Reviews, like the Google reviews for doctors you see as part of every related local search, are among the most public parts of your reputation. Even having too few of them can give potential new patients a bad impression.
To manage your reputation effectively, you need a steady stream of them, but do you know how to get them?
If you want to build a steady stream of reviews, you need a combined approach that includes your outreach and your staff, and encourages patients to reflect on their visits as part of a real effort to improve care.
Attracting reviews like that may sound difficult, but surprisingly, it isn’t. Tested strategies have been shown to encourage waves of new reviews without annoying your patients with soliciting. There are even reputation management software tools that make it easy.
With the insights and options you’ll learn about in this guide, you’ll know how to attract new reviews. Strategies like personalizing outreach, optimizing the clinic experience, and leveraging the proper communication channels will help you attract new reviews methodically.
Key Takeaways
- You need a patient-centric approach to encouraging patients to leave online reviews. Personalizing outreach after visits, showcasing empathy in your messages, and choosing the right timing can result in more genuine and valuable feedback.
- By using active listening and getting staff involved, you can create the kind of experiences that make people leave Google reviews for doctors.
- You’ll want to utilize multiple channels for feedback, such as in-person conversations, email campaigns, and text messaging. These channels, coupled with technology like reputation management software, can streamline the process and improve both the quantity and quality of patient reviews.
How Online Reviews Affect Clinic Visibility and Organic Search Results
Online reviews have become the cornerstone of patient decision-making for patients seeking healthcare providers. Statistics reveal that 77% of patients start their search for a new doctor with online reviews. 90% of consumers report that they trust these reviews to help them make the final decision.
This underlines the potent influence that positive online reviews can have in patient acquisition, demonstrating that online reviews matter. Online reputation is everything these days, and all those searchers are looking for a good overall rating. An impressive 80% of consumers regard online reviews equally as trustworthy as personal recommendations.
Now that you understand how much reviews matter to your clinic’s reputation, you should also know that reputation management software can make it easy to do everything you’ll learn about below, at scale.
These tools provide an all-in-one reputation management solution, enabling clinics to get more positive reviews without asking patients directly and facilitating the process through modern messaging like sending text review links.
Try ReputationStacker to learn what’s possible when all the tools you need to attract reviews are at your fingertips. Now, on to the strategies.
Strategy Set 1: Create Experiences with Your First Outreach
To lay a foundation for more reviews, you should start reaching out to every patient after every visit. It’s important that you do this part right and (as you’ll learn below), as soon as possible.
These outreach messages should not be written to ask for reviews (though it should provide ways to do so), but instead as a reminder of their visit and sense of satisfaction. From this starting point, you can identify patients who want to have a conversation about their visit and are more likely to leave detailed reviews.
When you start regular outreach like this, you begin to have options, including addressing complaints directly before they become problems that injure your reputation. You can also gently encourage patients to use your review platform of choice.
There are many strategies you can use to attract more reviews. Starting with the three below can help you start attracting new reviews:
1. Personalize Your Messages
Personalize each initial message to let your patients know you are really trying to start a conversation about their visit.
Remember that you are under more restrictions than most businesses, so you need to make sure that everything you say complies with HIPAA.
Here’s a checklist you can apply to crafting the right opening message:
Avoid specific details that may present a privacy risk
Provide reviewers with a link to contact you directly
Encourage feedback about the experience, care quality, and overall service the healthcare facility provides. You can link to your preferred review site with this closing statement.
If you follow these guidelines, your message won’t sound pushy. You’lll discourage them from simply marking the message read and moving on. Your patient will understand that your message reflects your commitment to improving patient care.
Once you’ve mastered the small details, think about the overall tone of your message. It should be empathetic and genuine, like the care you provide in the exam rooms.
2. Be Empathetic and Genuine
Patients are more likely to leave kind and honest reviews when they perceive genuine empathy from the provider’s message. However, that’s not the only reason to do it.
Expressing genuine interest in a patient’s experience can lead to more insightful feedback that you can use to improve your practice. Some people feel uncomfortable voicing complaints or helpful suggestions without being invited, but you need this feedback to understand how your patients experience your care.
Making your message empathetic and genuine makes them feel safe to voice their feelings. Work the patient’s experience and likely reactions into your message to communicate empathy.
Was the appointment late? Was the advice complicated? Was the news delivered with care? Consider these and other factors before sending your message.
When patients feel valued, they are more likely to provide meaningful feedback. Effectively demonstrating empathy contributes to building trust with patients and fostering a positive and supportive healthcare environment.
However, no matter how well you craft your message with empathy, it will lose impact as the visit drifts further into the past.
3. Send it Out on Time
Timing is everything when it comes to encouraging patients to leave reviews. The best time to invite patients to review their experience is immediately following their appointment, when it is still fresh in their minds. This immediate request can lead to more honest and detailed feedback.
Additionally, if you or your medical staff receive patient praise or positive feedback from a happy patient, it presents an optimal opportunity to invite them to show their appreciation. It’s crucial to strike while the iron is hot.
Asking for patient reviews at the right time can significantly improve engagement and elicit a positive response. Understanding the right timing enhances patient engagement, making them more likely to participate actively in the review process.
Following these strategies can help you encourage reviews in the right way, but there’s another major set of strategies you should consider. Focusing on the most memorable elements of the clinic experience can drive more and happier reviews. s.
Strategy Set 2: Create Memorable Office Visits and Responses
These next strategies require more planning than crafting a message, but they belong here because they cover some of the biggest reasons your patients will choose to leave reviews in the first place.
Your patients want to trust that they are seen and heard during their visit, that you aren’t just checking off boxes on the form before sending them back home.
Use Active Listening
Active listening is a skill that requires the listener to make a conscious decision and commitment to being fully present. It makes patients feel cared for, and that feeling is one of the more common things expressed in satisfied reviews.
In addition to creating a better experience for your patients, active listening can encourage them to provide essential details that they may not otherwise mention if they don’t feel like you’re paying attention.
Active listening, open communication, and empathy, especially from the doctor, can mitigate patient concerns and foster a safer environment for feedback expression. In addition to your actions, you can create a better atmosphere by involving staff.
Get Staff Involved in Creating a Better Atmosphere
Staff involvement is a critical factor in the patient review collection process. Empowering nursing and support staff by involving them in decision-making processes related to patient care and workplace practices can increase their motivation and active participation in review collection efforts.
Making the request for online reviews a standardized part of the office’s daily routine ensures that staff members consistently engage with patients regarding feedback. Providing staff with a straightforward and memorized script for asking patients for reviews allows them to do so with confidence and without appearing pushy, increasing the likelihood of positive review collection.
Incorporating team engagement strategies that foster a sense of unity and purpose among staff can further improve the review collection process, as engaged teams are more likely to collaborate effectively and take initiative in securing patient reviews.
Creating a positive work environment and promoting regular meetings and open channels of communication between staff contribute to a culture of open communication, which facilitates more effective patient-centered interactions.
Strategy Set 3: Utilizing Multiple Channels for Review Requests and Reputation Management
You should use multiple channels to encourage and collect patient reviews. Yelp, Google, Facebook, and other major online review platforms are just the beginning. Doctors should also monitor smaller, specialized review sites like Healthgrades or ZocDoc.
Ignoring channels where you’re being discussed makes the wrong impressions more likely to proliferate. Some review sites are highly trusted and consulted, and failing to address or attract reviews featured in them could lead to lost patients or practice-harming problems.
Your reputation on online review sites is only a small part of your whole reputation. Using diverse communication strategies can improve the effectiveness of encouraging patient reviews across these channels. Remember that in-person conversations and text messages can all be effectively used for review collection.
In-Person Conversations
In-person conversations provide a golden opportunity for healthcare providers to request reviews. It’s best to ask for feedback within a day or two of the patient visit, like you do with outreach, and a conversation about their overall satisfaction and care received.
Providing a direct link to the review platform and letting patients know their feedback is valued not only makes the review process more accessible but also shows appreciation.
Thanking patients for their trust signifies how much their feedback and patronage are valued, encouraging them to express their experiences and thoughts in a review. Effective patient-provider interactions significantly impact the likelihood of patients leaving reviews, as positive experiences can motivate them to share their experiences.
Text Messaging
Text messaging is yet another powerful channel for review requests. Sending a text message immediately after a patient’s appointment has proven to be the most effective timing for this communication. Platforms such as ReputationStacker allow for automated text message review invite sending, simplifying the process.
The immediacy of text messaging can significantly increase the likelihood of patients leaving a review. By leveraging platforms like ReputationStacker, healthcare providers can automate review requests, making the process efficient and hassle-free.
This method aligns well with patient communication preferences, improving the chances of receiving timely and positive reviews.
Keep your mind open to the possibility of other channels, and other ways potential patients are learning about your clinic through your community, social media, and other testimonials.
Get Started With the Right Plan for Your Clinic Today
Getting patients to write reviews is an involved but reliable process. Sending out an immediate and empathetic message after each visit is a great start. Improving your clinic by paying attention to the areas that inspire reviews is another.
This is comprehensive work, but ReputationStacker can help you apply the first set of strategies. There are subscription tiers to fit businesses of all sizes, from one-location clinics to multi-location facilities. Our tools enable doctors to request more reviews efficiently, manage all reviews in one place, and improve patient satisfaction.
You can find out what’s possible when you have all the right tools with a free trial. Try ReputationStacker out for yourself today.
Frequently Asked Questions About Getting Patient Reviews
How can negative feedback be turned into positive outcomes?
Negative feedback, while initially disheartening, can be transformed into opportunities for improvement. Here are some strategies for responding to negative reviews professionally and promptly, while avoiding defensive reactions:
- Remember that you cannot discuss patient information (including whether the reviewer is a patient or not).
- Affirm any relevant policies of your practice. (For example, if they complain about inconvenient hours, you can post your hours for potential clients to assess for themselves without confirming the patient or any of their details)
- Provide contact information for further discussion or to address any additional concerns privately.
By following these strategies, you can preserve your professional integrity and display a commitment to improvement.
Analyzing patient feedback systematically can illuminate areas for improvement, turning negative reviews into valuable insights for improving the patient experience.
Expressing gratitude for feedback and a willingness to resolve issues helps rebuild patient trust and reinforces the perception of the healthcare provider’s professionalism and reliability.
Negative feedback also presents an opportunity for ‘service recovery’, allowing healthcare providers to fix any issues, demonstrate their commitment to patient satisfaction, and improve their services based on constructive criticism.
How can technology streamline the patient review process?
Streamlining the review process with technology can make it more efficient and effective. Reputation management software like ReputationStacker enables doctors to request more reviews efficiently, manage all reviews in one place, and improve patient satisfaction.
These tools provide an all-in-one reputation management solution, enabling clinics to get more positive reviews without asking patients directly and facilitating the process through modern messaging like sending text review links. Additionally, reputation management software significantly increases efficiency in collecting patient reviews, streamlining the entire feedback loop.
Showcasing patient reviews can significantly attract new patients to a medical practice.
A dedicated review page on the website, prominently visible and easy to access, can effectively request patient reviews on their websites.
Consistently getting new patient reviews can improve a medical practice’s internet visibility and credibility, as well as increase patient loyalty.
Encouraging satisfied patients to leave reviews can aid in marketing and improve search engine rankings. As a matter of fact, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, reaffirming the potential of reviews in attracting prospective patients.
Showcasing reviews prominently can also contribute significantly to practice growth by enhancing the practice’s reputation and attracting more patients.
Can showcasing reviews attract new patients?
Showcasing patient reviews and taking other reputation management steps can attract new patients to a medical practice. Having a review page visible and easy to access on your website can help patients remember to leave reviews.
Consistently getting new patient reviews can improve a medical practice’s internet visibility and credibility and increase patient loyalty. Encouraging satisfied patients to leave reviews can aid marketing and improve search engine rankings.
Remember, 80% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, reaffirming the potential of reviews to attract prospective patients. Showcasing reviews prominently can also contribute significantly to practice growth by helping to build the practice’s reputation and attracting more patients.
