Thanks to big companies like Amazon, people have grown accustomed to low cost, short wait times, and helpful customer support. Although a healthcare practice is not an online retail superstore, patients expect a similar level of service from you and your office staff.
In order to attract and retain patients, your healthcare practice must be able to deliver the efficient, customer-centric model people expect. One way to do this is by modernizing patients’ experience. Read on for tips to get started.
Build a Premium Website
A majority of people (97%) use the internet to find local businesses, according to search engine optimization company BrightLocal. To attract patients to your practice, you need a modern website that is optimized to be found by search engines and designed to transform visitors into patients.
Your healthcare practice website should have a modern, streamlined look and feel. An outdated, clunky website with a lot of text won’t convince prospective patients to book an appointment. You’ll also want to make sure your website is responsive, which means it looks great and functions well on mobile devices and tablets, as well as desktop computers.
Your website should feature a biography about you and any other providers at your practice. If your practice provides any notable amenities, such as a retail section or a luxurious waiting room, then showcase that information on your website, too, preferably with pictures.
A premium healthcare practice website has individual services pages for each speciality offered at the practice. Detailed information about services educates prospective patients and answers common questions. Plus, the text itself can increase the chances that search engines will find it useful for local searches.
More and more healthcare providers are also featuring patient reviews directly on their website. According to BrightLocal, 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends or family.
Look: 11 Common Practice Website Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Enable Online Scheduling
PatientPop research has revealed that nearly half (42%) of patients prefer to make appointments through a website or app rather than by calling a healthcare practice. If your practice does not offer online scheduling, you could be losing out on new patients.
Another important reason to offer online booking: 24/7 service. PatientPop research indicates that nearly one-third of appointments scheduled online are booked after hours when your front office staff can’t answer the phone.
It’s not just patients who benefit from online booking, either. Online scheduling reduces the amount of time your office staff has to spend answering phones, allowing them to work more efficiently.
Send Appointment Reminders
Doctor appointments can easily slip patients’ minds. But no-shows cost your practice time and money. One study estimates the healthcare industry loses about $150 billion to no-shows annually. Automatic appointment reminders gently prod patients leading up to their appointments so they don’t forget to pencil you into their schedules.
For your healthcare practice, automatic appointment reminders reduce the number of phone calls your front office staff makes to patients, while also limiting costly and frustrating no-shows. These reminders can be sent via SMS/text message or email leading up to a scheduled appointment.
Check Out: The Real Cost of No-Shows for Your Healthcare Practice and How to Avoid Them
Follow Up After Appointments
In order to continue improving your patient experience, you should ask for feedback from patients shortly after their appointments. This is when their experience is freshest and they can provide the most details. Soliciting feedback manually can be incredibly time consuming, but the right software system can automate this process.
Automated feedback requests are sent to patients via SMS/text message or email. Your front office can see when feedback is submitted, so you can act on negative feedback quickly, if necessary.
Update Your Practice to Satisfy Your Patients
Building a new website with online scheduling and purchasing a software system that allows you to send appointment reminders and appointment follow-ups will modernize your patient experience and satisfy new and current patients.
Need help modernizing the patient experience at your practice? Turn to PatientPop for help. Learn about us at patientpop.com.
