Why letting your patients book appointments online is vital for your dental practice
Saffron Edge
Jun 4, 2018
4 min read

Studies suggest so…

- 70% of patients prefer to schedule doctor’s appointments online when compared to doing it via call or by any other means.
- 56.4% of respondents are frustrated with waiting on hold when it comes to scheduling appointments by phone.
- 31% of respondents were more likely to choose a competitor if they offered online booking functionality on their website.
The story of Zocdoc
I don’t think there’s a better example than Zocdoc when it comes to explaining the power of letting patients book appointments online. The founder of Zocdoc, Oliver Kharraz, is a forward-thinker himself and predicted this trend shift early (I mean really early. Like, in 2007) and capitalized on it by creating a platform that did just that, book medical appointments online. By using the Zocdoc platform, patients could choose the medical services they want and book appointments online with the available doctors nearby that provide those exact services. The platform reportedly reduced the wait time of booking medical appointments from a staggering 45 days in some cities to just 24 hours, which is amazing if you are looking to get some quick medical attention. The result, more than 6 million patients today use Zocdoc to find doctors and book appointments with them online in the United States alone. Need more convincing about how implementing an online appointment booking functionality on your website will do you only good and no harm. Here are 4 more reasons to go for it right now --
Ease of Access
When you provide an option to your patients to book an appointment with you directly from your website, you reduce a lot of friction. It saves your patients from going through the unnecessary hassle of calling your practice to book an appointment and saves a lot of wait time in the process as well.Moreover, with you providing the online booking facility, your patients will feel like you are dedicated in what you do and care about their wants and needs. Which is great, trust really matters in the dental space. -
At work 24*7
Having an appointment scheduler widget on your website means that you are ready to take in appointments as they come. Your practice will no longer be limited to your front end executive availability in the office to take calls and confirm bookings. -
Reduces no-shows
The traditional appointment scheduling method, that involved calling, took somewhere around 15-20 days to successfully book a treatment. On the other hand, online booking appointments take somewhere around 24 hours (at max) to completely book treatments, which reduces no-shows and lost revenues by a big margin. -
More conversions
Obviously, when there will be an easy option to book appointments on your website, there will be increased conversions as well. All your marketing efforts will bore more fruit if you have an appointment scheduler placed on your website’s homepage. Many practitioners have claimed that placing the scheduler on their website has increased their conversions by as much as 40% and in the dental sphere, 40% is still a lot of long-term business!

Subscribe to our newsletter
Get fresh stories, case studies, and advice from successful
creators and industry experts.