Content
Why curbside queuing?
- Curbside queuing promotes safety for both patients and staff and makes it easy for patients to sign in from their car or the curb.
- Additionally, astute health systems and clinics use it to attract patients by educating them about this process BEFORE they arrive.
- It can reassure patients that they will minimize the time they spend in the lobby and can persuade them to choose your practice over a competitor's.
Best practices
To promote curbside queuing to your patients once they have arrived, we recommend placing a variety of prominent signage in your parking lot and lobby area. Each sign will need to feature a short code and keyword to text so patients can sign in.
- Parking lot signage such as yard signs or a-frames - Keep the text to a minimum and make sure the short code and keyword is large and easy to read.
- Banners to hang on the exterior of the building - Again, keep the text to a minimum and make sure the curbside code and keyword is large and easy to read.
- Front door posters / window clings - Best to use if you don't have a door greeter but you want to prevent patients from walking in before they sign in. You can include more details here including simple step-by-step instructions.
- Postcards and flyers - Usually handed out by a door greeter and/or placed in holder near the door or in the lobby. Because patients can take these with them, we also recommend that they have simple step-by-step instructions and potentially some FAQs related to the curbside service.
- Website messaging - Before patients even arrive, we recommended on your service page and on your online check-in page (if using this service) that you include directions for what patients should do on arrival. You may also include the short code and keyword here so they're prepared ahead of time.
- Social media messaging - Curbside queuing can help you stand out from your competition by letting patients know you have a process in place for their safety and convenience. Consider letting patients know about your new service on your social media accounts.
Some patients, especially older ones, may not have much experience using short codes. To help ensure they understand how to sign in, we recommend including a phone image on your signage showing the short code in place of where they would normally see a 10 digit phone number, with the keyword to text as a text message bubble. Examples below illustrate this.
Additionally, if you have patients arriving from another department on your campus, we recommend placing signage in those departments so patients can sign in when they are walking to your clinic.
FAQs
- Should I tell patients about it on my website? Yes! Not only does it better prepare patients before they arrive, but it can also help persuade patients to choose your practice over a competitor's.
- What about QR codes? Yes these also work well, but we do recommend giving patients the option to either scan a QR code or use the keyword / short code combination instead of one or the other.
- What if we also have appointment-based visit types? We have a number of customers that in addition to walk-in visits also have appointment based visits such as for occ med or lab testing. In this case, it's important to make it very clear on the same curbside signs what you'd like patients with appointments to do - call or come to the front desk, for example.
- Where should I place the signage? At the least, we recommend in the parking lot and at the lobby door.
Examples
Door sign
Outdoor banner
Postcard
Parking sign
Social media (Facebook)
