As a health or medical clinic, your website is one of your greatest assets and marketing tools. Regardless of any money or time that you spend on ads – whether that’s through social media, Google search, billboards, pamphlets, networking or word of mouth, they all lead your potential new patient back to your website. And if your website doesn’t tell them the information they need to know, in a simple and easy way? Then they’ll find a service provider who will, and who can answer all of their questions without having to pick up the phone.

So what are five must-haves for your website that you should check right now? Let’s get started.

1. Information about late nights, weekends and special hours in the banner, or clear on the homepage

Regardless of whether you’re a parent with school-aged children or you go to work every day, finding appointments outside of work hours, school hours, and after-school sports hours can be a struggle – especially when you need to make recurring appointments like with a physio. This is where making it clear what your additional hours are – if you have any – can instantly set you apart and give you a leg-up in terms of being the first choice for an appointment booking. 

A study looking at whether patients of cardiac and respiratory clinics would prefer ‘out of hours’ clinics compared to the regular 9am-5pm hours found that 62.5% wanted an appointment either out of hours or on the weekend. 

2. Free onsite parking

Free onsite parking is another “low hanging fruit” benefit, meaning it is a very clear and practical benefit that you already offer and pay for – so it only adds value to your business to make it explicitly clear. Knowing there is parking available and that it is free can make the visualisation that a prospective patient has about visiting your business simple and stress-free, as opposed to knowing they’ll have to find parking on surrounding streets which may be paid during certain hours. 

In 2020, the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the patients of clinics that had paid or no parking available were more likely to choose telemedicine consultations rather than in-person consultations. While this data did not extend to evaluating whether they’d visit a new clinic based on parking parameters, it does provide some input into patient behaviour and preferences, particularly where telehealth is unavailable, like for musculoskeletal health professions like osteopaths, physiotherapists and podiatrists.

3. Authoritative practitioner bios

While some patients may call a clinic to book in under the guidance of reception staff, those who are experienced in seeing that health profession but are new to your practice will benefit greatly from having more information available about the practitioners at a clinic, including their specialities, experience and areas of interest. A good bio that highlights a practitioner’s authority in an area fulfils one of Cialdini’s “Six principles of influence”, while also instilling confidence even before the appointment has started.

According to medical patient surveys completed in 2022, one of the top complaints by the elderly and the second highest complaint among younger patients when searching for a new doctor was a lack of information about the provider. Additionally, when an audiology clinic enabled patients to choose and book a specific practitioner online as opposed to being assigned to practitioners based on availability at an out-clinic, the ‘choose and book’ patients had a significantly better rate of attendance.

4. Empathy around the difference between ‘common’ and ‘normal’

As practitioners that see similar painful conditions or frustrating problems day in and day out, it’s easy to make it feel like just another problem that needs to be solved, and that it’s a fairly normal problem or pain to have – and to have the language we write on our website reflect that. To patients, however, even if you’ve already seen six cases of heel pain that morning, they need to feel like you understand their very unique pain or problem and empathise with them. Because to them, their pain is far from a common or normal thing – it is absolutely not normal, it’s causing them pain and distress, they may be turning down social events or unable to work – and your website content needs to show them that you get it. And you’re on their side. 

As your website is the first impression you make on many, you want this impression to be caring and considerate, not abrupt or dismissive.

5. Fees and payment options

Studies have shown that consumers want to see the prices of products and services on websites. According to experts on website usability, lack of pricing information is a hostile element for the user. Transparency instils trust, gives the health consumer the full picture, and allows them to make the best decision for their financial situation – so they can go into an appointment feeling confident. It also saves both clinic and patient the hassle of a phone call to find out fees, a step which they may or may not take the effort to make. For surgical patients, research has shown that accurate quotes before a procedure yields a higher level of satisfaction compared to those who are not advised of the costs before surgery.

Payment options are also important. This involves whether they are an ACC-registered provider, are a Southern Cross affiliate, have the standard credit/debit card options available, and recently, whether they offer Buy Now Pay Later services like HealthNow. Ensuring patients know all of their payment options is extremely valuable, especially with up to 39% of New Zealanders being shown to avoid visiting their GP when they have a genuine medical need due to the upfront appointment fees. By having options to spread the payment so that the health consumer only pays only a small fraction of the total cost on the day of the appointment (while clinics get paid in full on the day), you make your clinic more accessible to a lot more kiwis.

Want to learn more about HealthNow and how it works? There is no cost to sign up or integrate with HealthNow, and all training and support are completely free with no ongoing subscription or monthly charges. HealthNow also offers a free trial period so you can ensure it’s easy and simple to use, and right for your team. Click here to get started.