Here’s an interesting fact: As per a survey, almost half of the healthcare experts in the US spent nearly 10 hours a week scheduling appointments.
This has been a significant factor in why online healthcare marketplaces are rising, especially in the last few years. The onset of the pandemic has also made the experience of healthcare consultation more convenient. As a result, online appointments through healthcare consultation apps are becoming a new norm. From hospitals to pharmacists to medical experts – everybody’s using it.
Now, to better understand the scale of progression, the global healthcare consulting services market is growing at a CAGR of 11.5%. At this rate, it is expected to reach $41.2 billion by 2026. This is a direct result of the healthcare industry becoming more accessible and real-time in its goal of bridging the gap between patients and doctors – a gap that has been significantly reduced using a doctor appointment app like ZocDoc.
The ongoing shift towards ease in online appointment booking has driven unprecedented demand for healthcare mobile apps from numerous entrepreneurs worldwide.
Dive into this detailed guide on how to build an app like ZocDoc along with all the essential aspects of app development.
Covid-19 has significantly impacted the functioning of various industries, from automobiles, airlines, hotels & restaurants to pharmaceuticals, and healthcare.
Especially, in the healthcare industry, it continues to put pressure to develop a well-coordinated system where all clinical and non-clinical functions operate in an organized manner.
The approach has led many pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, and government bodies to come up with advanced tech solutions that improve workflow.
However, pharma, chemical, and healthcare are some of the only industries that have seen a minimum drop in earnings from the worldwide wrath created by Covid-19.
How come? Well, there was a common thread in all these industries – online consultation!
Today, numerous organizations are leveraging the benefits of healthcare consultants to enhance their budgets (as they don’t rely on creating the best), create better value propositions, and evaluate their businesses for profitable returns. The demand for such services is likely to grow considering the proficiency of healthcare consulting services in providing an end-to-end workflow solution.
Considering the latest trends, organizations that are looking at these changes as opportunities are more likely to regain their footing in the healthcare business than the ones resisting it.
The seamless process of online doctor appointment booking has attracted more traction for mobile app development in the healthcare and fitness categories. This can be better proven by the results of the following survey.
These are arguably the best statistics proving the need for a mobile application for scheduling online appointments. This has prompted acceptance from worldwide investors and stakeholders in the healthcare sector. The result of this trend has significantly helped appointment booking apps like ZocDoc establish a name for themselves.
Let’s take a look at some of the major factors responsible for the growth of the healthcare consultation industry.
One of the crucial steps in your quest to ‘how to build a ZocDoc clone app’ is the determination of key partners involved in the business operations and the revenue streams generated from them.
ZocDoc business model is divided into two segments – patients and doctors.
As per the 2017 survey from Merritt Hawkins, the average wait time for a physician appointment in US metro cities is 24.1 days. The situation worsens in mid-sized metro cities where the average appointment booking time is 32 days.
This is where an app like ZocDoc makes the difference. It significantly minimizes the waiting time for a patient-doctor appointment.
To Providers
Where the healthcare system is dominated by Fee-for-Service (FFS) payment model in the US, online consultation apps like ZocDoc works on Value-Based-Care (VBC). It offers,
Revenue Model
What started as an online service that allows people to book in-person telemedicine appointments, has a post-money valuation of $1-$10 billion as of 2021. This has been achieved with their constant efforts of sending teams to individual doctors’ offices across each state of the US, especially in the early stage. These efforts have made it one of the leading apps for patients to check and book online appointments, along with reducing the patients’ wait time significantly lower than the traditional booking methods.
ZocDoc allows patients to book appointments with a doctor at their convenience. In addition, not only patients can check doctor reviews, but they can also use a custom reminder feature so that they don’t miss their visit.
ZocDoc makes doctors discoverable to patients. It reduces the number of no-show-ups by filling last-minute openings in doctors’ calendars caused by cancellations and shifting schedules.
The fact that ZocDoc is a patient-centric model, the process of booking an appointment on the platform is completely free.
Now, for all the ads running on the platform, doctors are charged based on numerous factors like patient reviews, ratings, practice size, advertising budget, bid rate, et cetera.
A major factor in ZocDoc’s rising popularity is that the platform operates through an online web portal and mobile app. However, that’s not the only thing to learn from this online healthcare consultation giant.
Here are some major takeaways to leverage from ZocDoc.
One of the remarkable reasons why ZocDoc has made a name in the healthcare sector using its innovative solutions is that it efficiently addresses the challenges faced by both its target audiences and works on them.
As mentioned earlier in the blog, ZocDoc significantly reduces the wait times for patients and offers a better alternative to its healthcare providers and physicians. This proficiency not only helps them to register on the platform without giving it a second thought but also offers them added benefits like easy payments, reimbursement schemes, and better visibility, among other things.
Speaking of the early-stage hustle, ZocDoc took the route of an offline registration model for their providers. It took ZocDoc almost a decade before they created a massive network base of doctors and practitioners on their platform. Today, it operates across 2000+ cities in the US.
ZocDoc utilizes some innovative technologies that help it to offer some intuitive features to both patients and providers. To do so, you can choose a reliable healthcare technology partner to build an impactful tech-driven platform.
The process to create a ZocDoc clone app includes all the crucial variables that go into its development. From market analysis and identifying the target audience to setting up the business model to actual app development, the list is long!
Here’s what the entire process looks like.
There can’t be a better start than performing a thorough market analysis for ZocDoc clone app development. This reveals your answers to some of the important questions, including,
These are some inescapable questions that must be answered as it determines the foundation of a ZocDoc clone app.
Tip: An efficient way to analyze market size is to know the number of citizens of various age groups. This is followed by competitors offering services in a similar domain, among other factors.
A revenue-generating monetization plan is a good way to start a consumer and online consultation business. It plays an essential role in determining the design and functionality of an app. Subscription plans, service fees, and third-party advertisement via banners or videos are some of the best ways.
Making a roadmap and finalizing all the essentials for each stage of the entire process sheds load off the mobile app development team. For instance, it’s important to know what type of domain and server would be efficient for your app requirements.
Designing is crucial to figure out the actual layout of the application. It includes visuals, tabs, and various other elements that uplift the aesthetics of an application.
A prototype app comes in handy in getting a glimpse of some functionalities of an application. This helps significantly to analyze and improve the way services are provided to a customer.
For instance, a prototype helps an app developer to know what happens when you click on a specific tab. And most importantly, it is economical and doesn’t cost as much as developing an actual app.
App testing is another crucial segment of ZocDoc clone app development that helps in ensuring its durability. Whether you are planning to launch your ZocDoc app on both iOS and Android operating systems, testing helps to detect bugs and loopholes.
The testing of different stages of app development is filled by the launch stage which includes a smooth functioning of a long list of things. For example, backend and frontend app synchronization, and interface, among other things.
Developing a compelling app is one thing, but getting it to rank among other competitors is different. This can be effected using keyword optimization, backlinks, meta tags, et cetera. In addition, a separate section of customer reviews and a total number of downloads works best to improve app SEO.
There are different variants of the ZocDoc app already available to customers. While some of them are succeeding, others are striving for recognition from their potential user base. Well, this is achievable using blogging, video promotion, social media marketing, reaching out to industry influencers, and quora threads among various marketing techniques.
Let us go through the most important key aspects that are helpful to attract users with ZocDoc clone app development features.
A patient panel consists of all the features that make their patients’ quest for online appointment booking a hassle-free experience.
Real-Time Audio/Video chat: A patient gets the entire consultation summary delivered on the app after an audio or video consultation with the doctor.
Schedule Your Booking: Schedule a booking with a doctor in a few clicks.
Advance Search: Get only relevant results from different assortments of consultation providers using the advanced search feature.
Store Medical History: Patients can easily create and store their medical history records on the app.
Similarly, doctors can efficiently make their slots available using the following features.
Manage Availability: Doctors can add and update booking details like timing, pricing, expertise, etcetera.
Push Notifications, Email, and SMS: Patients can get quick updates with the help of push notifications, emails, and SMSs from doctors.
Seamless Payment Gateways: An online consultation app not only enables healthcare workers to set consultation fees on their terms but also lets them get instant payment via multiple payment gateways.
As the owner of the online consultation app, you get access to analyze the application’s overall performance efficiently.
Service Provider Management: You also get to either accept or reject registrations from various on-demand healthcare providers on your healthcare consultation app.
Secured Video Calls: As part of an important security feature, the entire conversation between the patient and consultants is securely encrypted and stored.
Promotions & Referrals: Set up and manage promotional codes and referral campaigns to enhance business on the ZocDoc clone script platform.
Track Appointments: View healthcare appointments being placed by clients in real-time.
Accounting: The earnings of all the healthcare professionals registered on the app can easily be tracked using a financial accounting system.
The total cost to build a doctor appointment app ranges between $40,000 and $50,000. However, in recent times, there has been increased integration of AI in all app solutions, irrespective of the industry. And if you choose to implement it in your app, the overall cost may rise from $100,000 to $150,000.
Now, instead of putting all your money into the development costs of a doctor appointment booking app, how about starting with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)? It’s that version of a product with just enough features to make it launch. Based on the feedback given by early customers subsequent changes are made.
Track how these features are being accepted in the market, and then expand to adding other healthcare app features.
Let’s take a look at some of the factors that influence the cost of developing an online consultation app like ZocDoc.
Hence, the total cost to create a telemedicine app lies between $50,000 and $130,000.
Features And Functionalities
The features you choose to make the major part of hospital application development costs. Also, as a rule of thumb, the more intriguing features & functionalities you choose to integrate your application with, the higher will be the cost of development.
It would be best if you focus only on the core features in the initial version of the app. So, as you integrate more nuanced features into the app, the overall development costs gradually go up as well.
Categories Of Apps
Different categories of healthcare consultation apps require different features that make it easy for doctors and patients to use the app efficiently. This is followed by app distinction on various grounds like demographics, functionality, etcetera. This directly influences the overall app development costs.
User Interface And Design
User Experience/User Interface is a crucial part of the success of your hospital applications. However, developing a simple yet unique and intriguing UI/UX app design is expensive as it involves various components like push notifications, icons, and customization. This helps to engage your targeted users efficiently.
Development Time
The time taken by app developers to build a hospital app adds to the total cost of app development. In addition, the total cost also depends on the number of developers working on the project. If you want the app developed in less time, you will need more app developers to integrate all the complex features. This, in return, increases the overall cost.
Choice Of App Development Company
An experienced app development company with a team of skilled resources that offers innovative solutions to how you want to develop your ZocDoc clone app will also add to your development costs. Even though this option may cost more, the quality of your app is ensured.
An app is the crown jewel for any type of business endeavor. People tend to, either, like or dislike an app based on how it looks and feels. In addition to the ever-increasing competition in this bankable industry leaves a slim margin for failure.
Hence, it is highly recommended to use a reliable app development team that delivers a competitive solution for an app.
Speaking of a trustworthy with years of experience in app development, you have got Code Brew!
Our expert development team has not only worked on online consultation apps but has successfully created apps for various industries. It includes eCommerce, education, healthcare, real estate, and more.
Check out our portfolio to get a glimpse of our prowess in app development.
Technology is changing and so does people’s need for sophistication in everything. Considering this ongoing shift in the way people want to get served, here are some exclusive features Code Brew offers in a ZocDoc clone app, in addition to all the features mentioned earlier.
Chat Translator
In a country like the United States which inhabits people from all over the world, an advanced chat translator feature is a valuable feature to entertain. It allows patients to select the language they are most comfortable in and schedule an appointment seamlessly.
App Personalization
An app personalization feature serves greatly in the way the admin uses its doctor consultation app to target a specific audience. This feature allows the admin to customize its application settings to run only in a specific region.
Image Moderation Option
As part of the consultation process, patients often submit images that are a bit inappropriate. However, to tackle such cases, a feature like image moderation not only filters such images from getting uploaded on the app but also boosts the credibility of the app.
Voice Messaging Solution
Incorporating a voice messaging feature in a ZocDoc clone app allows patients on the doctor appointment booking platform to have instant communication.
Choosing the right tech stack is crucial for app performance. It influences the app’s robustness and scalability. In addition, the requirement for selecting a tech stack depends on the complexity of the ZocDoc-like app and the features you are aiming for!
Here’s a list of basic tech stacks you will need to build a consultation app like ZocDoc.
Online healthcare consultation apps have done a phenomenal job of giving an unprecedented boost to the healthcare domain. From bookings, and cancellations, to online reminders, and follow-ups, everything is done without the hassle of manually scheduling appointments. As a result, the healthcare sector is gaining huge traction from different stakeholders worldwide.
If you also aim to make the most of this rising industry, you will need an intriguing app like ZocDoc.
And fret not, you don’t need to code the app yourself. Instead, you can rely on app development experts of Code Brew.
Get in contact with us today to get a free demo!
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