Is Your Healthcare Clinic Taking Online Bookings?
There has been a tremendous uplift in online booking functionality for healthcare and wellbeing clinics across all of Australia. Since 2013 clinicians have adopted new responsive websites with simple to use contact forms – which is great – but now we’re on the verge of 2016 and looking ahead to 2017 and beyond where all websites for local health care will be booking in patients entirely online. Let’s look at a chiropractic case study.
Chiropractor Appointments
APChiropractic is a growing clinic based in Adelaide, Australia with Chiropractors taking many of their bookings through this innovative chiropractor appointment form. Younger generations are using this type of functionality because it is quicker, easier and often less painful than sitting on hold (or in some cases talking to) admin staff.
Online Bookings Done Right
The key change for APChiropractic was the move from a simple contact form to a real-time communication point for prospective clients. Many people shy away from contact forms (including younger generations) because the turnaround time for a response is unknown. However with a real-time appointment system the user is registered immediately and notified immediately of their pending appointment.
So How Does It Work?
At the start of each day the admin staff at APChiropractic use the website CMS to update the available timeslots for the day (which we are told only takes a few minutes) and then anyone online knows instantly that the listed timeslots are actually available. Selecting one of the availabilities will trigger an email (and sms if mobile is provided) notifying the user that their request has been received and within a minute or two the status moves from pending to confirmed.
Flexibility for Different Healthcare Clinics?
The aforementioned case study is just one of many scenarios that could be tailored to a clinician’s best interests. However the reason APChiropractic is so good is that it is tailored to the customers needs, not the clinics. So yes, it does require some more attention from admin staff and it does require due-diligence to ensure that all online requests are legitimate. However, in the long run it has paid dividends, as Dr. Peter Roennfeldt (B.App.Sc.(Clin)/B.Chiro.Sc) of APChiropractic says “these systems help out patients in busy world, they save time and make our lives easier – which is the point of good technology”.
In Summary
The online representation of your healthcare business is of the utmost importance, and as mobile usage continues to soar it is essential that business owners adapt and push forward with fast paced, convenience orientated technologies. After all if you’re not investing in a better online experience for your customers, then you’re already behind.