How to gain positive online reviews for your dental practice
Laura Morris - 13 January 2020
Online reviews are often the first place potential customers will look when searching for a new dental practice. It is easy to advertise your services with a glossy website and high-quality, professional images, however reviews from existing patients is where people will go for a real, raw insight.
“72% of patients use online reviews as the first phase of finding a new dentist or doctor.”
When it comes to the health and medical industry, it is especially important to instil trust and best interest in your patients to ensure they feel completely safe and reassured when it comes to their appointment or procedure.
We understand the difficulty of getting people to review your business online. It is often something customers agree to and genuinely plan on doing but life gets in the way and they forget. Sometimes no reviews can be as bad as negative reviews for some, so it is crucial to encourage patients to leave a comment about their experience and whether they’d recommend your services to others.
Here are some tips on how to gain positive online reviews for your dental practice…
Leave patients with a reminder
It is easy for a patient to agree with something in a passing conversation at the end of their appointment. However, they are much more likely to remember if they are given a physical reminder.
This is best achieved in the form of a business card or review slip, or simply via email. A business card may cost you more but shows professionalism and it is something people are likely to keep on them. However, it is also at risk of sitting in someone’s pocket or handbag and not being found again until weeks later.
For a more immediate response, you could send your patients a follow up email, personally addressed to them giving a summary of the outcome of their appointment along with any necessary invoices and a link to leave a review. This will be more likely to encourage action as the person in question will already be on their computer or phone at the time and can click straight through to leave a quick review, whilst their experience of your service is still fresh in their mind.
Deliver an excellent service
This may seem like an obvious one but if you can be sure that you are delivering the best possible service to your patients, then they will have nothing bad to say about you. Good customer service is vital to success in most industries, but particularly the health industry. Patients that walk away satisfied with their experience will be likely to pass this on to others around them, even if it is just through word of mouth. However, a positive online review will go that extra bit further, encouraging others to visit your practice and boosting your appearance and visibility online.
Which review platforms are best?
There are a few options when it comes to review sites, but it is more beneficial to be present on ones that your patients are most likely to visit. The most popular are Google My Business and Trustpilot and for more specific healthcare purposes, I Want Great Care.
Google My Business is the most beneficial all round as you can keep all information and contact details as well as reviews, in one place. Positive reviews will also increase your credibility and therefore boost your visibility on Google so is great for your dental SEO.
If you choose to have multiple sites available to leave reviews, it is recommended to have a feature on your main website that pulls together all reviews and displays them in one place.
Embed your review link
Many people avoid leaving reviews as they don’t know how or where to do so. Make this as easy as possible for your patients by ensuring the link is always visible and easy to find on all your online platforms. This includes embedding a link on your website, social media and making sure you are correctly set up and registered on the relevant review platforms.
How-to embed GMB review link:
- Go to your Google My Business account
- On the homepage, scroll down to ‘Get more reviews’
- Here, there will be a link provided
- Copy the link and paste on all the relevant platforms
Other effective ways to encourage reviews include; tailoring your email signature to mention leaving a review, displaying posters around your surgery with a step-by-step guide and responding to the reviews you are already receiving.
If you are ready to take your dental practice’s marketing and SEO to the next level, get in touch and find out how Wagada can help, or download our free white paper today.
