Millions of people visit Zocdoc each month (via the website or our free app) to schedule care with nearly 100,000 providers across all 50 states and every specialty. Patients tell us minute by minute exactly what they’re looking for with their clicks. This gives us unique insight into what patients want, which providers can leverage to attract and retain new patients.
By analyzing patients’ 2023 booking data, we identified the key attributes driving the highest number of bookings. Providers who optimized their digital presence saw the greatest success in attracting new, loyal patients.
Here are 4 easy ways to elevate your online presence:
1. Show off your space
A picture is worth a thousand words, but it’s also worth significantly more bookings. According to the data, providers with a higher number of office photos receive more bookings on average.
Relative to providers with no office photos, those with 1 to 3 office photos receive 2.8x as many bookings on average; providers with 4 or more receive 4.8x as many bookings.
2. Revel in your reviews
We all know the power of a good review, whether it’s for a new restaurant, tech product, or you guessed it, seeing a new doctor. Providers with more reviews tend to receive more bookings on average.
Relative to providers with 1 to 9 reviews, providers with 50 to 99 reviews get 11.2x the bookings.
With Zocdoc, only patients who have seen providers can leave reviews. This generates a higher volume of verified, trustworthy reviews.
3. List your affiliation status (if applicable)
While patients care about what practice they visit, they’re also looking for information that signals trust, which includes hospital affiliation status. Simply listing this info on your profile directly translates to more bookings.
Looking at bookings per provider, across all specialties, providers who have hospital affiliation on their profiles receive more bookings, on average, than doctors that do not. Allergists, Pediatric Subspecialty and Orthopedic Surgeons with hospital affiliation were the most advantaged, getting 2.1 to 2.2x more bookings on average than non affiliated providers.
4. Speak up (in another language if possible!)
Communicating with patients in their native language makes them feel more comfortable and yields more bookings. However, it can often be difficult to find this information on provider sites, which is why platforms like Zocdoc make it easy to search by language. Providers who speak more than one language receive more bookings than those that only speak one. Providers who speak 3 or more languages get 3x as many bookings as those who only speak one.
Patients are discerning. In 2023, they looked at an average of 26 provider options before booking. With a healthy profile that includes several photos, hospital affiliation, plenty of reviews and languages spoken, you’re primed for patient acquisition.
Stand out from the digital crowd and reach more patients by listing your practice on Zocdoc today. Consult with an enterprise sales representative to learn more about how Zocdoc can grow your business and discover more data-driven insights in The Provider’s Guide to Patient Preferences.