Posted by Franel Mae Poliquit
One of the most challenging activities in healthcare is appointment booking, mainly because it takes up a lot of time for the front desk to book a schedule. According to a study by Accenture, agents transfer patient calls to the providers 63% of the time. This shows that the front desk spends more time receiving calls rather than doing more important tasks which can greatly affect your business. On the patients’ end, they end up frustrated because of long wait times and may result in no-shows and cancellation.
By offering a more flexible and accessible scheduling solution, you can provide a platform that can meet the scheduling needs of your patients. Aside from that, online appointment scheduling system offers more benefits to your practice. Here are the reasons why:
You Can Focus More on Your Business
The whole process of scheduling a patient over the phone is sometimes very frustrating. On average, your front desk spends 8.1 minutes over the phone checking available slots for consultation and getting patient details. It takes up the time on doing other more important administrative tasks and may result in delays. With the Appointment Booking System (ABS), your patients can book a schedule on their own without having to spend a long time over the phone. This can give leeway to your staff in prioritizing urgent matters and focusing more on your business.
Online Bookings Attract New Patients
A study shows that 63% of appointments booked online came from new patients. The first thing that a patient does is check if you have a website and visit it for further information. What if you offered them an easier way to schedule a consultation directly on your website? They will most likely book a schedule immediately and stop looking for another provider.
Book Appointments Anywhere, Around-the-Clock
Scheduling an appointment over the phone usually requires the patient to call only during office hours. This is inconvenient as most of them are also working at that time. An online scheduling system allows your patients to book a schedule after office hours, on weekends, and even on holidays. You can now offer your patients more freedom in scheduling their visit whenever and wherever they need to. This also helps your practice lessen the missed opportunities in getting more appointments.
Reduce No-Shows
No-shows greatly affect your clinic’s revenue, especially if you only offer limited slots per day. One of the reasons why patients miss their appointments is because no one reminds them a day or two before their schedule. According to a survey conducted by GetApp, 60% of the patients prefer getting a text reminder to avoid missing their schedule. By offering an online booking system, you can set up an automatic reminder to your patients and reduce the number of no-shows by 50% and make more billable appointments.
Patients Want Convenience
Time is as important to the clients as it is to your business. That’s why patients prefer to book online to save time. Rather than calling over the phone, it’s far easier to book their schedule on your website so that they can do it anywhere and anytime. Aside from booking online, patients also prefer an easy-to-navigate website to avoid confusion and hassle. The graph below shows the percentage of patients who prefer to book their appointment online than other platforms:
Offering ABS delivers significant benefits to your practice. It can help boost operational efficiencies, reduce no-shows, and improve organizational flexibility. You can maintain your patient customer base and generate much more revenue.
Upgrade your practice with ABS. See how it works today!