Open the services page of almost any Nigerian clinic and you will find a list. Ultrasound. ECG. Full blood count. Antenatal care. Each one a heading, sometimes a sentence of description, then the next.
Now think about what your front desk is actually asked on the phone. Almost none of it is "do you do ultrasound". It is:
- Do I need to fast, and for how long
- Should I come with a referral letter
- Can I eat before the test
- Do I need a full bladder
- How long will I be there
- When do I get the result, and how
- Do you accept my HMO
Every one of those is answerable in writing, once, permanently. Most practices answer them individually, by phone, several times a day, forever.
What this actually costs you
The obvious cost is staff time. The less obvious cost is the patient who did not phone at all, could not find the answer, and went elsewhere rather than risk turning up wrong. And the third cost is the appointment wasted because someone ate breakfast before a fasting test, which is a slot lost and a patient who has to come back.
The shape that works
For each service you offer, answer five things in plain language:
- What it is, in one sentence a non-clinician understands.
- What to bring. Referral letter, previous results, HMO card, ID.
- How to prepare. Fasting, hydration, medication to pause or continue, clothing.
- How long it takes, including the wait, not just the procedure.
- How results are returned, and to whom.
That is five short answers per service. For a lab offering twenty tests it is a solid afternoon of work, and then it is done.
Write it the way you would say it
The temptation is to write this in clinical register. Resist it. "Nil per os for eight hours prior" is correct and useless. "Do not eat or drink anything except water for eight hours before your appointment. If your appointment is at 9am, stop eating at 1am" is what a patient can actually follow.
The second version also removes the follow-up question, which is the whole point.
A note on pricing
Practices are often reluctant to publish prices, usually because of HMO variation and the fear of being compared. That is a legitimate business decision, but silence has a cost: patients assume the worst, and the ones who would have paid never call.
A workable middle position is to publish a range, or a starting figure, with a clear note that HMO cover changes what a patient personally pays and that the front desk will confirm. That answers enough of the question to keep the patient engaged without committing you to a number you cannot honour.
If your services page is currently a list of headings, this is the highest-value content work available to you, and it needs no designer.