As the world of the internet, Google searches and social media grow, the importance of positive dental reviews creeps higher and higher atop a dental office managers to-do list. So the question must be asked, what training have you given to your office manager to deal with soliciting reviews, responding to reviews and managing successful online relationships?
For a lot of offices, the biggest challenge isn’t dealing with negative ones — it’s getting reviews at all. Many dental practices may feel uncomfortable asking patients for reviews, worrying that they’ll annoy them. However, since the future outlook for a successful practice appears to be moving toward hinging on online dental reviews, encouraging patients to review, responding to patient reviews, and cultivating patient online relationships is a skill your office will need to learn to master.
5 tips to encourage patients to leave online dental reviews.
1. Writing a dental review should be as easy as possible.
The average patient will spend exactly 0 seconds searching the internet for ways to leave a review of your practice (unless they have something negative to say). For this reason it is important that you make it as easy as possible for them to find the appropriate links (more on that later) to leave a review. So where should they go? Follow up emails? Facebook? Website? in office ipad? All answers are correct. For maximum response rate they should be everywhere.
Likewise, once a patient gets to the appropriate page to leave a review, patients you are soliciting a review from are hesitant to create an account, confirm it with and email, wait for their temporary password, login with new account, update their password etc. Platforms, among many other reasons, such as Rate-a-dentist.com from PracticeMojo make it easy for any of your patients to leave a quick review without having to deal with creating an account etc.
2. Centralize and control your reviews.
Every practice has their own preferred review site — maybe it’s where your patients researched your business in the first place, or a service you subscribe to. In terms of SEO and visibility on Google, Google Place reviews are the most effective. If you have an email or text survey and review service then make sure they can link your patients to leave Google reviews for maximum visibility.
Warning: Having a presence on every review site makes it difficult for your staff to clearly direct and manage reviews left by your patients. Centralizing your reviews on Google Places or Rate-a-dentist.com ensures maximum visibility on search engines and easy consolation for your office manager. Likewise, most everyone now a days owns a Google account making it easy for them to sign in quickly.
3. Be candid.
Some office managers might be more comfortable asking for reviews than others, however it is important to know that there is no reason to be shy asking for revives directly, as it is a vital part of doing business these days. Your patients and consumers in general are growing acusomt to the request. You can help by being candid and open about the request.
Try something as simple as, “Your opinion matters to us and to other patients, so we’d be really appreciative if you take a few moments to review your experience.”
4. Turn reviewers into brand ambassadors.
As important as the review you get is the review themselves is infinitely more important. Patients with a truly wow experience will fill obliged to not just leave a review, but share their experience on their personal Facebook page and with their friends and family. Likewise, you can produce video testimonials from your top patients to post on your website. Nothing tells a story better than well-produced, sincere video clips from real people.
5. Don’t ignore the negative reviews.
While your goal is to solicit and collect positive reviews and rankings, you’ll most likely encounter a bad review or two. However, with a little effort you can successful turn bad reviews into a positive encounter. Listen to and address the negative reviews; you may have a chance to turn an unhappy customer into a brand advocate.
Remember bad reviews aren’t a business-killer, but how you handle a negative review can be.
After all is said and done getting more positive reviews, and more new patients from those reviews stems from creating a WOW experience in your office. Your level of service, amenities, wait times, and customer service should be beyond top notch in order to succeed in dental reviews. If you are ready to learn more, or take it to the next level get started today with a FREE dental marketing consultation with one of our knowledgeable practice marketing experts. Click here or call 800.522.0800 to get started today!
