Generate Dental Reviews For Your Practice
A valuable tool for your dental practice, your website, and your social media are dental reviews from your new and long-time patients. People who are new to the area, or people looking for a change, will see reviews and make a mental note.
Whether they contact you immediately or just have a positive feeling about you that they remember later, it will benefit your office. We want to help you put your best foot forward, and the way to do that is to have your loyal patients sing your praises for you.
One of the first things you should do is make sure that the information for your dental practice is up-to-date onGoogle My Business and that your business address shows up properly on Google maps.
What is Considered a Review?
You may be wondering what counts as a review, and where you may find them. Reviews are simply a blurb about their personal experience. This can be completed through various avenues but are generally categorized as:
| • |
Within Your Control: It is always preferred to have reviews within your control, especially since they will affect your online reputation. They will generally be in your favor. You want current patients to leave reviews and generate positive and new reviews whenever possible. This can include comments that are added to the coding on your dental website,on your social media posts generated by you, or reviews collected through a third-party review collection system that you register with. You can also have some control with an outside review site where an online review was posted that violates the policy of the site.
|
| • |
Outside Your Control: Online reviews made outside of your control can really vary in how positive they are. You never know what a patient may find frustrating. Even if all of your services are top-notch, they may feel that there wasn’t enough engagement, or they spent too long waiting, it may even be something that you can’t control like being cut off in the parking lot at your office. Overall, sometimes personalities just are not going to align, or anyone can be having a bad day, including you. Remember, bad reviews aren’t always bad, it looks suspicious when there are only five-star reviews. Reviews outside of your control can be listed on multiple sites like Google reviews, Angie's List, other review sites like Yelp, Healthgrades, and more. They can also be in the comments on your social media pages. Bad reviews can carry a lot of negative weight, so it is important to have some type of review management for your dental websites. |
Why Are Reviews So Important?
Positive online reviews are important because your new and prospective patients are looking for something to tell them that your office is a place they can trust. The reality is that upwards of 75% of people have a dislike going to the dentist's office for a patient appointment. This can be due to fear, concern about the expense, concern about pain, or just the disruption to their day. You want to alleviate these concerns and tell your new patients that your dental practice is somehow different, better. You want to gain more patients.
Hearing from neighbors, community members and locals builds trust. The major difference between a dentist's office and other local businesses is that it is smaller and local. A dentist, or dental professional, is part of a community, unlike a CEO of a large corporation. You want to build off of that small environment and show how you are a participating member of your community and that your dental team gives a personal touch.
A study conducted by a local consumer company called Bright Local found that a positive review has been found to make customers 94% more likely to contact dental practices. Reviews provide social proof that you are one of them to your potential patients. Patient reviews carry a very similar result as personal recommendations.
How Can I Get Reviews?
Understanding the importance of positive patient reviews, how can you generate them and get more reviews? The key is getting good feedback in a very easy way. Making it easy is better for you to review requests, and you’re more likely to get a response from them. Some tips include:
| • |
Make It Easy: You want to set up review links to be easy for you and your patient. They don’t want a job or to-do list. A lot of review solicitation systems allow you to send out requests for patient feedback and for people to leave a review following their appointment or at any time.
|
| • |
Balance: Annoying your patients is not your goal. You want to keep a happy patient. Find a balance between asking but not overwhelming your patients to write a new review. Asking once is sufficient, you may get less, but asking multiple times can cause you not to be generating the positive reviews you’re looking for.
|
| • |
Offer Incentives or Rewards: This suggestion for generating reviews among website visitors is posted with some hesitance. Most review sites include a policy against the offer of an incentive or reward. Consider your options and use caution, you do not want to pay people to say positive things about you, which can quickly be noted as being ingenuine.
|
| • |
Respond to Bad Reviews: Believe it or not, responding to poor reviews can be a way to attract new patients. It's all in how you do it. You can go above and beyond, or you can simply respond with “we’re sorry you had a bad time, give us a call, we’d like a chance to fix it.” You don’t want to promise free services, just a chance to make it better. The reviewer and future readers and patients will appreciate the response. Don’t debate the reviewer or defend yourself in the post, or promise new procedures. That will give you the opposite reaction you are looking for.
|
| • |
Respond to Positive Reviews: Occasionally, engage with good reviews, show appreciation. Engagement reviews are valuable because most people don’t. These will build patient loyalty. A simple, “we appreciate your business and hope to work with you again” response is meaningful to many patients and can generate more traffic to your dental websites. |
Negative Reviews are an Opportunity
You do not have to feel panicked at a bad review, they can be an opportunity to come out on top. This negative feedback can actually benefit your office.
Credibility
You may be surprised to learn that any business with only positive reviews can negatively impact your site with Google and search engines. A small business on the first page of a search with 500 five-star reviews actually looks bad, it looks suspicious and decreases credibility. You are a real person, so is your team, mistakes can be made, show it and that you care.
Flip the Script
You have an opportunity to flip the script of a negative review. We caution you to not use this opportunity to defend yourself or your business but to point out that you hear them and want to make it better without promises of free services. This is a step-by-step process. Some examples of responses can include:
| • |
Correct the Mistake: You can respond to a poor service review by apologizing if an error was made and ask for an opportunity to review and correct the error.
|
| • |
Present the Human Side: If a review is posted of waiting an excessive time to be seen in the waiting room, you can respond how important staying within your schedule is, but that sometimes dental emergencies arise and that your team tries to alleviate patients in pain or trauma as quickly as possible, which can delay your schedule. |
FAQ Review Generation
We want to help you generate positive reviews for your dental practice and get good dentist recommendations, which can be any review if approached correctly. You are selling your business, which includes selling yourself, your team, and why your office is the best place to meet their needs. Frequently asked questions from our clients include:
| • |
Why do I want to generate reviews? Reviews are an opportunity to put your best foot forward. Your patients are doing the work for you by saying that they have seen your work, they know your team, and they recommend you. Studies show that quality reviews on different sites are almost as good as a personal recommendation. It’s a form of social proof, your services are socially acceptable in your community.
|
| • |
What do I do about a negative review? Not everyone is going to be happy with your dental office every time. Things occasionally go wrong. We invite you to learn how to switch that negative into a positive. Respond that you hear them, and you want a chance to fix it. This does not mean that you have to provide free products, supplies or services, just that you want to gain a better understanding of what went wrong, and provide excellent customer service.
|
| • |
How can I generate reviews that I have control of? Of course there are sites that allow people to review you that are out of your control. The downside of these sites is it is almost always someone who has a gripe. You want to provide an easy way to generate controlled reviews. Try asking a patient if they have a comment they are willing to write on a card before they leave, ask if you may use it. The easier you make it, the more willing they are to do it.
|
| • |
Should I respond to reviews? Whenever possible, yes! Respond to both positive and negative reviews! It shows you care. Consider taking just 30 minutes a week, you or a trusted team member, to look at reviews and respond. Tell reviewers that you appreciate their positive feedback, express your apology to negative ones. Either way, keep it short and never engage argumentatively or defensively. |
|
