ComScore MobiLens has just come out with their most recent September 2010 Mobile Subscriber Market Share report and it is quite telling. Since June there has been a significant increase in people using their smartphones to browse the web, download applications and to access social networking sites. They reported that over one-third of mobile subscribers now use browsers to find information through their smartphones.
What does this mean for hospital websites? Well I believe it tells us that that if a hospital’s website is not optimized for smartphone browsers you are potentially missing out on new patients as well as hurting your patient satisfaction score. People have come to expect easy access to information on their smartphones, so when your organization does not provide this access you are potentially contributing to an unsatisfying interaction with your organization. Which is bad for business. We have found through the development of client mobile sites and research that most people, when searching for healthcare information, are searching for three specific pieces of information that include physician search, contact information and directions to a hospital’s facilities. Again, if your site is not optimized to highlight those areas on a smartphone you are missing out.
As you plan out your long-term web strategy make sure you include a mobile component in the strategy. If I were a betting man, I would bet that by this time next year we will see over 50% of smartphone users utilizing their mobile browsers to search for information. What is your projection?
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