As a trained UI/UX Designer, you have to have empathy. You have to consider your customer or user’s position and solve their pain points and barriers to create a seamless and humane experience. When I think of a patient’s experience with a clinic, I put myself in their shoes to consider all the pain points they experience to become a paying customer and the barriers they face to becoming a recurring customer.
Simply providing great service isn’t enough because that can be replicated. What can’t be replicated is the unique experience your patient has when they interact with your clinic. In 2022, Medical Economics released a report showing that 69% of patients would switch providers for a better experience. This report was published in 2022. In 2024, this number will likely increase.
Before we get into the ways of optimising patient experience, let’s quickly familiarise ourselves with the 4 Pillars of patient experience:
We all know the importance of creating an environment that makes one feel good, comfortable, and ready to flourish. For healthcare and wellness professionals, this means ensuring a clean clinic, a uniformed staff, and friendly, engaging social media posts that create warmth, care, and professionalism brand around your clinic.
Every paying customer consciously expects their money’s worth and more. They have the right to. As the owner of your clinic, your services’ standard must be premium. Don’t worry, technology helps here.
This is all about human interaction. This is all you. Care about your patients' overall well-being—care about their mental health, fitness, family, and your clinic’s services. Caring about them builds a long-lasting and positive experience.
Offer discount opportunities often to your patients and provide valuable info and content online that resonate with your local community.
How Can You Optimise Your Patient’s Experience for Your Clinic? Let’s Look at These 5 Ways
1. Your Clinic’s Website
This is your clinic’s online home and the total digital representation of your clinic. Your patient should easily and seamlessly have a smooth experience when using your website or patient portal. Limit the number of steps required to complete an action as much as possible, such as scheduling an appointment or making a referral.
2. Creating A Valuable Online Presence (AI Automation)
Consistently posting content online is a necessity to thrive and create a strong intangible asset value for both you and your business. Providing consistently valuable content that evokes reactions such as "OMG," "Interesting!," and "WOW" will make your content engaging and shareable. A number of AI tools can help you efficiently with your daily postings, from text to video content.
3. You and Your Team
This ties back to one of the four pillars of patient experience: care. I won’t dwell much on this as I believe you care about your patients; if not, you wouldn’t have gotten this far. All I will say is nothing beats friendly human interaction - go the extra mile.
4. Integrate Video Appointments
Saving time is important for both you and your patients. You are experienced enough to know when a patient’s appointment can be done through a video call. This benefits both you and your patients, as they get to experience your services both in person and via video call. This shift in experience can strongly build loyalty.
5. Online AI Chatbot
Let’s imagine a patient or a new patient decides to call your clinic. What are the chances they will be put on hold for more than 15 minutes? If the chances are high, consider integrating an AI chatbot on your website to engage and gather the information needed to diagnose the potential patient before contacting them or have sufficient information before final consulting to determine their diagnosis. This scenario and more are reasons to integrate an AI chatbot as it helps both you and your patient’s experience.
Conclusion on Patient Experience
Optimising patient experience is about more than just great service—it's about creating a memorable and positive journey for your patients. By leveraging technology, especially AI automation, you can enhance efficiency, provide personalised care, and ensure your patients feel valued every step of the way. At 733Designs, we're here to help you implement these strategies seamlessly, so you can focus on what you do best: caring for your patients. Let’s work together to create a patient experience that sets your clinic apart.