I like fantasies as much as anyone else, but when I walk into a house I think it should be real. You know, it should have walls and things like that. That’s not what I found when I arrived at a recently renovated AirBnB bungalow. He had spent hours searching the listings to find the perfect place.
The property looked quaint and it even had its own secure parking garage, which was a real selling point for the location. Instead, what I found when I arrived reminds me a lot of what is wrong with most medical website designs. When I stopped, everything looked as it should – the building matched the photos and the garage looked normal … from the outside. This is what it looked like when I drove my rental car to the garage.
There was nothing in the garage, it was a facade without substance. It was like walking to a Ferrari and opening the hood to find no engine. What a disappointment! Garages are more than just a parking spot; They have one function: to keep your car safe. However, this garage wasn’t just unlocked, there were loose boards hanging from the ceiling and building materials lying around.
What does this have to do with website design? Take a look at your website data. Your website can be absolutely beautiful with a sleek design, but if it’s not generating business for you, it’s completely useless, just a fluff with no substance at all. Worse yet, if you don’t fulfill three basic functions, you may be losing patients.
Websites are more than just pretty design
Your website design should be more than just a pretty image. Each element should be designed to be compelling and persuasive and lead to the action you want patients to take. You need to focus on your patient’s needs and, most important of all, you need to increase business. Ask yourself, how many new patients has my website generated this month?
If your website isn’t generating ten to fifteen new patients a month, it’s just a shell. Pretty, perhaps, on the outside, but useless for attracting new patients or generating phone calls and appointments. A good medical website design should grab the patient’s attention, start building trust, and encourage them to meet you in person. We have over 10 years of experience designing, testing and building medical websites that do just these things, and this is what we have found.
Research reveals: it’s all about trust
One of the key findings of a recent Yext report was that more than three-quarters of patients look to individual providers when looking for a doctor. They are not looking for hospitals or health facilities; They want to know the individual doctor they will be treating with and they want to know that they can trust this person with their health and well-being. Our medical websites go beyond listing personnel and specialties. Our web designs focus on the main concerns of patients: which doctor will I go to and can I trust them with my health?
What could that mean for your practice? “Our first quarter 2018 gross revenue was up 500%, compared to a year ago,” says Lori Klein Gardner, Au.D., of Hear Virginia. “Our first quarter net income has tripled, our new appointments have almost doubled per month.” That’s the power of a customer-centric website. Launch a radically more effective website in just a few weeks.
Build your credibility
In a Weatherby Healthcare report, patients rated a doctor’s knowledge and skills above all else when deciding which doctor to go to. But the way they determine knowledge is often based on reviews and other online sources. More than half of patients research doctors before scheduling an appointment, and three out of four patients consider checkups important before deciding which doctor to visit. In fact, reviews were just as important to patients as office location.
This trend follows basic consumer behavior: 91% of consumers read reviews before buying something, and 84% of them will trust reviews as much as advice from a friend. Many practices know that reviews are important, but have a hard time getting a steady stream of good reviews. Proofing tools can not only simplify this process, they can also yield dramatically better results.
Rather than trying to get patients to submit reviews directly to your site, review software such as Online Review Builder ™ lures patients where they prefer to leave reviews on social media. The Online Review Builder then funnels those reviews to the practice site where new patients are likely to see them. “Our practice has grown 21% in the last year and I attribute 99% of our growth to our Online Review Builder ™ and our 46 positive reviews from Google.” says Gena Marino, Fairfax Hearing Center, VA.
Turn interest into a date
Once you’ve attracted patients and gained trust and credibility, your website design should encourage them to make an appointment. This last crucial step is actually a complete science unto itself. Increasing conversions on a site requires a clear hierarchy of information and customer paths that lead to strong calls to action.
At the end of the day, what you want clients to do is call to make an appointment. “We’re getting 5 times more leads from the web, worth $ 20,000 a month to our practice,” says Sean Pendel, Audiology Associates and Hearing Aids Today of Nashville, TN. Does your website do that? Audit your website today.