Patient Reviews are important, Really important
When you think of the success of your dental practice you prioritize patient care, upgrading your skills and the daily running of your business in the form of expenditure and business operations. You hardly worry about online patient reviews. Unfortunately in today’s world, you need to pay attention to those with equal attention as the rest.
According to an article published by Inc.com:
- 91% of people read online reviews.
- 84% of people trust online reviews as much as friends.
- 68% percent of people form an opinion after reading between one and six online reviews.
This means how your practice is reviewed by people plays a huge role in determining whether your practice retains patients or not. It also shows you if patients are happy with the service you are offering or not.
In this edition, we look at how you can get more patient reviews and how your team can play a big role in ensuring you have good reviews.
This improves patient retention.
1. Offer the best patient experience
Getting a review sounds easy but you need to first put yourself in the patients’ shoes.
Ask yourself, “what would I say about my practice or what would I say about my team? “.
However, a bad review is still a review and we want to avoid those at all costs.
You need to motivate your patients to give you the best reviews. To do so you need to offer them exceptional service. The quality of your reviews will, in most cases, match the quality of service received. This can also determine the number of new patients you receive.
As a guide, you might want as yourself these questions:
- Do patients feel welcome and cared for in my practice?
- Do patients leave here more educated than when they came?
- Do patients get an interactive experience where patients are free to speak and ask questions?
- How is my patient management?
- How can I improve?
2. Just ask
Getting a review can be as simple as asking the patient if they can leave one. To have the privilege of asking however certain conditions need to be met. Your team needs to be well versed in how to conduct themselves and how to address patients in different situations.
If a patient is well received, receives good service and is well treated it is easy to ask them for a review of your practice.
Good service is a sure route to a good review.
3. Make leaving a patient review quick and simple
Make sure your practice is on several online platforms, this makes it easier for patients who are already on these platforms to leave a review. No one has the time to start familiarising themselves with a new platform that will take a lot of time.
Being present on these platforms also means your patients can leave a review at any time. Even when they are comfortable in their homes. This creates a better environment to write an even better review for you.
Links placed in follow up emails or any communique can help guide patients to your pages. They also serve as gentle reminders for them to review your practice as a whole.
4. Offer a “Patient Review Incentive”
To get a review you might want to consider making it worth a patient’s while. After all, being asked to leave a review after a dental procedure seems kind of harsh. The dentist isn’t really your favorite person after say a root canal procedure.
It is very common for a patient to think the best of your practice but simply not be driven to leave a review. To fix this you might want to motivate your patients by giving them an incentive.
Offer freebies like vouchers, and merchandise. These small things can offer motivation for patients to go online and leave some good reviews for your practice.
5. Make it convenient
Leaving reviews to when a patient is in their comfort space might not always work in your favor.
To fix this problem, set up a “free Wi-Fi for patients” system. While patients are in your waiting room or between treatments they will have free access to the internet.
Having a poster or sign that tells people to leave reviews is an effective call to action and it also motivates staff to deliver the best service knowing patients can easily leave a bad review.
What’s next?
Your reviews can do more than just be easy reads for potential patients. As your reviews come in, it makes you more noticeable online and improves your online rankings. This means you also need to improve and reinvent yourself to keep these good rankings.
Look out for the average or bad reviews as these are indicators of where you are not getting it right. Attend to complaints on your online platform as quickly as possible.
Reviews can work as good testimonials or additions on your website. Have a few testimonials on your page for people to refer to as they go through your page.
SupportDDS is a leading Texas-based insourcing company that provides virtual assistants and administrative support for dental practices. Moreover, we provide both short and long term virtual outsourcing services customized to suit your business process needs.
