Thursday, April 11, 2019
As a dentist, you already know the power of online reviews. Everyone fears the dreaded negative review but your day can instantly be made when a loyal patient boasts about you and your practice for everyone to see.
With nearly 80% of people trusting online reviews as much as a personal recommendation, it’s safe to say online reviews are here to stay. Along with helping you build trust among potential patients, they also can help your practice appear higher on search rankings.
Instead of fearing online reviews (like many of us do), the key is to strategically plan on how you can create an optimal online reputation for yourself and your practice. Here are five ways to do just that:
1. Set Google Alerts. Signing up for Google Alerts allows you to receive notifications every time your predefined keywords are mentioned on the Web. You can input queries you wish to be notified of (your practice name, your name, etc.), how often you want to be notified, and provide the email address that you want your alerts sent to.
2. Ask loyal patients to leave a positive review! A lot of times all you have to do is ask. Most happy patients would love to share a review about your practice—even if it’s just a few simple sentences—but they probably won’t think to do so on their own. After their appointment, send a follow-up email to ask how everything went. When patients offer good feedback, ask them to leave a review on your website or Facebook page (include a link to where they should leave the review so it’s seamless for them).
3. Use Facebook polls to get a better understanding of your audience. Show potential and current patients you value their feedback by using polls and comments on social media to actively engage with them. By maintaining a strong presence on social media, you show people you care about catering to their needs and listening to their feedback. Ultimately, this builds trust and encourages engagement with your practice.
4. Always respond, no matter what. Regardless if feedback or a review is positive or negative, make sure to respond! A negative review isn’t the end of the world, but your response will impact how someone feels about the negative review that was left. If you leave a polite and understanding response to a negative review, it’ll come off much better than a hostile and defensive review. Online consumers are savvy and they’ll see for themselves if someone is being a bit too dramatic in their harsh review of your practice. Just keep in mind how you respond to the criticism could be the difference between potential patients ignoring the negative review or actually looking elsewhere for a dentist.
5. Consider hiring a professional company to help with your online reputation management. A good reputation can take years to build—and you don’t want to let one negative online review destroy it. Ask your website or marketing communications provider if they have any features or tools that can help you actively gain, monitor, showcase, and respond to patient reviews.
Remember, the easier it is for happy patients to leave a review about your practice, the more inclined they’ll be to do so.
Melissa Mickelson is the director of communications at ProSites, a dental website design and marketing company that helps more than 7,500 practices attract, engage and retain loyal patients. To learn more, visit ProSites.com or call 888-932-3644.