Friday, September 12, 2014
By now you know online reviews are important for your dental practice, and the huge review website you need your practice to be on is still Yelp.
With more than 132 million visitors a month, four out of five people read reviews on the site before making a purchase. Yelp has become so powerful it is even overriding Yahoo Local business listings, which were performing well not too long ago.
Regardless of what you think about the site, consumers believe in it. In a recent survey, Yelp was deemed the most trustworthy, most influential and best quality as a resource for consumers looking for local business reviews.
Another recent study found 88 percent of people research, read and trust reviews online to help with their purchasing decisions, including dental services. People want to know about the quality of your business, customer satisfaction, and if they can trust you.
If you haven’t created a Yelp profile yet, then do so. It’s vital to be where your patients are. Then once you have your account, don’t just “set it and forget it.” Create reminders for yourself or staff members to check it periodically—see what people are saying about you and your practice, respond to negative reviews, and when needed update any information.
How Your Patients Use Yelp
Today, consumers are more conservative when it comes to where they are spending their money. They read businesses’ reviews on Yelp to ensure that they are getting the best “bang for the buck” before moving forward with their purchase.
Approximately, 85% of consumers are reading up to 10 reviews when conducting their searches. Therefore, your top reviews on Yelp should not only be positive to help your practice’s image and reputation, but also they should be new and fresh.
No one prefers to read a review from three years ago, though this is not to undermine older reviews, which are still helpful. But people want to know what others have been experiencing lately. Maybe you moved locations, lost a few doctors or gained some new ones in the practice, or now offer new dental services. Potential patients want to know about these types of changes.
The majority of people who read reviews online trust them as much as a personal recommendation. This happens through quantity and quality of the reviews. Since people enjoy reading multiple reviews, you need to have a decent amount of them on your Yelp listing. But you also need to have authentic reviews that offer high quality information. There is a rising concern of fake reviews being written, so your reviews need to be original, from current patients. Yelp uses an algorithm that features reviews based on quality, reliability and user activity.
However, even though Yelp is the leader with local reviews, you should not forget about other review sites your patrons may also be visiting. Aside from Yelp, other top review sites include Angie’s List, Google My Business, Citysearch and Yellow Pages.
Tips to Increase Your Yelp Reviews
Here are a few ways to obtain more reviews on your Yelp listing:
- Ask your patients to post a review about their experience at your office before they leave. The best time for people to write glowing reviews is when the experience is fresh in their minds.
- On your website, create a reviews page and post a few of your most impressive testimonials, and then include a link to your Yelp page and ask for a review. Your website is your best resource for digital “foot traffic” and to showcase your reviews.
- Also on your website, possibly on the homepage, you could include a small Yelp graphic CTA (call-to-action). This should be set up so when people click on the icon, they go directly to your review page.
- On social media, post a recent positive review from your Yelp page and ask others to post there as well.
- When you register as a business with Yelp, you can get one of their stickers that you can post on your front door or window to let people know you’re on Yelp, and to entice them to check you out and hopefully write a review for your practice.
When you’re managing your online reputation, it’s important to not only have positive reviews on the web, but also to be where reviewers are going. That means being on Yelp. Be sure to claim your dental practice’s listing and be proactive about continually getting new, fresh and original reviews to help grow your business.