Virtual Practice Tour With 360° Photos (Google Business View)

A virtual practice tour with high-resolution 360° photos makes it easier for patients to go into a healthcare practice they just found out. This is because the inhibition threshold is significantly reduced. The patient does not enter “new territory” but “familiar” areas right from the first time he or she visits your practice. There are a lot of uses for this new photography method. If you have presentable practice/clinic rooms, you should try this new way of photographing your clinic.

Unfortunately, people can not let their own photographers take a 360-view, because Google Business View only offers this service in collaboration with Google-certified photographers. Fortunately, their fees are based on guidelines from Google and are therefore very affordable. This is because of Google’s wish to have unique and high-quality content built for the upcoming VR generation this year. It’s a standard photo shoot in your practice/clinic rooms. Then the images (post-processed according to Google guidelines) will be integrated into Google My Business (or Google+ and Google Maps) and on your practice’s website. The interested patients can then virtually go on a discovery tour in your practice.

 

There is no evidence that the integration of Google Business View and the 360° recordings are accompanied by a direct improvement of your website ranking. However, it is certain that an indirect ranking improvement is achieved. The reason for this is the clearly measurable increase in the visit duration of the practice website.

 

Our main focus here is not improving the website ranking – but to get you a significant improvement in conversion. This means that a much higher proportion of patients that visiting your website make an appointment. That’s why 360-degree shots with Google Business View (virtual practice tour) are a good tool for healthcare practice marketing and patient acquisition.

According to an agreed schedule, a specially certified photographer from Google will come to your practice/clinic for the 360 ° shots (Google Business View). They will pick out the rooms with the best panorama points. A panoramic point is simply the point where the camera tripod is placed for a single 360° shot of the entire room.

 

IMPORTANT POINTS TO NOTE:

• The practice/clinic should be cleaned and tidy. Dust, lint and dusty surfaces give a poor impression.
• A fresh bunch of flowers and healthy green plants (if available) not only provide a healthy, organic look but also have a friendly effect that can help with conversions, later.
• The brightest possible room looks more aesthetic than the dark corners of your clinic. In particular, areas with broken windows or shabby spots should definitely be avoided.
• No humans are shown in the recordings. Not even the practice owner. The reason is data protection. Also, if you want to look the same on all panorama points, you would have to stay in one spot with the same expression for a very long time, the way they did in 14th-century portrait paintings.

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE 360° PHOTO SHOOT:

• Depending on the size of your clinic, the photo shoot usually takes about 1-2 hours
• Post-processing of the photos is done directly by Google engineers for best results
• The method used is to stitch together photos of the entire virtual practice tour into a single 360-shot
• You get complimentary integration of your virtual tour on your Google Maps listing (a Google MyBusiness account is necessary for this)
• Some regular photos of your premises are also taken and uploaded to your Google listing

Of course, not all your rooms need to be photographed, but mainly the entrance area, the reception, and at least one treatment room are good to go for and are recommended by Google. The photos will maintain a certain quality and there has to be a fixed distance between the photos. In addition, there must always be a direct visual connection between two photo points.

Why does Google recommend a 360-view? Your patient should get the ideal insight directly from your photos and should be able to orient themselves optimally even before they get there. There are also some simple guidelines that you will get from us during your photo shoot.

Tip: The post-processing of images, the stitching of photos into a 360° tour is included in Google’s Business View offer.