Sara is a student studying at NTU in Singapore. She has always been healthy until one day she had a sudden toothache at the right side of her teeth. She had to take some pain killers, but they did not work for long. For convenience, Sara went to the NTU medical centre to see the dentist. After a whole morning’s X-Ray check and examination, the doctor told Sara that one of her teeth was decayed and it was causing the pain. She was advised to take root canal therapy, but unfortunately the medical centre could not perform the procedure. The doctor said their centre didn’t have the equipment to do the therapy but he would do a referral and introduce Sara a dentist in Orchard Road.
So Sara went back home with the new doctor’s contact number. She was thinking about going to Orchard for the therapy but she wondered in the heart ‘Does this hospital have great equipment?” “Is the doctor really a very good one to conduct root canal therapy?” Then Sara opened the computer and typed in ‘root canal therapy in Singapore’ in Google search engine. The results indicated that National University Hospital was actually pretty good. Of course Sara went to NUH’s website and took a look.
The moment Sara opened NUH’s website, she was impressed by the YouTube video played on its home page. The rolling playing video captured what the wards look like and what latest medical equipments the hospital has brought in. The video makes the environment of NUH transparent to the public, especially to those patients who care about comfortable living conditions. Even without going to the hospital in person, potential patients can have a visualised understanding about how good the hospital is in terms of advanced technology and therapy environment. Sara was very satisfied with the root canal therapy equipments NUH had.
But she still doubted if the doctors in this hospital were good or not; she wanted to know other patients’ experiences who went through same therapy in NUH. She went on to the ‘Medical & Surgical Conditions’ section under ‘Patients & Visitors’ column. Under that, she clicked on the ‘Dental Decay’. She was not surprised to find all the information about dental decay such as signs and symptoms, causes about the condition, diagnosis/treatment options as well as the post operation care. What surprised her is that on the page, there was an option called ‘Forum for patients’. She followed the link and opened the forum. There were hundreds of posts by previous patients and potential patients who were interested in NUH. They communicated with each other. The professional physicians who worked in NUH take initiatives to answer patients’ queries on that forum as well. Sara was sure NUH was the right hospital to go for her tooth therapy, as most patients who had their teeth treated in NUH said the experience was very good.
After deciding on NUH, Sara was troubled by another question, “Which doctor to choose?” She then went to look up all the doctors in the doctors’ directory. Another big surprise! All the doctors were listed with a grading system, which means good doctors would be rated with high marks while not so good doctors would be rated with lower marks. Besides the rating system, there were comments with basic information about each doctor. With careful checking on the comments, Sara finally chose a doctor named Prof Chew Chong Lin.
With all preparation done, Sara decided to make an appointment online since she knew it would be difficult to see a doctor without an appointment in Singapore. After that, she needed to know how to get to NUH from her house. Sara went to the “Getting to NUH” section. Wow! Sara thought. After typing in the address of your residence, the page will give you the detailed information on how to arrive NUH by drive, by bus and by MRT. It was so easy and Sara finished everything within five minutes.
How wonderful the web page is! The YouTube video helps your customers to know your organisation better and more easily; the discussion forum gives your customers a chance to talk to the professions working in your organisation and your previous customers; the recommendation system helps your potential customers to make a better choice while it is also an incentive to make your current employees to work better. During the whole process, you show the care for your customers and make them feel they are valued. In return, more customers will be attracted from your competitors.