Reviews and online reputation are a reality: who you are online is who you are to anyone who doesn’t know you. For many years, physicians relied on delivering exceptional patient care and word of mouth would grow their practice. This is still relevant today, however, what has changed is how people access information and make decisions!
Healthcare Online Reviews Facts
Today, the increasing importance of online reputation continues to be neglected by many practices due to a lack of time and/or information as the vast majority of potential patients use Google Search coupled with online reviews to find a local doctor/practitioner.
Market forces have changed and what prospective patients and caregivers find online influences their decision to call or not to call you. Today, with increased transparency, reputation encompasses many new dimensions that patients consider before making contact with a practitioners’ office.
Taking Control of your Online Reviews
Ask your patients to leave a review! On average 3/4 of patients give a favorable rating, yet only just over half of practices ask for reviews. Don’t miss out on a very powerful marketing tool; your patient’s voice!
The key is to engage with your patients in an efficient way by encouraging feedback that will then be visible on the web.
Best Practice:
The reality is that you often do not have the time nor enough knowledge about developing an online reputation and this is where using a dedicated tailor-made platform comes in. There are a number of patient-doctor specific websites online where you can manage your doctor reviews, however recently one has emerged (mydoctor-reviews.com) that is a specialized review platform for the healthcare industry
One
Be proactive and collect reviews during the office visit via tablets or with an email/postcard following a patient visit
Two
Publish collected reviews on the web so that you are visible with the following:
- Organic Search Result by Patients
- Your Google ‘My Business’ Listing
- Specialized Healthcare Directories (ZocDoc, Health Grades, Vitals.com, RateMD’s)
- Your Medical Practice Website
Three
Negative reviews: limit the chances of negative reviews ending up on the web and hurting your reputation by collecting the initial reviews via a review collection platform (i.e. mydoctors-review.com) and resolving the patient issue prior to publication online.
Four
Benefits
- Review generation: collect new reviews consistently
- Review monitoring: help improve the overall patient care experience
- Review management: take control and solve issues by managing all reviews from one platform.
- Review marketing: increase visibility using your patient’s reviews and overall boost patient acquisition using their voice.
- Free Trial: You can try for free a simple and efficient platform that will enable to do all that: mydoctor-reviews.com
