How To Get More Patient Reviews
Reviews are what people use when choosing a service provider. It is naive to think this does not apply for medical practices.
Sep 16, 2022 •
Like it or not, reviews are a must for physicians.
As consumers, we look for reviews of businesses and products before engaging with them. And your potential patients are doing the same. Being intentional about collecting reviews for your practice has the highest ROI of any marketing activity you can think of.
Unfortunately, most physicians feel icky about asking for reviews…
What is the point of investing on SEO and ads if you don’t have a solid rating in your Google search results?
Physicians spend an absurd amount of money with agencies and “marketing experts” to rank higher on Google, but neglect collecting and responding to online reviews.
These are a few reasons why you are not getting all the reviews you deserve:
- It feels awkward to ask for a review.
- You assume patients will leave a review if happy.
- You make it too complicated for patients to leave a positive review.
- You don’t have a system to request reviews from your patients.
In this essay I’ll share with you 3 simple steps to automate this process.
Step 1: Claim your business profile!
You’d be shocked how often physicians won’t claim their listings on Yelp, or Google My Business.
The belief is they only need to show up in physician directories. But that’s not how potential patients think. The benefits of claiming your profiles are several. You can respond to reviews, you can submit official hours and contact info. You can add photographs and videos to your listing. And most importantly, you can manage your reputation.
As a good friend of mine says: “If you don’t manage your reputation online, some a**hole will…”
Step 2: Automate it.
At the end of their visit, you should have an automated SMS and/or email going out to your patients asking them to leave a review.
The keys here are:
- The longer you wait to send this message out, the less likely they’ll be to write a review.
- It needs to be easy. Send them a single link (I suggest starting with Google My Business) and a few examples of what other patients have written so they don’t have to start from scratch.
Step 3: Monitor your reviews and respond to them
Lastly, get in the habit of monitoring reviews at least once per week.
Make it a recurring task for one of your front desk staff. For every positive review, send a private thank you note to the patient who left it. For every negative review, reply to it but be mindful of HIPPA regulations! The only thing you should never do, is leave a negative review unanswered.
People filter reviews to look at the negative ones so it’s important to always reply politely to your reviews.
Sign up for the newsletter that helps subject-matter experts build a business aligned with their life goals.