How to Create a Personable Experience on Your Healthcare Website

To foster trust and create a long-lasting relationship with your contacts, it is essential to create a personable experience by providing them with an easy-to-use website, conversational social media posts, sincere content, and other interactive digital channels. A personable approach involves being relatable to your contacts and cultivating a strong emotional bond. 80% of customers say they are more likely to do business with a company if it offers personalized healthcare experiences.

Why is it important to be personable in healthcare?

As a healthcare company, creating a comfortable environment in hospitals and practices is a top priority as it can help gain credibility for future patients. 33% of customers who abandon their services suppliers say it’s due to the lack of a personalized approach. Healthcare can be a very vulnerable business, so your potential patients are looking for a provider they can trust and connect with on an emotional level.

Your website is an extension of your business and is the start of new patients determining which healthcare company to partner with. Patients who booked healthcare appointments ran 3x more searches than those who didn’t. Therefore, your healthcare website and online presence should also reflect the same personable and approachable tone your company is trying to portray in-person. 

Let’s take a look at the various ways to create a personal connection on your healthcare website.

How to provide a personable experience on your healthcare website

Staff directory

Most physician groups are composed of multiple physicians and nurse practitioners over various locations. Create a staff directory on your website that provides a good overview of your physicians on staff, their specialties, and location. Not only will this association offer a personal experience for your users by putting a face to your company, but this feature will provide a seamless experience for your future patients when searching for the right provider. Building this type of relationship with your potential patients before they even book an appointment helps build trust and improve the credibility of your business.

Staff directory best practices

To ensure your staff directory is easy to use and informative, include information like phone number, email, location, and specialty for each staff member, so the information is upfront and easy to locate. 

Your directory should also include a picture and a bio of each staff member to help your potential patients learn more about their future physicians and determine if they’ll be a good fit for their needs. The bios should consist of years of experience, where they got their degree(s), and a physician’s description representing their personality and interests. 

Images

The images on your healthcare website should represent a human and emotional connection. Humans rely on images to visually connect to a product or service, which makes imagery very important to include. According to Bullas, 60% of consumers are more likely to consider or contact a business when a relative image shows up in their search results. 

These photos should be high quality and express the uniqueness of your organization. Stock photography provides a generic representation of your company’s personality rather than your company’s identity. Instead, include natural and real photography to help connect with your future patients. These types of photos will make it easier for your prospective patients to visualize themselves at your practice. 

Rather than focusing on the action or service your company performs, your photography should instead emphasize the outcome your clients will receive after they use your services. For example, in place of a photo of a surgeon working on a patient, which might convey fear or seriousness, instead use an image of a healthy and happy person that makes your patients feel calm and comforted.

Tone

Ensure your website content’s tone and the attitude you use to describe your healthcare company is personable and sincere. Using this tone throughout your website and digital content is a great way to help connect your patients with your company. 76% of consumers will buy from you over your competitors, and 57% will spend more if they feel personally related to your business.

Your blog is a great place to show your company’s personality and start to build a trustworthy relationship with your readers. The majority of potential patients say blogs help them discover new medical practices. Take this time to educate your readers by creating content that’s easy and simple to understand. And use emotional language and personal terms like “you” instead of “the patient” throughout your blogs to help create a more personable connection with the content.

Social media is also a great way to connect your website and blog to a new audience. Social media can be very personal, so sharing educational blogs and relatable images on your social media can help develop your company’s unique tone. 

To create valuable content, be sure to understand the needs and demands of your target audience. Putting yourself in their shoes can allow for a better connection and bridge the gap between the company and the patient. 

Messaging

Your website messaging is crucial for creating a great user experience, building relationships, and increasing brand trust with your patients. Users only spend an average of 5.59 seconds looking at a website’s written content. Therefore, you need to use clear and concise messaging to illustrate your company’s value and services to your patients upfront. 

When navigating your website, your patients should easily understand your services, know where and how to book an appointment, and be able to find the answers to their questions quickly. Don’t use extensive medical or legal jargon to explain your company and services. Instead, use short and concise paragraphs and icons/imagery to help explain. Also, try to include educational videos to put a face to the name and patient success videos so your patients can connect with your business on an emotional level. 

While your website’s goal is to attract new patients, ultimately it should also be a helpful resource for new and returning patients. According to Woo-Ming, keep your business information like hours of operation, contact information, location addresses, and CTAs to schedule an appointment clear and visible on all pages of your website. Be sure to also include an easily accessible frequently asked questions section on your site to help your patients receive the support they need without feeling frustrated or needing to speak to a human representative. 

Personalization

Personalization is the ability to send tailored brand messages to specific prospects utilizing their prospect profiles. 80% of customers are more likely to purchase a product or service from a brand that provides personalized experiences. A personalized touch is essential in creating a connection with your potential patient so that they can see themselves as patients at your practice.

One way to create personalization on your website, even after business hours, is through a chatbot. Chatbots aid the customer experience by never allowing a customer to leave the website due to an unanswered question. Personalizing chatbots to address the customer by name also mimics the communication through a human person. 

Creating a personalized experience can also happen through sending your patients messages. 70% of patients say they will choose medical providers who send emails or text messages when it’s time for preventive or follow-up care. Having that feature to sign up through the website will make it easier for them to receive care after their visit.

Predictive analytics on your website is also another helpful tool for personalization. Predictive analytics provides insights based on algorithms or models that analyze past consumer behavior and predict future behavior. These insights cater content to users, such as blogs that are similar to ones they have read before.

Telehealth

Telehealth has created a way to connect to patients through an online program without in-person interaction. 67% of patients said that using telemedicine services would increase their satisfaction with medical care. 

This interaction opens new doors for healthcare companies to connect with patients and reach a new demographic of people who do not live near their practices or cannot leave their house to receive care.

Partner with Pyxl

Making your healthcare practice feel personable and sincere is very important to building better relationships and trust with your patients. If you need help adding these features to your healthcare website, contact Pyxl! 

Updated: Apr 13, 2022