After conducting tests with pilot sites, we found that "Contact the surgery online" is more effective
The team at Livi actively monitor the analytics* for all the GP practice websites that we manage.
* Analytics is information resulting from the analysis of data and statistics, in this case relating to how a website is used.
In early 2024, we noticed something about the "Get help and advice online" tile on the homepage:
The tile was clicked on by around 5% of visitors to the homepage. Slightly more people were going to the "Contact Us" page instead.
Understanding why
We gathered feedback on this subject from patients. They told us that they thought the phrase "Get help and advice online" referred to text information on a page - i.e. something for them to read, and not a way to contact the surgery.
We asked what a more understandable phrase would be, and were given a number of suggestions.
Testing the hypothesis
We worked with four GP Practices to test the following hypothesis:
Changing the text on the homepage from "Get help and advice online" to "Contact the surgery online" will increase the number of people who contact the surgery online, and decrease phone call volumes.
We made the change to these sites earlier this year. Over the course of a month, we saw the following results:
- A 76% increase in clicks on "Contact the surgery online" compared to "Get help and advice online"
- Around a third fewer patients clicked through to the "Contact Us" page
- The click-through rate to the appointments and prescriptions pages remained stable
- We saw no significant change in the homepage bounce rate, or use of search from the homepage.
This last point suggests that we haven't "lost" any patients - if they're looking for general help, they're still finding it.
Once patients were on the new "Contact the surgery online" page:
- 22% fewer patients left the site without clicking on anything (known as the "bounce" rate)
- There was a two-thirds increase in the number of clicks through to the practice's Online Consultation form or the NHS app.
Conclusion: "Contact the surgery online" is more effective
Overall, the data clearly showed that the change from "Get help and advice online" to "Contact the surgery online" was very effective:
- There was a huge increase in patients choosing to click on the link on the homepage
- Once they clicked through to the page, they engaged with the page and clicked through to the Online Consultation form or the NHS app.