BEFORE UPDATES
Above is the calendar we used to keep track of everyone's appointments. With frequent use, the papers would rip, names and phone numbers would be illegible, and there would be no way of locating anyone's previously booked appointment without having to search through each page individually.
THE KEY issues:
- Office website was last updated in the early 2000s.
- Appointments could only be booked via phone call or in-person.
- Appointment keeping was done on a paper calendar. All office staff would fight for the calendar as they tried to book in-person and over-the-phone appointments simultaneously.
AFTER
Our office website received a modern update, we moved to an online booking system, our patients now had many ways to access the booking link, and our patients could now receive info via text! A win-win situation for both patients and staff!!
NEW HOME PAGE
Pain point: Home page's UI was outdated and had no navigation features.
Solution: I updated the UI/UX of the website and added a "Book Appointment" button (after I moved all appointments to an online booking system)!
New Online Booking System: SETMORE
Pain points:
(1) Patients either had to book appointments in person or over the phone.
(2) Staff had to share ONE appointment book.
(3) Impossible to find out when a patient booked an appointment if they ever called to check.
Solution: I moved our scheduling to an online appointment booking system.
ABOUT INFO & Pricing
Pain point: Many patients had no way of finding out pricing since it wasn't listed on the old website. Patients would often have to call to ask solely about pricing.
Solution: I clearly listed different prices for each exam on the home page of the website with information about what each exam entail.
FAQs Section
Pain point: There were several questions that patients would ask repeatedly when our staff would answer the phone. Staff would have to spend more time on the phone answering these questions when they could've been productive with other tasks.
Solution: FAQs were posted on the home page so any website visitor would likely have their questions answered and not have to call.
Directions & contact us section
Pain point: Patients often didn't know that our office was inside of a Costco and would frequently ask us for directions. They also often needed our email in order to send us certain information.
Solution: I created a page with our location and contact information so that patients could find us more easily.
QR CODE OUTSIDE
Pain point: After creating the online booking, patients still didn't have a way of accessing the booking link unless we told them in-person or over the phone.
Solution: I created a document that had a scannable QR code which I posted outside of our door. If our office was too busy or closed, patients could scan the QR code with their phone and book themselves an appointment.
BUSINESS CARD STAMP
Pain point: Patients often wanted to book an appointment but they didn't know a time yet. They would take our business card and say that they'd call back later to schedule. This meant that staff would still have to book their appointment for them over the phone, taking them away from other office tasks.
Solution: I bought a custom stamp that had the link to our booking site so that we could stamp the back of our business cards. Patients now had the booking link when they took the card home with them!
WEAVE
Pain point: There were still too many appointment-related voicemails that we needed to get back to each day since the only ways patients could get the booking link were by visiting in-person OR through our office website.
Solution: I signed us up for "Weave", a texting software for landline phone numbers. For any missed voicemail, we could send the caller an automated text with the link to our office website. Here, they could book an appointment, learn about pricing, and have any FAQs answered, which reduced staff labor immensely!
Let's do some math!
- On average, each staff member would work 1.5 hours of overtime each day to catch up on missed voicemails (~40-50 VMs/day) and other tasks that they missed by spending so much time on the phone. There were 2 staff/day, so on average, our staff would jointly work an extra 3 hours each day.
- However, with our employer paying time and a half for overtime hours, this meant that they were paying staff an extra 4.5 hours of pay/day!
- Our office is open 7 days/week, so this is an extra 31.5 hours of pay/week, ~135 hours of pay/month, or over 1,600 hours of pay/year!
IMPACT: After all of these renovations, staff no longer had to stay overtime and would only be at the office for their designated 8 hour shift. This reduced over 1,600 hours of pay/year. With wages calculated into this formula, these improvements saved approximately $40,000 in labor costs last year!