How to manage bookings online as a small medical center

by Angelina Chigrinetc

Angelina is an AI and Backend software engineer with 7 years of experience in healthcare and a Master's in Healthcare Management (SDA Bocconi).

👩🏽‍⚕ If you are a new health or wellness practitioner and are tired of managing your appointment bookings 📋 by phone or over messages, I got you!

Here are 5 simple ways you can start taking bookings online 🌐: all of these take from a few minutes to a few hours to set up, don’t require any programming, don’t break the bank, and are perfect for medical and beauty solo-preneurs and small clinics.

1. Leverage your website

Check if you website offers a way to take bookings. 

Many website builders have this feature, including the ability for your clients to pre-pay for their appointments, reschedule and cancel online and receive email reminders. 

If your website platform allows you to take in bookings, this is by far the most convenient route for you. 

And if you still don’t have a website - why don’t you? It takes just a couple of hours to set up a simple website on a website builder. Even though I’m a professional software engineer and don't mind writing JavaScript at all, I love using the WIX website builder (not sponsored): it’s feature-rich, user-friendly and customizable 😍

2. Calendly

Just add a Calendly link to your Instagram bio (or wherever else you find patients) and have them book on Calendly. 

It’s free for one appointment type, you get all bookings synced to your calendar, and your clients get email reminders.

3. Booking software

You could go the appointment-software-for-doctors route. 

Each country has its own providers: here in Europe, Doctolib is the biggest player, while the US has more alternatives (e.g. ZocDoc). These usually come with monthly subscriptions, and pricing varies across providers, so check it out before committing.

4. Facebook Appointments

Did you know that Facebook has an Appointments feature that let’s you take bookings? 

What DOESN’T Meta offer, really? To check it out, go to ➡️ business.facebook.com ➡️ all tools ➡️ Appointments. Once set up with your working hours, you can feature a link on your Instagram for clients to send their booking requests.

5. Custom solution

If you want more freedom, you could go the custom route. 

Managing your own database of appointments allows you to see which of your patients hasn’t come in in a while and send them a custom offer before they churn, perform all sorts of neat analytics on purchasing behavior, and use any interface for taking these appointments, from an in-messenger AI assistant to an interactive widget on your site. Just to be clear, you can introduce a semi-custom solution by combining one of the tools above with your custom code.

So, see how easy it is to take bookings online? You truly don’t have to waste your time on managing these yourself manually. You have 5 whole excuses not too. 

And if you still don’t know where to begin, Lazy Silicon has got your back: just reach out here. 😇