When we discuss a settlement for a workers’ compensation claim there areseveral thingswe need to discuss at the outset. First, what is it that the injured worker wants to accomplish via settlement. Second, is the injured worker receiving sufficient compensation based on the terms of settlement. When we discuss the idea of what an injured worker wants to accomplish via settlement what I mean by this is does the injured worker want to settle the claim and move on the another employer or does the injured worker want to settle the claim and move forward with applying for Social Security Disability or does the injured worker want to settle the claim but continue to work for the employer or settle the claim but continue to receiving ongoing medical treatment via the workers’ compensation claim. Believe it or not, all of these may be options when we discuss the idea of settlement for the workers’ compensation claim. One option for the injured work is to settle the claim via a compromise settlement agreement. This involves the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier paying a lump sum of money to the injured worker and in exchange the injured worker is agreeing to waive any further rights to medical compensation or disability compensation related to the injury at work. This may be a good option if the injured work cannot or does not want to return to work for the employer. If the injured workers wishes to explore this type of settlement then the main concern is whether the amount being agreed to for the compromise settlement agreement if enough to represent the potential future medical compensation and disability compensation which the injured worker is waiving any rights to receive as part of the terms of the compromise settlement agreement. If an injured workers is wishing to explore this type of settlement then I always advise they speak with an attorney prior to agreement to any terms of the compromise settlement agreement so that they can obtain legal advice about what benefits they may be able to obtain via a compromise settlement agreement and so that they have a clear understanding of what rights they are waiving when entering into a compromise settlement agreement. Another option for the injured worker is to settle for just the payment of a disability rating. This involves the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier paying compensation to the injured worker based on the percentage of disability assigned to the injured body part. This option allows the injured worker to continue working for the employer and allows the injured worker’s entitlement to medical treatment to remain open so that they can seek additional medical treatment for the work injury in the future. If an injured worker is wishes to explore this type of settlement, then there are several things to consider. First, the injured worker needs to make sure the disability rating assigned by their treating physician is the appropriate percentage of disability for the injured body part. Any time there is a question as to the appropriate percentage of disability being assigned to the injured body part the injured worker may want to obtain an 2nd opinion about the percentage of disability assigned to the injured body part prior to agreeing to payment for the disability rating. In some instances, the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier will agree to 2nd opinion concerning the appropriate disability rating or in some instances a motion will have to filed with the N.C. Industrial Commission in order to accomplish the 2nd opinion in order to obtain information about the appropriate disability rating. Second, when there is a settlement just for payment of the disability rating for the injured body part, future medical treatment remains open, but there are limits as to how long this entitlement to further medical treatment can remain open. Given the issues concerning the disability rating, the possible need for a 2nd opinion as well as the limitations and facts to ensure the injured worker entitled to ongoing medical treatment, I recommend an injured work speak with an attorney concerning these issue prior to agreement to terms of settlement for payment of the disability rating for the injured body part. If there are ever any questions about these options for settlement and which option may be best in your case, please feel to contact Cardinal Law Partners in order to speak with one of our board certified workers’ compensation specialists. Disclaimer: The content on this blog is prepared for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. ...read more

If you practiceworkers’ compensation lawand represent injured workers, then it will not take long before you need to advise a client on light duty. It becomes the same story every time. The worker suffers an injury while working. Someone from the employer tells the worker to seek treatment from the “company doctor” or some other physician that the workers’ compensation insurance company selects. Often before the cast comes off, or the scan results come back, or a specialist is consulted, the first doctor that the injured worker sees sends the worker back to the job on a “light duty” basis. A couple of things about light duty: Why does the employer want someone back on the job that cannot perform all of the normal job tasks because of their limitations? Often, it is not the employer that wants the injured worker back on the job. It is the insurance company. Also, from the employer’s point of view, paying the injured worker for some work is better than the insurance company paying benefits and making the employer’s insurance premiums increase. Most physicians that assign light duty restrictions to their patient have absolutely no idea what the injured worker is expected to do while performing their normal job duties. Physicians all too often feel that they are doing their patient good allowing them to return to do what they can. The problem, of course, is when the employer and injured worker disagree on whether the light duty job falls within the physician’s light duty restrictions. NC workers’ compensation law changed in 2011 so that physicians are supposed to review and approve a light duty job description before the injured worker returns to work. Rather than just assigning restrictions, physicians should be reviewing what the employer might have available for the injured worker and reviewing the position’s duties to determine suitability. This protection for the injured worker does not happen very often, but every injured worker facing light duty should demand that a job description be provided for any offered light duty position. I wanted to end this post on a positive note and provide an anecdote about a physician that has no tolerance for employer nonsense. Over the years, I have seen where employers move a light duty worker into the company’s industrial freezer to “take inventory” all day long. I have seen employer place their light duty worker outside in the 90 degree heat to sit without shade. I have seen where the employer uses the company security cameras to tape the worker hoping they make a mistake. The employers will not mind if the injured worker just quits because their argument against paying benefits for out of work time is solid – the injured worker refused light duty when it was made available. Recently on one of our cases an employer brought back an injured worker with restrictions of “sit down work only” to a light duty job. The problem for the worker is that the employer provided a table that required the worker to stand. The employer thought it would be funny to provide a chair low to the ground rather than a stool that worked with the table. With the help of Megan Callahan, our client took a picture of the predicament and showed his doctor. The doctor became furious and wrote the injured worker out of work completely – a result that allows our client time to heal and recover. ...read more

All too often I speak toinjured workersabout their potential workers’ compensation claims months after they were injured. Whether it is because they did not believe their injury was too severe, or whether their employer promised them help with their injury, many injured workers choose a “wait and see” approach when determining whether they need to file something with the employer or the insurance company. The best settlements in my experience are in cases where the injured worker sought proper documentation from the very beginning. In the absence of documentation, the employer and insurance company are able to challenge the injured worker about what happened when. The Industrial Commission determines a claimant’s credibility in large part about what the documents from early in the case show. There is a great deal of lawyer advertising in the public – on TV and on the radio – where lawyers promise fight to get big pay days. Having an aggressive attorney that is willing to work is an important help in trying to get a good result in a workers’ compensation claim. However, a good attorney should also be willing to help “build the record” for their client. This means, as soon as possible in the case, an attorney should want to review documents that the injured worker needs to turn in to the employer or the treating physician. Clear communication is key so that all the sources of evidence an insurance company uses to determine the compensability of a claim align with the injured worker’s story. Without further ado, here are 7 things every injured worker should do within 3 days of being injured at work: Report the accident and injury to the employer: Many larger employers have specific instructions in their employee handbooks about how injuries should be reported. Sometimes it should be reported to a supervisor or a safety manager. Whatever the employee policy dictates, the injured worker should notify some member of management that they were injured at work and provide details about what happened and the symptoms they are feeling from the injury. It does not matter that the injury does not seem that severe at first. You cannot go back in time to report an injury timely. The best reports are signed incident reports or emails that the injured worker keeps a copy. Get medical treatment: I have seen many employers argue that the injury really occurred during the time period from when the worker claims injury to when the worker first gets medical treatment. Delays in treatment raise questions about when an injury happened. A Friday afternoon injury and the first doctor visit is Monday? You can bet the insurance company will want to know what the injured worker was doing during the weekend. The most helpful medical records clearly lay out what caused the injury in addition to where and when it happened. Make sure the nurse or doctor that takes the history of the injury are exact on what happened. IMPORTANT – The injured worker should also get an out of work note or work restrictions as soon as possible after an injury if it is appropriate! Take the drug test: Many, many, many claims have been denied because the employer has accused the injured worker of delaying their report of injury until they could pass a drug test. If the injured worker reports the accident and injury promptly, and pushes to get treatment quickly, the employer will not be able to accuse the injured worker of purposeful delay. Not all employers require a drug test, but if requested it makes a lot of sense to avoid suspicion from the insurance company. Plus, you do not want the insurance company to wait a couple of weeks, after a long holiday weekend or after the medical provider prescribes medication, to take a test for the first time. Do the recorded statement: Perhaps the number one tactic insurance companies employ to investigate a claim is the recorded statement. This is when the insurance company calls the injured worker on the phone to ask questions about the circumstances of the injury. State law allows insurance companies to deny claims where they were unable to complete an investigation. Injured workers that refuse to participate in a recorded statement give insurance companies an easy excuse to deny claims. At the same time, injured works should know that those recorded statements often include questions that the insurance company already knows the answer to. Insurance companies speak to each other about claims they have paid. If they ask you whether you have been in a car accident it is because they know you have been and they hope you lie. Get statements from witnesses: Just like everyone else, witnesses to an accidents tend to forget what happened. The best thing to do is ask the co-workers who saw what happened to send the injured worker a text or email about details of what they saw. Having the witnesses send these statements before their memory fades, and before the employer’s management put pressure on the witnesses, is usually the best for an injured workers’ claim. Take pictures: To an insurance company, the injuries that workers suffer are almost always not that bad. To demonstrate the severity of an injury later, injured workers should take pictures of the burns, scarring, cuts, and bruising they suffer after an injury. We can all disagree about the severity of swelling and bruising, but pictures help tell the story better than someone’s memory. File a North Carolina Industrial Commission Form 18: It is the injured worker’s responsibility to report their workplace accident to the Industrial Commission within 30 days of their injury. The method to do this is with a Form 18. The Form 18 asks for the date and place of the injury along with a brief description of what happened. Even though the injured worker has 30 days to complete the Form 18, it makes the most sense to get one of these filed as soon as possible. There are several reasons, but one of the most important is that insurance companies have their own deadlines to accept or deny cases once receiving notice of the injured worker’s claim. Why not prevent the insurance company from dragging their feet more than they already do? ...read more

As aBoard Certified Workers’ Compensationattorney in North Carolina, I have spoken to hundreds of injured workers about their claims. When I speak to these folks after reviewing their cases, there is one question I get asked more than any other: “Am I getting everything from the workers’ compensation insurance company I am supposed to?” Most Workers’ Compensation Attorneys handle claims on a contingency fee basis. That means the attorney fee is contingent on the injured worker receiving compensation. It also means that most law firms only take cases they think compensation is due because that is how they get paid. In order to sort out all the potential cases attorneys will almost always speak to a prospective client for free as part of a free consultation. Injured workers most often want to know whether they are missing out on something they are owed under the workers’ compensation laws. It makes sense for this to be the most common question. The insurance adjuster often is working on dozens or even over a hundred claims. They have experience, practice, and often access to an attorney. The injured worker is usually on their first claim and is rarely sure everything is moving the way the law intended it to. By the way, the most asked question I get from injured workers has a most given response: “Probably not.” There are dozens of nuances in claims that have to be checked to make sure the injured worker is getting everything appropriate. Is the weekly check amount right? Is the light duty job appropriate? Is the WC carrier paying for mediations and those other treatment necessities like prescribed slings, bandages, and casts? Is the injured worker getting mileage to go to WC doctor appointments? Is the injured worker getting a raw deal on the disability rating (some doctors that workers’ compensation carriers choose actually assign ratings less than what the law recommends). In my experience it is worth the time to have an attorney review the file to make sure the insurance company is conducting itself in accordance of the law. ...read more

Any time someone isinjured at work, the first thing you need to do is report the injury to your employer. This notice of injury may be reported to the employer verbally or in writing. Although you can provide verbal notice of any injury to your employer, I always recommend written notice of the injury to the employer so that there is documentation of the reported injury to the employer. This written notice can be via a letter to the employer or can be provided via completing an accident report for the employer. The report of injury to the employer should be provided within 30 days of the date of injury. Although the injured worker has 30 days to report the injury, I always recommend reporting the injury to the employer as soon as possible, preferable on the same date that the injury occurred. When reporting the injury to the employer, describe exactly what occurred on the date of injury. Provide as many details about how the injury as possible to avoid questions about the events leading to the work injury. Many times, the decision by the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier to accept or deny benefits are based on how the injured worker described the accident. You need to make sure an official claim for workers’ compensation benefits has been filed with the N.C. Industrial Commission. The official claim for benefits needs to filed within 2 years of the date of injury in order to avoid Statute of Limitation issues. Although you have 2 years to file your official claim for benefits with the N.C. Industrial Commission, I recommend filing the official claim for benefits as soon as possible. If there are questions about information to include for the official claim for benefits, I recommend the injured speak with an attorney, even if they do not plan to hire the attorney, in order to confirm that they are filing the appropriate forms and information with the N.C. Industrial Commission. Once the official claim for benefits has been filed, the N. C. Industrial Commission will issue an acknowledgement letter to the employer and workers’ compensation insurance carrier noting that an official claim for workers’ compensation benefits has been filed and requiring the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier for the employer to respond to the N.C. Industrial Commission within 30 days of the date of the letter, noting acceptance of liability for the injury, denial of liability for the injury or an agreement to provide conditional payments of benefits while the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier investigate the claim in order to official accept or deny liability for the injury. If the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier for the employer accepts liability for the claim, then the injured worker can receive compensation for both medical treatment and lost time from work due to the injury at work. If the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier for the employer denies liability for the claim, then the only way for the injured worker to obtain benefits is a hearing process before the N.C. Industrial Commission. If the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier for the employer only agrees to provide conditional payments of benefits while the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier investigates the claim in order to officially accept or deny liability for the injury, then actions can be take to force a formal acceptance or denial of the claim or the injured worker can allow for the conditional payments of benefits while the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier investigate the claim in order to official accept or deny liability for the injury. As you can see, obtaining benefits for an injury at work is not always an easy process and can involve many steps, which are critical in assuring the insured worker receives those possible benefits owed due to the injury at work. Based on this I recommend that an injured worker call and obtain advice about this process in order to assure they are undergoing all the necessary steps to be able to obtain those possible benefits owed due to the injury at work. If there are ever any questions about this process or if you may need assistance regarding this process you are always welcome to call Cardinal Law Partners and speak with one of our board certified workers’ compensation specialists. ...read more

IME stands forIndependent Medical Examination. In my experience, there is rarely anything independent about the medical examinations. If your treating doctor (the physician that the insurance company originally selected to treat you at a place relatively close to where you live and work) recommends a surgery or expensive treatment, the workers’ compensation insurance company may send the injured worker for an IME before agreeing to authorize the doctor’s recommendations. In 2011 the law changed so that workers’ compensation insurance companies could send injured workers to as many IMEs as they wanted. As long as the injured worker was requesting benefits, the workers’ compensation carrier could request an IME. There was another big change with respect to IMEs. The workers’ compensation insurance company could have their attorney pick up the phone and call the IME physician about the injured worker’s visit – outside the worker’s presence and without a record on what was discussed. This should sound strange. The treating doctor (that the insurance company hand selects) recommends a procedure or treatment and the insurance company disagrees with the recommendation. The insurance carrier requests an IME (with a doctor they hand select). If the first IME doctor does not change course, the insurance company considers a second IME (with a doctor they hand select). The whole time the insurance company is directly contacting the IME doctor with or without the injured worker’s consent. There are different tactics an attorney can take to avoid insurance company doctor shopping. One strategy, for example, is to request a hearing with the Industrial Commission before the parade of IMEs gets started. Ultimately, just be cautious about just how independent those IMEs really are. ...read more

Powering over 30% of ecommerce websites,WooCommerceis the leading platform for online stores, from national brands to beginning entrepreneurs. It's intuitive, easy-to-use, and offers a wide array of customization options. Live Chat With LiveChat, you can offer immediate assistance to your customers via a chatbox. Whether you wait for visitors to reach out to your or you approach them with a pop-up box, you're making it much easier to provide quality customer service and resolve problems in the moment. That translates into more sales and improved goodwill for your business! LiveChat goes farther than just the individual chat box. You can "see" into your customers' carts while you chat to modify your interactions. This plugin also lets you hold multiple live chats at once, automate responses to common questions, and include a ticket form that allows your customers to ask questions even when you're offline. Price:Premium plans begin at $16/month Get it here:https://woocommerce.com/products/livechat/ Postcode/Address Validation Problems with shipping are a leading cause of customer complaints for many ecommerce businesses. With the Postcode/Address Validation WooCommerce plugin, you can reduce address errors and eliminate the issue of invalid addresses. Postcode/Address Validation allows the customer to validate their address, look up their postal codes, and use an auto-complete function. The time and money you save from having to resend orders makes this one of the best plugins for WooCommerce. This plugin requires signing up for a Loqate account for address auto-completion and SmartyStreets to validate addresses. Price:$49/year Get it here:https://woocommerce.com/products/postcodeaddress-validation/?aff=4166 Social Login Any time you can make it easier for your customer to create an account, log in to your site, and check out, you’re improving the likelihood of a sale. Customers want simplified processes, and Social Login is one of the top WooCommerce plugins for making this happen. With Social Login, customers can log in to your store using Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, and several other login options instead of having to create an entire new user account. How does this benefit your business? Customers save time on their first time signing up and each time visiting your ecommerce store as most customers stay signed in to their social media accounts. It’s more convenient than having to remember an additional user ID and password. Plus, customers are familiar with logging in to sites with their social accounts and are using this option more than ever before. Price: $79/year Get it here:https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-social-login/ WooCommerce QuickView You may notice a trend among the top WooCommerce plugins, and that is to make the shopping process faster and more convenient. It’s not an accident – today’s customer wants speed, convenience, and ease of use. To offer that to your customers, check out WooCommerce Quick View. Adding this plugin makes a pop-up window appear when the customer clicks on a product, rather than sending them to a separate product page. These windows load quickly, and as soon as the customer adds the item to the cart, the window closes. There are no additional page loads, unlike traditional workflows where there may be three or more different page loads between finding a product, adding it to the cart, and continuing to shop. Price:$29/year Get it here:https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-quick-view/ Google Product Feed Google Shopping Adsmakes it easy to drive traffic to your ecommerce site by putting your products in front of the people searching for the exact items you sell. In order to promote your products with Google Shopping Ads, you have to upload a product feed to Google Merchant Center. Fortunately, you can save time with Google Product Feed. This extension lets you create a real-time feed to add product information to Google Merchant Center rather than having to upload a large, in-depth spreadsheet that needs regular updates. With this plugin, every bit of product information is easily transferred and any updates are automatically reflected in your feed. Plus, your feed resides at a permanent URL, so you can automate Google to update your information daily. Price:$49/year Get it here:https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-products-compare/ WooCommerce Recommendation Engine Suggested and recommended products are an amazing way to increase sales while improving customer service. The WooCommerce Recommendation Engine plugin automatically suggests specific items based on a customer’s search history, the products they’ve already viewed, and related items to what is already in their cart. For example, if your customer added a knitted scarf to their cart, the Recommendation Engine may suggest a coordinating knitted hat. This WooCommerce plugin allows you to customize recommendations in one of three ways: View:Shows products that other customers also viewed that are related to what the customer is looking at or has in their cart. Purchase History:Shows products that relate to a product already purchased and is a great way to get returning customers to buy. Purchased Together:Recommends products that are often purchased at the same time as add-on sales Price:$79/year Get it here:https://woocommerce.com/products/recommendation-engine/ WooCommerce Order Status Manager With the WooCommerce Order Status Manager plugin, you can create detailed order statuses and easily include them in your ecommerce order management system. Out of the WooCommerce plugins for WordPress we’ve discussed, this streamlines your fulfillment process by improving communication between departments while also automating communication with your customers. For example, you can send automated emails when an order status changes to notify your customers of the updates. Or if you have several steps in your fulfillment process, such as a printing business, you can communicate when orders travel from pre-press to ready-to-print to ready-to-ship. This eliminates confusion and misunderstandings and ensures everyone is on the same page. Price: $49/year Get it here:https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-order-status-manager/ WooCommerce Slack Communication among your team is vital to making sure everyone is on the same page and is up to date on any changes or issues in the business. Fortunately, the WooCommerce Slack plugin makes it easy to keep up with real-time conversations, share information to several people at once, and have one-on-one discussions. This convenient communication tool is one of the top WooCommerce plugins because it’s user-friendly. Everything about this plugin is easy, from creating event specific channels or custom channels for your team to submitting notifications that allow you to stay on top of important events, including: New Orders Items on Backorder Low Stock Notices Out of Stock Notices New Customers New Reviews Price: $29/year Get it here: https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-slack/ WooCommerce Twilio SMS Notifications Sending SMS updates to your customers is an excellent way to make contact with them. With an open rate of over 90 percent, this triples the average open rate of emails while offering a simple way to offer a personalized message. This plugin is most commonly used when pairing it with the WooCommerce Order Status Manager to notify your customers of changes in their order status. You can also send personalized messages and coupons to your customers, or use it as a notification system to your team members. This extension is powered by Twilio, so it does require a free Twilio account. Price: $49/year PLUS a separate fee for SMS pricing through Twilio Get it here: https://woocommerce.com/products/twilio-sms-notifications/ WooCommerce Google Analytics Pro While WooCommerce offers basic sales reporting, you can get more details with WooCommerce Google Analytics Pro. This plugin automatically sends information from your ecommerce store to your Google Analytics account, giving you more accurate data about your business, your traffic, and your customers. There is a free version of this plugin, WooCommerce Google Analytics, that offers similar features including basic site tracking, universal analytics, and enhanced ecommerce tracking. The biggest difference between the two is that the pro version supports checkout behavior analysis, changes to carts, and information about customer accounts. Whether you choose the free or pro version, this is one of the top WooCommerce plugins because it provides insight into your ecommerce store that can help you run your business more effectively and drive more sales. Price: Free or $79/year for pro Get it here: https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-google-analytics-pro/ WooCommerce Smart Coupons Giving your customers the opportunity to save money is one of the most effective methods of driving traffic to your website and seeing more sales. To make it easy to create and offer these coupons and discount codes, look into the WooCommerce Smart Coupons plugin. In addition to creating bulk coupons to send in a mass email or individualized coupons that are perfect for repeat business, WooCommerce Smart Coupons offers many convenient features, inlcuding: Create gift cards and store credit Offer URL coupons that are easy to post and share One-click coupons for fast, immediate use Attractive, eye-catching designs Track coupon and discount code usage Price: $99/year Get it here: https://woocommerce.com/products/smart-coupons/ Google Ads for WooCommerce Google Shopping Ads are the most effective way to advertise your Woo store and increase sales and revenue. In a few quick steps, you can generate a fully optimized Google Shopping Ads campaign. Select what categories you want to advertise and this plugin can automatically generate smart Google Shopping feeds, automate bidding to maximize your ROI, and effectively measure conversions and sales. You will see yourPPCresults improve almost immediately! Price: Free Get it here: https://woocommerce.com/products/google-ads/ PayPal Checkout PayPal Checkout now adapts to consumer shopping habits by presenting their most relevant payment buttons during checkout. The new Smart Payment Button features dynamically display PayPal, Venmo, PayPal Credit, or other local payment options in a single stack, without needing to leave the merchant’s website. With more than 237 million active PayPal consumer accounts worldwide, adding PayPal Checkout to your WooCommerce store is sure to give your site a boost. Price: Free Get it here: https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-gateway-paypal-checkout/ WooCommerce Memberships The WooCommerce Memberships plugin allows you to create an entire membership system that seamlessly ties to your store. It allows you to restrict content to members, as well as drip that content over time to schedule when members have access.  You can also: Sell or assign memberships Strategically grant content access Turn your store into a purchasing club Offer better shipping options to members Reward members with special discounts Import/export members Simplify communications with members Price: $149/year Get it here: https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-memberships/ Read 15 Top WooCommerce Plugins to Improve Your Website blog here. ...read more

Fourth of July is an exciting, thrilling day for kids and adults alike. Crafts, art, grill-outs, picnics, parties, food, fireworks, all to celebrate the U.S.A.! Regardless of the activity you choose,Primary Beginnings, your go-to Raleigh preschool, wants your little loved ones to remain safe! Still regularly faced with weather-related challenges such as enduring excessive heat and sunlight, toddlers and young children need special attention to avoid dehydration and heatstroke. Their bodies are unable to adjust to scorching temperatures like adults’ bodies are able to. That said, we recommend breastfeeding or bottle-feeding your toddler or young child more often than usual while enduring extremely high temperatures. We also recommend providing extra beverages (cold water tends to work best) and ensuring your little loved ones are dressed in cool clothing (thin shirts, hats, etc.) that will shield them from the sun rays beating down. If you’d like to celebrate with your little ones early in the day to avoid the heat, we recommend the following events: BRIER CREEK COMMONS 4TH OF JULY FIREWORKS AND BLOCK PARTY Where: Raleigh – Brier Creek Commons, 8311 Brier Creek Parkway When: Activities start at 7:00 p.m. with fireworks after dark. If your toddlers and young children don’t mind staying up a little late (or you don’t mind them staying up a little late!), the Brier Creek Commons 4th of July party is a fun, family-friendly, red, white, and blue block party. there are several features of this event including but not limited to: Bounce houses Food trucks Face painting Raffles and prizes Vendors from Brier Creek merchants Games CHILDREN’S PARADE AND ART IN THE PARK Where: Wake Forest; Parade — North Main and West Juniper Avenue, Art in the Park — 133. W. Owen Avenue When: Lineup at 10:00 a.m. for the parade; Art in the Park is from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Both parents and children are welcome to participate in the Children’s Parade in downtown Wake Forest by biking, triking, strolling, and even being pulled in a wagon. Though there are no registration fees or requirements, children are required to wear their helmets. Enjoy arts and crafts projects at Art in the Park! This event is geared toward younger children and toddlers, but older children and adults are welcomed too! Let’s see some creativity! Along with that, there are several games to enjoy together!  Dust off your red, white, and blue attire and enjoy this amazing holiday! Read the entire article here. Lastly, contact Primary Beginnings if you’re in search of a proven, top-notchpreschool in Raleigh NC.  Dust off your red, white, and blue attire and enjoy this amazing holiday! Read the entire article here. ...read more

A lot goes into your dental practice’s digital footprint and there are two components that you should not ignore: your website and your Google My Business listing. Everyone knows that a website is important for any business but not everyone understands how important your Google My Business (GMB) listing is or how the two work together. We're here to help! We're going to explain how your website and Google my Business listing work together to improve yourlocal SEOand bring you more leads. (Get started with Google my Business listing yourself with our complete guide tooptimizing your dental practice’s listing.) A Trend With Dentist Websites Before we talk about how your website and Google My Business listing work together, we need to talk about a trend we've noticed with our dental clients: Fewer people are visiting the website but phone calls are actually on the rise! Instead of going to the website to get the practice’s phone number, more patients are calling from Google My Business. In February 2019, the dental practice in this example had 64 phone calls from their Google My Business listing. Without a well-optimized listing, they could have missed out on those calls! And you can see that 81 people went to their website by clicking the link in their Google listing. That’s 145 people that were led to either call this practice or visit their website because of the information in their Google My Business listing. That’s just one way your website and Google My Business listing work together to bring you new leads. Here are three more ways your website and Google listing complement each other: 1.Your Google Listing Contains a Link To Your Website One of the most basic features of Google My Business (and likely one of the first things you’ll add) is a link to your website. Adding this link is part of optimizing your Google listing and is obviously great for directing people to your website. It’s especially helpful if you don’t show up organically but are in the Google 3 Pack because with this link, people can still get to your site easily. 2. Your Website Tells Google What You Offer When you list your services on your dental practice’s website, Google pulls that information to display on your listing and in search results. For example, when I searched “emergency dentist Cary,” Google knew to show this practice because their website mentions emergency dental services: It’s important to have a website with your services and treatments listed so Google can show your practice to more people searching for what you offer. 3. Google Can Help You Book Appointments You probably have an appointment link on your website. You can add the same link to your Google My Business listing! Taking people to your appointment booking page from your Google my Business listing saves time and makes it easy for them to book with you. Making it easy for a client is never a bad thing! There are two more ways your Google My Business listing and website work together.Read the full blog post to learn more! ...read more

Sninski & Schmitt Family Dentistry is a dentist office with locations in bothHolly Springs, NCandCary, NC. They offer cosmetic dentistry, family dentistry, restorative dentistry, and sedation dentistry services to patients of all ages. The dentists at Sninski & Schmitt aimed to change the traditional, unattractive way that dentist offices were ran. So they partnered up with adental web design companyto provide them with a fresh perspective on the dental industry. Sninski & Schmitt Family Dentistry's vision, combined with the dental web design anddental SEOservices offered by TheeDigital, it was a match destined for greatness. The Challenge Sninski & Schmitt Family Dentistry's old website did not due their revolutionary dentist office justice. It fit in with the rest and was unable to highlight the top-notch dentistry services offered at their practice. They needed a website that reflected who they were, what dental services they offered, and an easy way for patients to schedule an appointment. While that might seem like a large task at hand, that wasn't the only challenge that Sninski & Schmitt were trying to overcome. They needed to rank higher for dental SEO in order to reach more patients. TheeDigital knew that they had work ahead of them, but put together a team that would make the difference that Sninski & Schmitt Family Dentistry was seeking. The Solution TheeDigital'sSEO team for dentistsanddental web designersfirst met with the doctors to discover, brainstorm, and strategize ideas that aligned with what the dentist office was offering. A responsive web redesign was first on the list. The dentists wanted something that was easy for patients to navigate through the website easily across all devices. This would mean that the website would be easily accessible no matter where the current or future patient was. Secondly, TheeDigital's content writers focused on keywords that would helpSninski & Schmitt Family Dentistryreach the largest audience. They targeted keywords that were associated with the dentist office, so that not just everyone was looking at their website, but that the right people were looking at their website. Upon launch of the website, the digital marketing work didn't stop there. Week-to-week, TheeDigital continued to increase rankings, pageviews, and leads to the new website. The Results Sninski & Schmitt Family Dentistry has been with TheeDigital for over 2 years now, and have seen fantastic results with the work that has been done. The website is easy to navigate, provides helpful information to it's users, and allows patients to easily book an appointment with the dentists. Rankings have never been better, but the team at TheeDigital continues to help Sninski & Schmitt Family Dentistry fight for those #1 dental keyword rankings. Read more aboutSninski & Schmitt Family Dentistry's case studyfor additional results and features that TheeDigital applied to their website and digital marketing. ...read more

Formerly Glenwood Smiles, Six Forks Smiles came to TheeDigital, aRaleigh-based internet marketingandweb designagency, to ensure their rebrand was executed properly. Maximizing rankings to acquire new customers was the main goal Six Forks Smiles had for their newcustom WordPress website. The performance of Six Forks Smiles’ five-year-old website began to decline due to the limitations in 2017. Loading slowly and having an outdated and non-responsive theme began to take its tole. To add to that, search engines like Google began including mobile user experience into algorithms, making mobile an even bigger factor for online visibility. Without a responsive website that was mobile-friendly, Six Forks Smiles was losing more than half of its possible traffic. Six Forks Smiles' Results Since teaming up with TheeDigital, Six Forks Smiles' results include a 146% increase in mobile traffic, a 68% increase in customer leads, and a 242% increase in page views. Effectively organizing each of the client's services, blog updates, seasonal promotions, and patient information was one of the main key challenges of the project. Their6-month bracespromotion is a prime example. Another challenge for the local dentist involved keeping up with tech trends and user behavior. Like any other industry, technology changes and trends shape how users search for dentists in the area. “TheeDigital has done a great job compared to other web design and marketing agencies. What they’ve done is a 150% turn around. In terms of marketing, we were down $20,000 in production over last year and now it is coming back up” -Dr. Schmorr, principal dentist and founder of Six Forks Smiles. When to Six Forks Smiles’ website is visited, the easy-to-read, branded hero image slider filled with permanent and temporary promotions are user-friendly and inviting. The refreshed design features widgets with stylish icons that highlight the three dentist’s biggest services. The top of the homepage also features the practice’s full list of services with easy-to-use drop-down menus. Along with a new website, their new, competitive search engine marketing strategy and online reputation management is keeping Six Forks Smiles on the first page of search engines for their most valuable keywords. Be sure to check out TheeDigital's fullcase studyto learn more about our dental SEO and web design success stories. ...read more

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If you want to grow your dental practice, your first thought may be to improve your marketing strategy. To get more traffic to your website, your first step would be to leveragedental practice SEOso your practice shows up at the top of local Google search results. On the other hand, if you see that your website visitors aren’t scheduling appointments or reaching out to you, an update to yourdental website designcould fix that with an easy-to-navigate layout and integrated contact forms. However, as you update your marketing to attract more patients, you have to be ready to serve more patients. This means you’ll need to have your operations simplified and improve your efficiency so you can dedicate more time to helping patients without overextending yourself or your team. Fortunately, the right dental practice software can make it easy to streamline your workflow and improve communications both with patients and within your office team. The problem many practices have is determining which one is the best option out of so many software choices on the market.   To help you narrow down your decision, we did some of the research for you and selected the best dental practice management software solutions. In order to be part of the list, it has to have a four-star user rating or above on Google, Software Advice, or Capterra and be HIPAA compliant along with having a product website that includes in-depth product details and customer support. 3 Leading Dental Practice Management Software OptionsiDental Soft iDental Soft is cloud-based, all-in-one software solution that allows your dental office to go completely paperless. Ideal for both small practices and multi-office practices, iDental Soft offers a comprehensive set of features in an intuitive, easy-to-use layout. Featuring integrated billing and scheduling for patients, employee scheduling, and patient records, including charting, imaging, and treatment planning, everyone in the office can easily provide better service to the patient while cutting back on unnecessary software and spreadsheets. Additionally, the patient portal allows patients to register, submit appointment requests, sign consents, and make payments, saving them time and improving their experience. ACE Dental ACE Dental Software is a scalable and powerful software solution for dental practices of all sizes. With both cloud based and on-premise options, ACE Dental saves your team time and improves patient service through appointment reminders, appointment management. The medical team can access imaging, charting, and treatment planning while the administrative staff can access billing, scheduling, and account management. Small practices can take advantage of an affordable basic software package that also includes an extensive library of training videos and both phone and email support. Larger practices with more training needs and functionality can opt for the highest tier which includes live training in addition to phone and email support. DentiMax Dentimax offers more flexibility than most dental practice management software programs by offering several packages depending on the size and needs of the office. It’s available both on-premise and cloud-based, and allows you to integrate your current imaging and charting systems into the software.   Ideal for small to mid-size practices, DentiMax is designed to mirror your actual workflow while improving operations. You can view treatment plans and dental imaging on the same screen, send prescriptions electronically, and create clinical notes quickly and easily, while your patients can access paperwork from your website, sign paperwork, and pay bills through integrated portals. Visit TheeDigital for More Office Management Software Options  for Dental Practices These three options can provide you with a great start to your research. For more information on  pricing, hosting, and support for these and nine other software solutions, check out the full12 Best Dental Practice Management Software Programs.   ...read more

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