The healthcare sector is probably guiltier than most for having unengaging communications with audiences. We only have to look to the amount of missed medical appointments as evidence of this.
According to the NHS around 12 million GP appointments are missed each year, with a further 6.9 million hospital appointments. The total cost of this – close to £1 billion. Unengaging or easily missed appointment reminders have to take a large portion of the blame for this. Sending paper appointment reminders for instance, have a much lower open rate than digital channels like SMS (75% vs 95% Source). So what’s the solution?
Going digital with SMS Landing Pages
The first thing to consider is that providing a digital, mobile-focused way to have conversations with patients is a must. Patients can then receive correspondence in the place they’re already having their conversations – their mobile phone. This is more convenient for them, and also increases the likelihood that the message will be received and read, which in turn reduces the chances of the appointment being missed. There are also significant cost savings to consider for the healthcare provider with the cost to send 50,000 communications through post being around £25k compared with just under £2k for a digital channel like SMS.
The second factor to consider is that modern service consumers now demand more visually and functionality-rich communications. That’s where a channel like SMS Landing Pages can help.
An SMS Landing Page is a web page designed exclusively for use on a mobile device, delivered to patients by sending an SMS text message with an integrated link. They can include images, have no limits on text, and feature call to action buttons.
So what are the ways that healthcare providers can use SMS Landing Pages?
SMS Landing Pages allow for the inclusion of some really handy tools for patients. These include “Save to Calendar” functionality, which adds medical appointments to patients mobile devices automatically, and also interactive map tools which allow appointment locations to be found easily. Using these tools places more emphasis on reducing the number of patient no-shows.
Example applications of SMS Landing Pages include:
- Appointment reminders with links to booking/re-booking platforms
Deliver visually rich appointment reminders including buttons which when pressed will take the patient to a platform where they can conveniently self-serve and re-arrange their appointment - Maps to healthcare provider location
Include an interactive map to where your appointment is taking place to reduce the chance of a patient no-show - Deliver test results
Provide illustrations and images which help patients understand their situation and link to secure environments where identity can be validated before viewing test results - Reminders for patients to take medicine
If you need to provide detailed instructions on how patients should be administering medicines and treatments, send them a visually rich guide at the precise time that they need to read it - Supply prescriptions
Provide richer prescriptions which are more accessible to all demographics.
What are the next steps?
We’ve worked with lots of different healthcare providers, ranging from local physiotherapists to large regional hospitals, in an effort to have better, more engaging conversations with patients.
Try SMS Landing Pages out for free to see how quickly you could add this powerful channel to your communication plans – or email our team at [email protected] if you’d like to organise a demo.
