Imagine for a moment that you’re a patient in need of medical care. After researching various practices in your area, you’ve narrowed your choices down to two clinics.
Both are nearby, accept your insurance and offer the services you need. How do you make your decision?
If you’re like the vast majority of patients today, you’ll likely turn to online reviews to make your final choice. It’s this reliance on reviews that underscores their critical role in a medical practice’s success.
The digital era has greatly influenced how patients choose their healthcare providers. A positive online reputation, which primarily stems from good reviews, significantly affects a practice’s visibility, patient trust and overall success.
By employing strategic doctor marketing strategies and focusing on reputation management, you can gather valuable reviews and amplify your practice’s online presence.
Why reviews matter in doctor marketing
Before we dive into the steps to garner reviews, let’s take a moment to appreciate their importance. Picture a potential patient, John. He’s just moved to a new city and is looking for a primary care doctor. What he trusts most, aside from recommendations from family and friends, are online reviews.
In fact, research shows that most people, like John, trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Moreover, a whopping majority of patients use online reviews to evaluate physicians before making their choice. This makes the power of online reviews in the medical field undeniable.
So, investing time and resources into acquiring reviews can significantly enhance your doctor marketing efforts, drawing more patients like John to your practice.
How to gather reviews
Now that we’ve seen why reviews are crucial for your practice’s success, let’s go through the steps to garner them.
Delivering an exceptional patient experience
The journey to gather reviews begins right at your clinic’s doorstep. Meet Sarah, a patient who walks into your clinic for the first time. Sarah’s experience, starting from the friendly greeting at the reception to the medical consultation and aftercare advice, will shape her opinion of your practice.
If Sarah has an exceptional experience, she’s more likely to share it through a positive review. Remember, effective doctor marketing isn’t just about promotion. It’s also about ensuring that the service you provide meets or exceeds patient expectations.
Claiming your online profiles
After ensuring a positive patient experience, the next step is to make sure you have claimed your business profiles on major review platforms. Think about John again, as he turns to Google, Top Rated Local® and Healthgrades to find reviews about your practice.
Not finding your practice on these platforms could make John skip your practice entirely. This step in your doctor marketing strategy not only allows you to accumulate reviews but also shows that you are actively engaged in improving patient experiences.
Asking for reviews
Once your profiles are set up, it’s time to ask for reviews. Don’t be shy about this. After all, a happy patient like Sarah may need just a little encouragement to share her experience.
This could be as simple as asking her in person after her appointment or sending a follow-up email or text message. Including a direct link to your review page can make the process even simpler for her.
Making the review process easy
To garner more reviews, you need to make the review process easy for your patients. Let’s say Sarah received your request to leave a review. If the process is too complicated or time-consuming, she might abandon it halfway through.
To prevent this, provide a direct link to your review page in your email or text messages. The easier you make it for her to leave a review, the more likely she is to do it.
Think of it as a part of your doctor marketing strategy — the more user-friendly your interactions, the better your results will be.
Responding to reviews
After reviews start pouring in, make it a point to respond to each one of them — the good, the bad and the ugly. Let’s go back to our friend, John. As he’s browsing through your reviews, he notices not just the patient experiences, but also how your practice responds to them.
Seeing your thoughtful and professional responses, he perceives that you truly care about your patients and their feedback, making him more likely to choose your practice.
Reputation management: handling negative reviews
Even with your best efforts, not all reviews will be glowing. There may be occasional dissatisfied patients who leave negative reviews. But don’t panic — these reviews can be turned into opportunities for growth and learning.
Staying calm and assessing the situation
The first step when you see a negative review is to take a deep breath. It can be disheartening to read criticism about your practice, but remember — no one is perfect.
Approach these reviews with an open mind and try to understand the reviewer’s concerns.
Responding professionally
After understanding the feedback, respond professionally. Let’s say a patient, Tom, has left a negative review about the wait time at your practice.
A response could be: “Thank you, Tom, for your feedback. We apologize for the longer wait time during your visit. We’re working on improving our scheduling system to ensure prompt appointment timings for all our patients.”
Learning and improving
The true power of negative reviews lies in their potential to guide improvements in your practice. After reading Tom’s review, you might realize the need to streamline your scheduling process.
By acting on this feedback and making necessary changes, you can turn a negative review into a positive impact on your practice.
Garnering reviews and managing your online reputation can seem like a Herculean task, but it’s more achievable than you might think.
By delivering top-notch patient care, claiming your online profiles, encouraging reviews, making the review process easy and handling feedback professionally, you can successfully boost your doctor marketing efforts and draw more patients to your practice.Your journey to gathering reviews and enhancing your online reputation starts today. Ready to take the next step? Learn more and see our plans and pricing. Your future in the digital world of healthcare awaits!