Should Your Medical Practice Offer Online Appointment Booking? Pros and Cons to Consider

In 2019, we live in a world of convenience. Smartphones put so much of the world at our fingertips, and people today are used to being able to handle most of their daily tasks digitally. Some medical practices have appealed to this by allowing patients to schedule appointments online. In the long run, though, will that help or hurt your practice? Before you take that leap or cross it off your list, there are important pros and cons to consider.

Pro: The Benefit of Convenience

The most obvious benefit of online appointment booking is that patients want it. A large number of your patients would prefer the convenience of booking their appointment with a few clicks on your medical practice website rather than making a phone call. The happier your patients are, the more likely they are to stay with your practice.

Con: Your Staff Needs to Keep Up

When patients book all their appointments on the phone, it’s a lot of work for your administrative staff but it’s a straightforward process. There’s one mode of communication your staff needs to keep up with and they can stay focused in one direction. When you add an online appointment booking system to the mix, it can throw off the process. It’s one more program they need to learn and one more place they need to keep an eye on so they can follow up with patients when necessary.

Pro: Appeal to a Larger Age Range of Patients

If you’re trying to build your patient base, you don’t want to limit yourself to specific age groups. Serving all segments of the population will help you build a larger referral network. As you do that, you may notice that younger patients tend to be attracted by technology while middle-aged people are often overly busy balancing households, kids, and careers. As a result, online appointment booking has a particular appeal for both of them.

Con: Potential for Software Problems

We’ve all experienced how helpful technology can be, but we’ve also experienced how problematic it can be when it malfunctions, especially in our role as medical office consultants. When it comes to online appointment booking, computer glitches can lead to overbooking, loss of appointment records, and even a security breach with your patients’ sensitive data. This can cause both short-term and long-term problems from overbooking and a loss of angry patients to serious lawsuits.

Pro: Less Administrative Time

You’ve heard the phrase “time is money,” and it’s certainly true when it comes to your administrative staff. If they spend less time fulfilling day-to-day tasks, they can spend more time on tasks that help your business grow. This is a potential advantage of online appointment booking. If half of your patients are booking their own appointments, it frees up a lot of time for your administrative staff to help your business in other ways. Keep in mind, however, that it’s a gamble. If the booking system you use has technical problems, it can take far more time for your staff to sort out the issue and deal with the scheduling issues that the glitches are causing, so be sure to choose wisely when deciding on your booking system.

Con: Fewer Opportunities to Engage with Patients

It does take time out of your administrative staff’s day when they speak to a patient over the phone to book their appointment. However, that’s not time wasted. Those conversations allow your staff to find out what that patient really needs and to suggest options they may not be aware of. For instance, let’s say you’re operating a medical spa. A patient calls because they think they want Botox® injections. If you let them book an appointment online, they’ll book an appointment for Botox®. If your staff has a discussion with them, though, they may find out that it’s actually volume the patient is looking for, so they’d be a better fit for facial fillers.

Adding online appointment booking to your website is not a small decision. It can have a big impact on your practice in either a positive or negative way depending on how you implement it and how prepared your staff is. The pros and cons above can help you make an informed decision. For more expertise from our staff who has been working with medical practices for 20 years, schedule a meeting with McCauley Marketing Services.