Dental Reputation Management
Manage Your Dental Practice Reputation
Online reviews have become an integral part of the purchase decision for most consumers today. We may only think of reviews when we're researching things like new lawnmowers before heading to Home Depot or when reading reviews of the millions of products on Amazon, but reviews are just as important for a dental practice.
Increasingly, potential patients use online reviews as the first information they gather about a potential new dentist. They'll often see reviews before they access your website.
Question is - is your dental practice actively monitoring and responding to these reviews? And are you soliciting new reviews?
That's where we come in. At MyAdvice, we have strategies and solutions to help you manage your dental practice reputation online. Let's get into why that matters.
The Power of the Review
People have long used reviews to guide them to movies they want to see and restaurants they want to dine in. But the Internet has made just about everything reviewable…and everyone is now a reviewer. That includes your dental implant patient.
0%
say positive reviews make them trust a local business more
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Customers will spend this much more at a business with "Excellent" reviews
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of consumers will take action only after reading a positive review
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of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
Gone are the days where people found a new dentist by asking neighbors or co-workers. Now they go online to sites like Yelp, RealSelf, and Healthgrades.
The Review Sites
In the U.S. there are currently about 65 sites devoted to online medical reviews, and these usually include dentists. Different sites have different structures, but all of them provide the basics about the practitioner: education, specialty, experience, those kinds of things. Ratings are based on scores for a variety of factors involved with patient care. These can vary, but usually include satisfaction with the procedure, bedside manner, communication skills, wait times, ease of making an appointment, staff courtesy, and office cleanliness.
Even Google Reads Them
Online reviews are here to stay, so it's important for your dental practice to accept that fact and get into the game. Not only are potential patients reading your dental practice reviews, so is Google. Google uses reviews in its organic search rankings and on Google My Business listings. It looks at the quality of your reviews, the number of reviews overall, and how you interact with these reviews. This is obvious on Google My Business, but review management also plays a role in search rankings.
Engaging with Reviews is Important
Most dentists aren't fans of these review sites, but they can actually be a big plus for your practice. The key is engagement and management of your reputation.
When a review comes in, particularly a negative one, it's important to respond promptly. You may not agree with the reviewer and his or her side of the story, but you need to show that you hear the problem and offer a solution, if possible, to remedy the situation. You can't let anger get the best of you; you need to respond positively. When people read the review and your response, they give you credit for acknowledging the situation. Before you hit the post or send button, make sure someone else in your office has read your response and agrees it isn't too heated or negative.
You can push any negative reviews lower on results pages by having more positive reviews. While it is true that, compared to angry customers who had a bad experience, happy customers often aren't the ones to post reviews, you can encourage them to do so. We'll have more on that below.
Review Power to the Rescue
It can be daunting trying to keep up with dozens of review websites, so, at MyAdvice, we've taken the hassle out of it with a product called Review Power. Review Power provides your dental practice with a dashboard to monitor incoming reviews across multiple review sites. It alerts you when you have a new review, as a timely response can turn that initial negative review into an amended positive final review. You can respond to all reviews within Review Power in a single dashboard. That keeps things simple. Plus, Review Power will give you a sense of the general online sentiment about your practice.
Review Power also has a proactive component. Through email functionality, it allows dental practices to invite patients to post reviews. You can even proactively target happy patients to ensure they share their positive opinions of your practice and their procedures.
All dental practices get the occasional bad review. A patient with low pain tolerance can easily crow about tooth sensitivity after a filling was placed. That's why you need a number of reviews from a number of different patients to balance things out.
Benefits to Managing Your Online Dental Practice Reputation
While no one likes to see the occasional review from a difficult patient, managing the online reputation for your dental practice has many benefits:
- Increase your website traffic
- Protect your reputation
- Improve your reputation
- Show empathy for patient experiences
- Enhance and showcase your popularity with patients
- Police obvious, intentional false negative reviews
- Build more positive reviews
- Attract new patients
- Generate new revenue
Let MyAdvice Help Manage Your Online Reputation
Your online reputation is important to the success of your dental practice. You can't be a bystander, but should instead actively manage your reputation. MyAdvice can be your partner with Review Power, making it easy to know when you have new reviews and making it easy to respond. Let's take control of what they're saying about your dental practice. Check out our dental website portfolio and then let's talk. Complete the form below or call 435-575-7470.
