Is your practice fielding what feels like endless calls to set up appointments? Are you taking multiple calls for the same appointment, starting the day with a voicemail box full of requests that may or may not turn into real bookings, and struggling to fill last-minute slots?
If that sounds familiar, you need online booking. The ability to self-schedule around the clock is more convenient for patients, but it’s no longer just a perk. It’s becoming a requirement for a successful practice. Here’s why after-hours online booking matters, and how to offer it.
Patients are looking for you right now
Show up where millions of patients search, compare, and book care.
It simplifies healthcare for patients
Patients already find healthcare confusing, so anything that makes it simpler and more convenient is a real draw. For anyone working a nine-to-five, finding time to call and book during office hours is genuinely hard.
The data backs this up. On Zocdoc, a substantial share of patient demand happens outside normal business hours, with roughly half of appointments booked after hours between 5 p.m. and 9 a.m., when doctors’ offices are typically closed. Offering a way to book after hours lets patients schedule on their own time instead of scrambling to reach you during the workday.
Patients want to book on their own time
Patients increasingly expect to manage their care on their own time. 89% of patients said the ability to schedule appointments at any time via online or mobile tools is important to them, according to Experian Health’s State of Patient Access 2024 survey.
For practices still relying primarily on phone-based scheduling, this represents a clear opportunity: giving patients self-service options isn’t just a convenience add-on; it’s aligning with what the vast majority of patients already say they want.
It captures last-minute and after-hours demand
After-hours booking is especially valuable because it lets patients get last-minute care. If someone decides at night that they need to be seen, they want to book on the spot. If they can hit “book” before bed, that’s one less thing standing between them and your exam room.
That demand is real: nearly a third of survey respondents reported skipping a medical visit because it was too hard to get a last-minute appointment. A survey by a medical software company found that about one in four appointments booked online were for same-day or next-day slots. Every one of those is a slot that might otherwise have gone empty.
It helps your practice run more efficiently
Online booking boosts productivity right away. It hands some of your scheduling work to the booking platform, which frees your front desk for other tasks. It also fills your calendar with appointments that would otherwise slip away, making each day more profitable. You expand your new-patient pool and fill last-minute openings at the same time.
How to offer after-hours booking
Some practices try to solve this with manual fixes, like staffing the phones around the clock, but the simplest approach is a service that handles it automatically. Join Zocdoc to let patients see your real availability and book directly, day or night, while your calendar and records update on their own.
The bottom line
Online booking isn’t a passing trend, and after-hours access isn’t a luxury add-on. Patients increasingly expect to book care the same way they order dinner or stream a show: instantly, on their own time. Practices that make that possible capture demand their competitors are turning away every night and weekend. If you want your share of those appointments, the time to offer after-hours online booking is now.
Want more Zocdoc insight into patient behavior? Download the “Think Like a Patient” white paper.
Is your practice easy to find and simple to book?
Join Zocdoc to turn patient interest into booked appointments.