Consumer Buying Behaviour: Why Patients Hesitate Before They Book
If you’re investing in marketing but sitting there scratching your head, wondering why leads are not converting, you are not alone.
Many businesses assume the problem is awareness. Or budget. Or competition.
Sometimes, it is none of those.
It is hesitation.
To understand why people hesitate before buying, we need to look at two things:
- The marketing funnel
- Consumer buying behaviour
When you understand how these work together, marketing becomes far more strategic.
A Simple Story
Recently, I agreed to play pickleball with a friend. One game was going to cost $8.
The price was right.
I was free.
I was interested.
Then I was told I had to download an app, create a profile, and pay through the app.
For one game of pickleball? You’ve got to be kidding. After a week of administrative tasks, it just felt like too much.
So I opted out.
Not because of the price.
Not because I didn’t want to play.
The barrier was hesitation – the effort required versus the perceived benefit.
And that’s exactly how buying decisions work.
What the Marketing Funnel Represents
The marketing funnel is often misunderstood as a channel plan. It is not.
I like to think of it as a psychological readiness model.
Marketing, in its true sense, is the long term strategy of identifying customer needs, building brand value and managing the entire customer journey.
The Funnel Moves People Through Four Stages:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversion
- Loyalty
These Stages Are Shifts In Perceived Risk:
- Awareness builds familiarity
- Consideration builds understanding
- Conversion removes final friction
- Loyalty reinforces trust through lived experience
Each stage reduces uncertainty.
And that matters because people do not hesitate because they dislike progress. They hesitate because something feels risky, unclear or difficult.
Hesitation equals perceived risk.
Marketing should reduce perceived risk.
This is why not all marketing converts immediately. A podcast appearance may build familiarity. Condition pages may build understanding. A streamlined booking system may remove friction. They all serve different psychological functions.
When businesses expect every activity to generate instant bookings, they misread how the funnel works.
Patient Experience Is Now a Measured Quality Indicator
Patient experience is increasingly recognised as a formal performance indicator.
Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) are widely used to evaluate care and guide improvement initiatives. These structured tools capture patients’ perceptions of the care they receive, providing actionable insights.
In Australia, PREMs are commonly used to capture one-off patient experiences across a range of health care settings to identify opportunities to enhance service quality and safety.
In New Zealand the Health Quality & Safety Commission highlights the growing influence of patient feedback, using it to directly shape system improvements and future care models.
This kind of patient experience data enables healthcare organisations to make targeted improvements that reduce friction across the patient experience.
When organisations apply the same discipline to their marketing and digital touch points, they can identify where potential patients hesitate, disengage or drop off and make targeted improvements that reduce friction before care even begins.
The Digital Expectation Gap Is Growing
Healthcare organisations are facing a dual reality: digital access remains uneven across populations, while expectations for digital healthcare experiences continue to rise.
Findings from the 2025 ADII suggest digital inclusion in Australia continues to improve. However, large gaps remain.
Around one in five Australians are still digitally excluded, with much higher exclusion rates among older Australians and people experiencing social and economic disadvantage.
At the same time, digital behaviour has become the norm:
- People expect online access to services
- People are comfortable researching healthcare online
- People expect digital communication options
Therefore patient journeys should aim to be:
- Digital, to meet now standard expectations
- Human-supported, to prevent exclusion
- Accessible across demographics, to reduce disparity rather than widen it
Kelly Dimkovska"Marketing in healthcare should make care easier to access, easier to understand, and easier to trust - because when patients feel confident navigating your business, growth should naturally follow."
Where Frictions Can Exist in Healthcare Organisations
When healthcare marketing ecosystems are reviewed, friction usually shows up in five places:
1. Discovery → Booking Gap
Marketing drives interest.
Functionality (or lack of it) accidentally blocks access.
Examples:
- Online booking exists but is hard to find on the website
- Appointment types aren’t clearly explained
- Patients can’t easily compare options
- There are too many steps in the booking process
- Requesting upfront payment
2. Booking → First Appointment Anxiety
Some patients may feel uncertainty between booking and attending a consultation.
Opportunities:
- Pre-appointment education
- Clear “what to expect” communication
- Cost transparency
3. Front Desk → Clinical Experience Disconnect
If brand promise ≠ real-world experience, trust erodes quickly.
That unpleasant and unaccommodating receptionist could be costing you future bookings.
Patients don’t separate departments. They see one brand.
4. Post-Appointment Silence
This is one of the biggest missed opportunities.
Simple follow-ups can:
- Improve outcomes
- Improve retention
- Increase referrals
- Reduce complaints
5. Data That Exists - But Isn’t Used
Many organisations collect experience data but don’t activate it.
Remember:
Patient feedback isn’t just reporting.
It’s roadmap data.
Another Dimension To ROI In Healthcare Marketing
The most forward-thinking healthcare marketers are expanding marketing KPIs to include:
- Time from discovery to booking
- Booking completion rates
- No-show reduction
- Patient lifetime value
- Referral rates
- Patient experience scores
- Rebookings
The Strategic Role of a Fractional CMO in Healthcare
Many healthcare organisations reach a tipping point when it comes to resourcing.
You don’t always need a full-time executive to map patient journeys, create a marketing roadmap or to turn data into actionable insights.
A Fractional CMO provides exactly that on a part-time basis: operating across the entire marketing function.
What “Experience-Led Growth” Looks Like in Practice
In healthcare organisations, this often means:
- Mapping the real patient journey (not the assumed one)
- Auditing booking and access pathways
- Aligning messaging with care delivery
- Fixing drop-off points in the funnel
- Creating follow-up systems that build loyalty
- Turning satisfied patients into brand advocates
The Opportunity Most Healthcare Organisations Are Sitting On
Many healthcare providers are already strong where it counts: delivering excellent clinical outcomes. But as you well know, if you’re a regulated healthcare service, these can’t be advertised.
So growth stalls. However, one of the things you can control is improving the internal systems and processes that create invisible barriers that frustrate patients, and limit opportunity.
The opportunity isn’t always “more marketing activity.” Instead, it’s in designing seamless, patient-centred journeys aligning digital touch points so patients experience care that’s intuitive and accessible.
Organisations that get this right make it easier for patients to engage with care and for the organisation to grow sustainably.
A Thought to Leave You With
If a patient had to describe your organisation to a friend after their full experience with you (not just your advertising), what would they say?
And more importantly:
Would that story bring you new patients?
Ready to See What This Could Look Like in Your Organisation?
If you’re curious about what’s working, what’s costing you patients, and where quick wins are – let’s talk.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call.
In that session, I’ll identify five quick wins across your marketing – practical steps you can implement immediately.
FAQs
Why is patient experience important for healthcare growth?
The patient journey directly influences whether appointments are booked and attended, whether patients return for ongoing care, and whether they recommend providers to others.
When access is difficult, communication is unclear, or booking processes are complex, patients are more likely to delay care, disengage from treatment, or seek alternative providers.
Improving patient experience supports not only better health outcomes, but also stronger organisational performance and long-term patient loyalty.
How is healthcare marketing different from marketing in other industries?
In Australia, marketing for regulated health services must comply with rules set by Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), which means organisations cannot use tactics common in other industries, such as (but not limited to) social proof by way of testimonials, pressure-based messaging, or outcome guarantees.
But beyond regulation, healthcare decisions are higher-stakes and relationship-driven.
Patients are often making decisions when they feel vulnerable, unwell, or uncertain. This means trust, clarity, access, and experience consistency play a much bigger role in growth.
When should a healthcare organisation consider working with a Fractional CMO?
Healthcare organisations often engage a Fractional CMO when they need a part-time senior marketing lead but not full-time.
A Fractional CMO can help organisations review their full marketing ecosystem, identify friction points across the patient journey and prioritise initiatives that improve both patient experience and commercial outcomes.
About the Author
Kelly Dimkovska
Founder & Fractional CMO
Kelly has spent over 15 years helping organisations in healthcare, B2B, and non-profit sectors transform marketing challenges into growth opportunities. She is motivated by meaningful impact, partnering with teams and leaders to shape the marketing function into a force that drives business growth.
Last updated on May 26th, 2026 at 10:46 pm