5 ways to improve your present online appointment booking system?

Online appointment scheduling is becoming increasingly popular. According to Accenture, 58 percent of patients preferred providers that allowed them to book, change, and cancel appointments online in 2016. By 2019, this figure had risen to 68 percent.

If your practice does not offer online appointment booking, a change is clearly required. Here's why you should include this feature in your practice. The Advantages of Using an Online Scheduling System

1. It is the need of your Patients

When people call to make an appointment, your staff offers a limited number of dates and times for them to come into your office. According to GetApp, more than a quarter of patients (26%) prefer online scheduling because it allows them to choose a convenient appointment time. Online scheduling is becoming increasingly popular. Many of your competitors most likely provide this feature, which is causing patients to gravitate toward their practices rather than yours. Regain your competitive advantage by giving your patients what they want.

2. Reduces phone call trail

All appointments must be booked over the phone in the absence of an online scheduling system. This means that your front office staff is spending a significant portion of their day on the phone, performing a task that could easily be automated. This results in longer hold times for patients who do need to speak with someone. It also keeps your employees away from other tasks that require human interaction. Because time is money, wasting it will have a negative impact on your bottom line.

3. Meet the needs of time-suppressed patients

According to GetApp, 36 percent of patients consider being put on hold a huge waste of time when attempting to schedule an appointment. Another 19% are irritated by having to schedule appointments during a provider's office hours. Patients who are overburdened do not have time to call your office and schedule an appointment. These people require online scheduling so that they can book at their leisure. They can fit healthcare into their hectic lives because there is no waiting on hold and they can make an appointment at any time.

4. Obtain the much-needed analytics

By automating your patient appointment scheduling, you can easily track data that would otherwise be lost. Your online appointment booking software can provide useful information such as peak hours and most popular services. Having this information readily available will make it easier to meet the needs of patients. For example, if you discover that patients prefer early morning appointments, you may want to change your office hours. Knowing what people want and meeting their needs leads to higher levels of patient satisfaction. This will increase patient retention and bring more patients into your practice.

5. Minimize the confusion

When patients make phone appointments, you rely on them to write down the date and time they'll be in your office. This can easily lead to confusion about when the appointment is or result in patients completely forgetting about it. An online scheduling system not only lets patients book appointments virtually, but it also reminds them to do so. This extra prompt can mean the difference between a patient keeping their appointment or being a no-show. According to Accenture, more than one-third of Millennials (37%) and 28% of Generation Z prefer medical providers who send appointment reminders via email or text message. This is obviously a desirable feature, so invest in scheduling software to improve the patient experience. Modernizing your scheduling system benefits both your patients and your staff. This enhances the patient experience, resulting in more business for your practice. The future of appointment booking is online scheduling. Maintain your competitiveness by upgrading your scheduling process.

Conclusion

An appointment system for a clinic will assist patients in scheduling time to be seen by a health care professional. A typical patient journey flow using a clinic appointment system is as follows: The patient visits the online booking webpage, WhatsApp chat, text message chat, etc., and confirms their details after selecting the time, service type, and preferred branch. They receive scheduling confirmation for their reservation and begin receiving regular notifications or appointment reminders for details such as time, what to bring, and so on. As the appointment date approaches, they receive more appointment notifications and reminders, and they are informed of how-to check-in once on the premises.