Top 5 Ways to Improve Appointment Bookings Online

Now, almost everything can be solved in a couple of clicks. Do not wait for calls from your clients. Successful clinics now accept appointments online. The better and easier the path to you, the more potential patients you attract. But how to stand out among dozens of competitors? How to ensure a stable flow of appointments without chaos and mistakes? Choose the excellent online appointment booking system and follow these 5 effective tips to increase the number of your clinic’s clients!

Who Is This Advice For?

Do you run a hospital or a medical office? Then you definitely need to grow your patient base. You offer great services, but how do they know about them? Read on to learn the key to increasing patient flow.

Why Is It Easier for People to Book an Appointment Online?

Key findings from GetApp’s research show that 70% of clients prefer online booking. Why? Because customers are not limited by the working hours of your medical office or the workload of your employees. And they can contact us anytime, on weekends or at night. Agree, this is very convenient when a person is sick and urgently needs medical help.

In addition, some people feel uncomfortable when calling, especially when it comes to health. The online appointment booking system lets you avoid inconvenience. Let a person simply book an appointment with you. No complicated login procedures requiring entering a username and password, as well as using long forms.
Clients who are comfortable mean an increase in the number of your customers and the development of your medical business.

How to Increase the Number of Appointments?

So, increasing your online bookings will greatly increase your success in the medical business. But how do you achieve this? Let’s move on to the tips.

1. Choose the Right Online Booking Solution
How do you choose the perfect appointment scheduling solution? It must be integrated into applications such as Google Calendar, Office 365, or other integrated calendars. Let your patients be able to make an appointment at absolutely any time! The more convenient it is for a person to make an appointment, the sooner they will contact you.

It is also important to eliminate no-shows for an appointment whenever possible. After all, this takes up your doctors’ time, and you lose income. So, automate reminders to clients about an appointment. Send reminders via email, voice messages, or SMS messages. Make it so that people can respond to your messages, and you always know whether to expect them for an appointment.

2. Word-of-mouth Recommendations from Clients
Health issues are very important. Therefore, the client will carefully choose a clinic and a doctor. And most likely, your future patient will consult with loved ones or friends, colleagues, or acquaintances before making a decision. Your task is to increase the number of satisfied patients who received quality medical care from your clinic and encourage people to recommend you willingly. Think over a system of discounts, for example. Be sure to reward your clients for recommending you.

Nielsen data shows that the likelihood of seeking services based on the recommendation of friends is four times higher! In addition, the retention rate of clients attracted by recommendations is 37% higher. And consumer trust in recommendations is 84% compared to other marketing tools. And this is not surprising, because in health matters we are ready to trust the opinion of trusted people who have personally familiarized themselves with the services of the clinic.

The best way to get as many patients as possible who came by recommendation:

• Serve your clients excellently so that they can recommend your medical care to their closest ones.
• Don’t let your specialists be shy about asking for referrals. This is completely normal. The ideal moment is after the service has been rendered, when the client is happy with the help they received.
• Prepare a template for a referral email that they can send to a friend.
• You can also consider a discount system for a patient who brings in another patient by referral.
• Thank you for your patience. Build trusting and strong relationships with them. This will contribute to your success, in any case!

3. Remind the Client About His Appointment
The client may forget about the appointment in the midst of his/her busy schedule. Be sure to remind him/her unobtrusively of the upcoming appointment. If this process is automated, you will save a lot of time. In addition, people should be encouraged to check their health regularly and not put it off. Post a blog on the website or send emails about how regular health checks help to cope with problems. The earlier the disease is diagnosed, the more effective the treatment will be.

4. Prominent Call to Action (CTA)
The booking button should be as visible as possible. The client will not spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to book online. If it is inconvenient for him, he will find another clinic. The easier clients can book your services, the higher the likelihood of increasing online bookings.

How to make your CTA? Focus on simplicity. A short and simple phrase is best, such as “Book Now,” “Book,” or “Book a Dentist Appointment.”

The CTA button format should be different from the rest of the page content. Make it stand out from the crowd. Place the button or appointment button where your prospective patients can easily access it. And make sure the button is placed in the site log and on other pages. You can also add a “Book Now” button to your social media page, such as Facebook, and link it to your booking page URL.

Also, use your blog and social media to let users know that you offer online appointment scheduling. Add a link to the appointment scheduling feature in your email signature. Put information on business cards, flyers, and office banners.

5. Effective Advertising

A noticeable and recognizable brand of a medical office or clinic naturally accompanies a larger number of clients. Make sure that all the necessary information about you is available and that your website is convenient, with a web and mobile version and good usability. When you send client appointment reminders, the letter or SMS should clearly indicate the clinic’s activities, your brand, and so on. Be recognizable and noticeable!

Conduct Paid Advertising Campaigns Using Google Ads and Facebook Ads

The more effective your advertising is, the more of your potential audience will want to contact your clinic. Take care of high conversion. To do this, you need to set up advertising campaigns correctly and conduct them at the right time for your audience. Carefully study your potential audience, their pains, and preferences. Offer what people really need so that they want to become patients of your medical office or clinic.

In the advertising text, address simply, briefly, and clearly. Use only truthful information. Customers must trust you. And trust, once lost, is extremely difficult to restore. The design of your ad must be associated with your brand. Add a logo and use corporate colors. A clear plan, relevant image, bright details, and an attractive call to action, as well as, of course, correct and accurate targeting, will bring you success. Test different ads. Also, remember that over time, your audience’s preferences may change. Always keep your finger on the pulse of events. Study your competitors to understand how to stand out from them in the best possible way.

Improve Your Visibility in Search Engines

Using the best SEO methods, optimize your site. Its position in search engines must constantly improve. Use free and paid methods. Think about high-quality internal and external linking. The more high-quality resources that link to you, the better. So think about a blog. Fill it with relevant medical information for people. It is best to hire a professional for this task.

Conclusions

Tell as many people as possible about how your services will help them recover. Multiply your base of satisfied patients who can easily and simply make an appointment with you at any time convenient for them and receive quality medical care. Automate the process of online registration and scheduling. Reminders to your patients will come automatically, and rescheduling or canceling visits will also be automated. And no paperwork. And no risk of making mistakes. A clearly structured customer base and a well-established online appointment booking system will help your practice grow.