome by all parents), it’s best to offer edutainment options that can appeal to everyone, such as:
Those 15 minutes in your waiting room may be one of the few opportunities your patients’ parents have to sit, much less breathe. Take advantage of this opportunity to engage their parents, who are the decision-makers over their children’s health outcomes.
Keep it simple (yet informative) by using your waiting room screens or other digital displays to:
You can use your existing television screens to provide diverse and entertaining content that will appeal to all ages.
Kids have eclectic tastes, sometimes from one minute to the next. UPshow offers over 500 channels of entertainment for them to choose from while they wait. The more choices they have, the more likely they’ll land on a program that will help them feel just a little bit better.
For your teen patients or others who prefer entertainment that doesn’t require a lot of concentration, UPshow’s 50 commercial-free music stations may be just what the doctor ordered.
With UPshow’s Playlists, you can schedule hyper-targeted content that changes throughout the day, so that you can keep toddlers pacified with cartoons in the morning, and older children happy with “big kid shows” as they filter in after school.
While any given program plays, UPshow’s fixed panel and multipanel displays allow you to display important announcements or draw their attention to new wellness products, so incoming patients won’t miss them.
Your reception staff will be glad that managing the waiting room TV isn’t one more thing on their to-do list.
When kids aren’t feeling well, they want what brings them the most comfort — to be in their room with all their toys and watching their favorite TV shows. If they can’t be there, your pediatric waiting room can serve as an inviting home away from home.
UPshow’s patient engagement system has all your peds patients in mind, from youngest to oldest, and they’re parents, too! Our entertainment and learning engagement options can help them feel more at ease while waiting. We welcome you to try our risk-free demo today!
In its National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports, “Nearly 9 out of 10 adults have difficulty using the everyday health information that is routinely available in our health care facilities, retail outlets, media and communities.”
The fallout on patient engagement is evident. With low health literacy skills, patients are less likely to assume a proactive role in their healthcare, which can lead to unnecessary treatments and hospitalizations, resulting in health outcomes that are less than ideal.
Now, more than ever, clinical practices must reevaluate their patient engagement strategies in healthcare to empower patients and improve health literacy across the board.
A patient is the single most important stakeholder when it comes to their healthcare. The onus is on them to lead a healthy lifestyle, follow their treatment plans and commit to follow-up wellness visits and preventative care.
Healthcare providers are partners in that journey. This partnership starts with prioritizing patient engagement in clinical practices.
Making relevant medical information inaccessible to your patients isn’t just about a lack of transparency or withholding treatment options. Inaccessibility in patient care can also come from other barriers to access, like a lack of understanding. Accessibility prioritizes presenting medical information in an innovative way so patients can understand it and make informed decisions.
Further, accessibility is also the availability of a trusted medical professional to provide clarification and field questions a patient may have. Patient engagement suffers when patients don’t understand information or can’t seek answers to their questions.
Gone are the days of “doctor-knows-best” and other paternalistic healthcare models. Today, patients and their healthcare teams are collaborative partners from prevention and diagnosis to treatment and post-care wellness.
Healthcare providers can create an active partnership to improve patient outcomes and health literacy by:
Healthcare providers can also prioritize patient engagement and, at the same time, sharpen their patients’ health literacy skills by focusing on innovative ways to improve patient education through patient-care technology.
Effective patient education involves providing resources your patients can understand. Instead of offering them a pamphlet or packet chock-full of medical jargon they likely won’t comprehend, consider giving them access to an educational video or podcast.
Patient anxiety can serve as a barrier to achieving desirable health outcomes and improving patient health literacy. Healthcare providers interact (directly and indirectly) with their patients across several touchpoints, starting with their waiting rooms.
To reduce patient anxiety, health clinics and hospitals can leverage patient engagement strategies in unique ways across each of those touchpoints by:
Patients can’t engage in medical decisions if they don’t have the health literacy skills to understand their condition or what they need to do to achieve the health outcomes they want.
Healthcare providers can rope cutting-edge patient engagement strategies into their clinician-patient partnerships to outfit patients with the tools and resources they need to become the healthiest versions of themselves.
How easy is it for patients at your clinic to communicate with your practice or their healthcare team? How many of those methods are accessible and convenient for everyone?
Recent research proposes that using multiple communication channels (and the ability to integrate them via an omnichannel approach to patient-provider communication) “implies a flexibility for personalization,” which can boost patient engagement and the quality of care and health outcomes.
UPshow Health is the leading on-premise marketing cloud, enabling healthcare facilities to transform their screens into educational and engaging displays, affording them innovative communication channels to reach their patients in new and exciting ways:
Patients don’t need to be face-to-face with their healthcare team to learn more about their health and wellness or engage in their healthcare journey.
You can use UPshow Health on all of your screens — those in the waiting room, triage, treatment areas and short and long-term patient-care rooms to:
Empowering patients to engage in their health and wellness and improving their health literacy doesn’t need to be a complicated undertaking. You can use your existing TV screens and other digital displays to supply them with the educational information and resources they need to make informed decisions about their health.
UPshow’s digital signage solutions will equip your healthcare team and their patients with patient engagement strategies that will simplify provider-patient communication, reduce patient anxiety and aid in helping patients reach the best possible health outcomes. Sign up today for a risk-free demo and join ongoing efforts to help patient health literacy turn a corner in a positive direction.
With the rise in healthcare consumerism and a growing emphasis on creating a positive patient experience, healthcare providers are now more in-tune than ever with redefining and optimizing their patient engagement strategies.
Patient engagement platforms are lighting the path toward improved patient engagement and ideal healthcare outcomes.
But what makes one patient engagement platform stand out from the rest? The ideal patient engagement platform will offer four particular features your patients and their clinical team need to remain in sync along every step of a patient’s health and wellness journey.
A top-tier patient engagement platform is a digital software application that healthcare facilities use to disseminate patient-centric educational materials, encourage ongoing collaborative communication and streamline healthcare processes.
Often powered by user-friendly technology, a patient engagement platform can aid clinical practitioners in empowering their patients. Helping patients assume a proactive role in their healthcare decisions can drive positive health outcomes.
The benefits of a patient engagement platform are felt across the board by patients, healthcare professionals, staff and facilities and can include:
Not all patient engagement platforms offer the same tools or features. Some aren’t intuitive and much less user-friendly, while others seem to require advanced IT or graphic design skills to create a patient-pleasing display. So, how do you know which patient engagement platform is suitable for your patients, your healthcare team and your facility? Four pillar features must exist in the perfect patient engagement platform.
Patient health, wellness and safety are your top priority, not just content creation. Perhaps, the thought of creating engaging content alone has left you wondering how you can manage to rotate it into your already-busy schedule. And what might your learning curve be?
Easy content creation capabilities are an essential pillar to look for when choosing the right patient engagement platform. UPshow can ease any content-creation anxiety with its in-app Canva integration.
You can choose from easy-to-use templates or create your content from scratch with thousands of royalty-free stock photos, music, educational videos and more. This allows you to build customized content and marketing campaigns, spotlight upcoming events or partnerships, display important announcements and more.
Your patient’s appointment may be one of the only breaks they experience that day. Patient engagement doesn’t always have to involve a teachable moment. Sometimes entertainment or a stress-reducing nature channel can help them relax and recenter, enabling them to focus and engage once their appointment begins.
Zero in on a patient engagement platform that offers unique entertainment options that reflect your diverse patient population. An extensive selection of entertainment channels (500+), including hyperlocal and live stream content, will undoubtedly deliver the variety your patients will appreciate.
With patients constantly checking in and checking out, you’ll need a patient engagement platform that allows you to manage and schedule your content on a screen-by-screen and location-by-location basis.
Fixed panels and multipanel displays are necessary for your waiting rooms and other high-traffic patient areas. That’s because they allow you to display more than one type of content at a time.
For example, suppose your pediatric patients respond well to a comforting digital aquarium display on your screens. In that case, there’s no need to disrupt their focus with a patient announcement for their parent or guardian. A patient engagement platform that offers multi-panel displays will allow you to display both simultaneously.
You need access to accurate metrics and insights to determine which engagement efforts are effective and will yield a higher ROI.
Choose a patient engagement platform with extensive insights and analytics to track both on-screen and mobile real-time engagement and location-specific performance. These capabilities will allow you to optimize your content campaigns to achieve better patient engagement, increase conversions and achieve a positive ROI.
In addition to the four pillar features, UPshow’s patient engagement platform offers a diverse selection of engagement features and content tools that can drive higher engagement and make information more accessible.
What is the average time your patients spend in the waiting room? Ten minutes? Maybe 20? Nerves can run high in the waiting room, so offering diverse music options can help your patients feel more at ease. A significant part of the patient experience is making them feel welcome in a way that’s unique to their taste.
UPshow offers over 50 channels of premium audio that’s streamable, fully licensed and ad-free. Some patients prefer easy listening over a TV show or educational video. Choose a patient engagement platform that offers a wide range of diverse entertainment options, so they’re sure to find something that will make their waiting-room experience (and overall patient experience) that much better.
A significant variable in the patient engagement equation is accessibility. Engaging your patients on their personal devices is an effective way to broaden your clinic’s reach before, during and long after their appointment ends.
With UPshow’s QR Code campaign creator, you can give your patients access to targeted health and wellness literature, spotlight new holistic products and services or even invite them to complete a post-appointment survey.
No matter how cutting-edge your in-clinic technologies or procedures may be, clinical practices must invest in competitive patient engagement strategies for patients to achieve optimal wellness and ideal health outcomes.Equip your patients and practitioners with what they need to collaborate and communicate on their collective journey. Upgrade your patient engagement strategy with UPshow’s digital patient engagement platform. We welcome you to try a risk-free demo today. Discover a superior level of patient engagement and empowerment with UPshow.
Back Of House (BOH) training may seem like a challenge, especially in the hustle and bustle of a busy kitchen or stock room. But, by leveraging your BOH signage and TVs, employee learning and training can be a consistent practice.
The right strategies and content can help you create engaging training materials for your team to use and implement in daily practice. Here’s how you can use digital signage to support your BOH team members.
Every one of your employees will have a slightly different method of learning that works best for them. You can help your employees internalize your BOH training by providing it to them in a variety of ways.
UPshow makes it easy to present BOH training that caters to a range of learning styles.
Canva is fully integrated in the UPshow software, so it’s easy to create eye-catching content you can display on your BOH screens. You can incorporate infographics, images and written guides that can be shared in your kitchen. Scheduling tools make it easy to share information across your screens for each shift on a location-by-location basis. It keeps messaging and SOPs consistent across sites and shifts.
Not only this, but QR codes make it easy to put training and learning material in the palm of your employee’s hands. It makes it easy for them to review material and fill out forms at their convenience, without shift leaders or managers chasing them down.
Gone are the days of involved all-day training meetings and outdated videos. Today’s training methods should strive to engage employees without cutting into workflows.
Upgrading the delivery of training videos and images is an easy way to elevate tried-and-true methods, with the added bonus of making that training material consistently available on screens. You can cycle specific training material through your BOH screens as needed, ensuring that your employees don’t need to wait for the next formal staff meeting for clarification.
The gamification of training is becoming increasingly popular, turning employee learning into games and quizzes that make learning material easier to absorb and retain. Managers can even make friendly competitions out of these training strategies, rewarding employees who score highest on safety quizzes or creating a contest across shifts. This encourages training completion and rewards retention.
Ineffective training is useless. One of the most effective ways to find out how well your training is going is to gather feedback from your employees. They may be able to identify weaknesses in your training regimen that you may have missed.
UPshow Connect makes it easy to gather employee feedback with QR code campaigns. Connecting QR codes to online survey forms makes it easy for employees to use their own devices to fill out surveys that may go otherwise unnoticed.
It does need to be stressed that if you are going to solicit employee feedback, you also need to seriously consider and, if warranted, act upon that feedback.
Few things will damage an employee’s morale more than feeling that their opinion is being dismissed by their higher-ups, and doing so can cause difficulties in the workplace.
Creating a training schedule can be extraordinarily difficult, especially when you have to consider multiple shifts and schedules.
Powering your BOH screens with the right digital signage software, like UPshow, makes it easy to display training materials to all of your employees. You can schedule content across different shifts and at each of your locations, so everyone has access to the information they need.
You are also able to automatically schedule a rotation of information through the UPshow software, ensuring that all your employees are current on your business’s policies.
This makes it easy to streamline your management’s communication efforts and keep procedures consistent across staff. It’s an easy way to address and solve the problem of miscommunication or scheduling conflicts.
Training can become especially effective when you make a point of recognizing employees who are consistent leaders on your team.
Creating displays that celebrate ambition or congratulate success is an easy way to show your team members that you are invested in their performance. You can even use premade templates to celebrate milestones like birthdays and work anniversaries. A personalized message to recognize employees can go a long way in showing appreciation to your dedicated staff.
Performance metrics can be used to identify areas of potential improvement and can also serve as accountability tools. Encouraging your employees to complete training and meet performance goals is easy with UPshow!
With POS and/or LMS integration, UPshow can display performance and sales metrics. These in turn can be used to determine the efficacy of any training employees have undergone.
The best strategies for BOH training take all of your employees’ needs into consideration. Your employees will each favor a different approach to learning, so the more of those approaches you can offer, the more effective your training will be.
The right training tool and delivery method should help you see a return on your investment, keep employees engaged and should be easy to maintain. A comprehensive digital signage software like UPshow SHIFT makes it easy to keep your staff informed without the need for involved meetings.
Curious about which of your shared content is most effective? Use UPshow’s insight and analytics tools to help you determine which elements of your training displays are most engaged with.
It makes it easy to identify which content goes unnoticed, so you can strategies the right delivery methods for your team. Insights and analytics report on a micro and macro level, so you can determine what screen usage looks like for each of your shifts and across each of your locations.
With so many tools at your disposal, UPshow makes it as easy as turning on a screen to get your BOH employees on the same page. Schedule your free demo of UPshow today to see how we can help you take your training to the next level!
Creating a positive customer experience takes more than meeting consumer needs or demands. Businesses must exceed those expectations to retain customer loyalty and drive revenue growth. And the healthcare industry is no exception.
With soaring healthcare costs combined with an online retail marketplace for health insurance, today’s patients want a healthcare customer experience that is convenient and tailored to their needs.
In its literature review, the International Hospital Federation reported on research findings by Forrester Consulting, which show that over 25% of patients changed providers because of a negative digital health experience. Since 2019, that number has scaled by 40%.
Patient-centric technologies are improving the customer experience in healthcare in unprecedented ways. Healthcare providers are being pushed to embrace the digital healthcare transformation or risk their patients leaving them behind.
Patient healthcare experience includes all patient interactions across multiple touchstones in the healthcare system. These interactions include:
Across the healthcare continuum, providers are investing in blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and other virtual healthcare technologies to create a meaningful, convenient and personalized healthcare experience that can drive better patient outcomes, as well as increasing patient accessibility through tech-based solutions like in-office screens.
Patients experience varying levels of anxiety at different points of their healthcare experience. For some, anxiety may run high before an outpatient surgery while others may feel tense or on edge in the waiting room or triage.
Healthcare facilities can reduce patient anxiety by creating an immersive experience with innovative technologies. Research shows that clinical facilities that use immersive virtual reality (VR) technologies witness a reduction in both anxiety and pain in children and adults.
While VR may not be practical or affordable for many clinical practices, health providers can create an immersive experience in simpler yet effective ways. For instance, studies show that when music plays in clinical waiting rooms and preoperative areas, it has an anxiety-reducing effect on patients.
Patients need access to the right resources to make informed decisions about their health and wellness. Healthcare professionals can use digital tools to increase patient engagement, leading to positive health outcomes.
Health facilities are outfitting their communal and treatment-room TV screens with relevant educational resources and patient-centric materials. These digital tools empower patients to learn more about their medical conditions and treatment options in accessible ways.
Practitioners can also use digital tools to promote better transparency and build trust with their patients — two pillars necessary to improve patient engagement. One finding reports that practitioners who used digital screens to display electronic health records (EHR) to their patients experienced higher levels of patient engagement.
No two patients are alike. Likewise, no two patient experiences are alike either. The more feedback healthcare clinics can garner from their patient population, the closer they’ll be to delivering the kind of healthcare experience patients want. As for the clinical team, data collected from these patient feedback platforms can drive patient-centric healthcare and facility improvements.
One of the simplest ways your clinic can solicit patient feedback is to invite them (or even incentivize them) to provide feedback about their pre-visit expectations and post-visit experience.
You can plant screen displays and other digital signage at key patient access points (e.g., the check-in and check-out areas, etc.) so they are more likely to access them, taking your patients’ convenience and health into consideration.
Creating an immersive patient experience to reduce anxiety levels and drive patient engagement doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, you can use existing digital screens and technologies in your clinical practice to do it.
UPshow Health is an on-premise marketing cloud-based software designed to transform your clinic’s digital screens into conduits for the type of patient experience your patients have been looking for.
With UPshow Health, you can create an immersive patient experience by:
The cornerstone of effective patient-provider communication is accessibility. QR-code technology is a cutting-edge way to empower patients by putting a communication channel in the palm of their hands.
Displaying QR-code technology on your screens invites patients to engage with your clinic from their own devices.
You can use QR-code technology to invite patients to:
The beauty of ever-evolving technology is that you can offer your patients more than one feature or resource at a time. For instance, UPshow Health allows you to educate and entertain your patients simultaneously with its fixed and multi-display capabilities.
You can also use content scheduling capabilities to set the duration of your educational and entertainment options. It also allows you to control the content of your screens across multiple locations or even on a screen-by-screen basis. These capabilities will also equip your health facility with the necessary insights and analytics to give unique patient populations the best possible healthcare customer experience.
Patients want the best of both worlds — modern, innovative and accessible healthcare along with a personalized and empathetic experience.UPshow Health can engage your patients in all areas of your practice and help you give them the healthcare customer experience they deserve. Sign up today for a free demo of UPshow Health and see how digital signage is transforming the patient healthcare experience one health facility at a time.
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) reports that in 2022, the average annual health insurance premium for single coverage in the United States was $7,911 and $22,221 for families. Combining this with Statista’s research showing total out-of-pocket healthcare payments on the rise, it’s no wonder patients are becoming more vocal about what they do and don’t want on their healthcare journey.
Standards for better patient engagement in healthcare are evolving. The bar is high for all stakeholders, too. Patients want to feel seen, heard and respected by their healthcare providers. And if they aren’t engaged and satisfied? They’ll find another provider who will meet their needs.
One of the best ways healthcare clinics and hospitals can give patients what they want is to onboard creative healthcare solutions to improve patient engagement and retention.
Patients are now looking for a more personalized customer experience from their healthcare providers than ever before. They’re willing to pack up and move on to the next care provider to get the level of patient engagement and satisfaction they’re looking for.
The World Health Organization defines patient engagement as “the process of building the capacity of patients, families, carers, as well as healthcare providers to facilitate and support the active involvement of patients in their care, in order to enhance safety, quality and people-centeredness of healthcare service delivery.”
Patient engagement directly affects patient satisfaction. But its impact is broad sweeping and doesn’t stop there.
The global non-profit group, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), tells us the more patients are engaged in their healthcare decisions, the more likely they are to experience greater health outcomes.
In general, for most patients, positive health outcomes can include any one or combination of the following:
Patients aren’t the only ones who stand to benefit from improved health outcomes either — especially when those health outcomes are reported and made accessible to the greater healthcare community.
Some of these benefits include:
The cornerstone of effective patient engagement revolves around shared decision-making efforts between the patient, their family and their clinical team. When patients are engaged and empowered, they’re more likely to follow the agreed-upon treatment plan, including taking medications, continuing with therapy or rehabilitation routines and more.
Activated and engaged patients are proactive patients. Further, they’re more likely to advocate for their needs and seek reevaluation and guidance when something isn’t working in their treatment.
The benefits don’t stop there. When patients are engaged and adhere to their treatment plans, it can:
Empathy is necessary to achieve and sustain shared decision-making between a patient and their provider. Patients want the opportunity to speak on behalf of their needs. Likewise, they need health professionals who provide accessible patient communication channels and extend an empathetic ear when they self-advocate.
Patient engagement won’t improve unless your patients have access to the right tools and resources to help them along their journey.
UPshow Health is the leading on-premise digital patient engagement platform that can power your health facility’s screens with the resources and communication channels you need to empower — and better engage — your patients.
To make the most of the short amount of time you have with your patients, you’ll need to make every minute they’re with you count and do it in a dynamic way.
With the aid of UPshow’s Canva integration and pre-made design templates, you can create content such as:
One of the pillars of strong patient engagement is accessible and fluid communication between patients and their healthcare team. UPshow Health’s reach transcends the boundaries of your screens, allowing you to engage patients on their phones and personal devices.
With the help of the QR Code campaign creator, your healthcare facility can give your patients easy access to:
If patients aren’t engaged or satisfied on their healthcare journey, it can inhibit them from reaching their desired health outcomes. That’s a lose-lose for them, your facility and the healthcare industry as a whole.
Empower your patients with UPshow Health and outfit them with the tools and resources they need to rise as the primary decision-makers on their health and wellness journey.Try a risk-free demo today, and discover the benefits higher patient engagement and retention can bring for your patients, clinic and the healthcare industry.
A patient’s experience in the waiting room can set the tone for how satisfied they are with their clinical experience. In fact, a research study published in the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC) shows a strong negative correlation between long wait times and a patient’s “confidence in the care provider and perceived quality of care.”
While issues like long wait times may prove unavoidable, there are ways to make the wait more tolerable. It all starts with revamping your clinic’s waiting room.
By and large, patients may feel anxious while waiting for their appointments to begin. Suppose your waiting room is cramped and doesn’t have a designated child or family area or technology to provide access to the patient information they need. This can exacerbate anxiety and negatively impact their patient experience.
Tailoring your clinic’s waiting room design to meet your patients’ needs can produce positive outcomes for them and your team.
The aesthetic, layout, energy and opportunities for patient engagement are just some factors that can impact a patient’s waiting room experience. When it comes to your waiting room design, you’ll want to offer comfort that translates to a welcoming space for them.
Keep these ideas in mind to reduce their pre-appointment anxiety:
Creating a welcoming clinical waiting room design involves more than choosing the right wall colors or seat cushions. It also means investing in the best ways to boost patient engagement.
To do this, you’ll need to consider all of the ways your patients and their families currently interact or could engage with your waiting room:
Which values does your practice stand by? No doubt, you’re family-oriented. Of course, your practice exudes an unwavering commitment to patient privacy, too.
You can communicate the values of your practice through your clinic waiting room design. Start with your primary patient demographic. Are they children and adolescents? Or, adults who must bring their children to their appointments?
If so, you can show your patients your investment in them and their families by:
Research studies show that, on average, patients spend 41 minutes waiting from the time they register to the time they see a clinician. While that is a long time, it’s also an opportunity to engage your patients and enhance their patient experience before they get called to the back.
Making various entertainment options available in your waiting room can help patients develop a positive mindset before their appointment. Rather than playing a local talk show or a stress-inducing news channel, you’ll want to offer a wide range of entertainment options to mirror your diverse patient population.
UPshow Health is an on-premise marketing cloud that can transform your waiting room's TVs and digital screens into an engaging educational and entertainment hub. From curated healthcare channel packs to over 500 entertainment channels, with live stream and hyperlocal options, your patients can select what they want to watch and when they want to watch it.
Not all patients will have the mental bandwidth to focus on a TV show, much less find it relaxing. Give your patients access to alternative, relaxation-inducing options:
Natural lighting and entertainment options aside, your clinic waiting room design should prioritize patient engagement and awareness. Start by leveraging your waiting room screens to give patients access to health and wellness information, important updates and announcements about your practice and so much more.
These are just some of the ways UPshow Health can help you use your waiting room screens to fortify patient engagement:
You don’t need to be an expert in graphic design to create eye-catching, informative displays for your waiting room. UPshow’s in-app Canva integration gives you access to design templates and royalty-free stock photos, videos, and music to create customized and engaging displays.
With patients constantly coming in and going out, you’ll want to use fixed and multipanel displays to keep critical announcements on the screen while simultaneously engaging those patients who continue to wait.
With the help of accessible insights and analytics, you’ll be privy to what your patients are engaging with the most. These insights will allow you to optimize your screens to continue creating the targeted and engaging content they want.
A welcoming and engaging waiting room can turn an otherwise anxious experience into a pleasant one for your patients. And the best waiting room design for your clinic is anything but skin-deep.UPshow Health can transform your waiting room into a welcoming, anxiety-reducing space that engages your patients and their families. Sign-up for your custom demo and discover how UPshow can help you transform your waiting space.
