How Online Reviews Can Attract New Dental Patients
The Largely Untapped Practice Builder
If you don’t respond to online patient reviews, it’s like deciding not to cash in winning lottery tickets. There’s so much opportunity in both good and bad reviews—yes, even less-than-perfect reviews can strengthen your online practice brand if you craft your words carefully. When you respond, prospective patients searching online have an opportunity to observe an authentic exchange between office and patient. Imagine coming across random text messages. With even a snippet of that conversation, you’d be able to make judgments about the quality of the relationship. In this case, people searching for a dental home have found your reviews, and they are closely analyzing how you speak to patients. Do you paste in the same generic message, or do you craft replies thoughtfully? Do you seem truly thankful, enthusiastic, and friendly? Or do you ignore the review altogether?
Yelp Threatens Dental Brands—Beware!
How Yelp Pressures Dentists to Pay High Monthly Fees Why Your Practice Should Avoid Yelp Online reviews are one of the most important aspects of any effective dental marketing plan. In today’s fast-paced world, people rely on consumer feedback to make decisions. From Amazon to plumbers to restaurants and dentists,
The Whole World Is Watching
The most important thing to remember when you respond to online patient reviews: A lot of people will see what you write. It isn’t something you do when tired or rushed. Pour a cup of coffee, clear your mind, and really try to understand the nature of the comment. Look for specifics. Did the patient mention any staff members by name? Glance over general praise and focus on the parts of the review that address particular aspects of the practice, like patient or clinical care, professionalism, amenities, etc. You’ll use these comments as the foundation of your reply, but you’ll also build out from there and weave in other unique and especially valuable features of your practice. You have been given the opportunity to talk about what you do best and what you’re passionate about. Moreover, this isn’t an advertisement; you are kindly responding to a review, so this unique dynamic allows you to exercise a powerful form of passive sales that feels natural and trustworthy.
Mix It Up and Focus on Your “Mission Words”
Maybe the best initial advice is to vary the way you respond to reviews. It’s a challenge to reply in different ways, but you’ll appear much more engaged and detailed if you avoid repeating yourself. Most of the time, you can simply move parts around. For example, if you began the last response by thanking the patient for taking time to write, open the next reply with a specific point mentioned in the review and end with your thanks. Use different words and sentence construction. Readers will no doubt scroll and notice anything that looks like cut and paste.
Be sure to consult your practice mission statement; the principles reflected in these guiding words should also direct the text on your website, social media, and review responses. Just like keywords in website content, it’s important to place your “mission words” in review responses; you might end up with a list that includes the following: trust, excellence, honored, relationships, dental team, comfort, devotion, patient advocacy, professionalism, family, oral health, promptly, dedication, proactive, commitment, encouraging, wellness, perfection, caring, warm, personalized, and uncompromising. I’m sure many of these words already form the backbone of your practice mission statement. By incorporating them into your text, you’ll strengthen brand consistency, patient loyalty, and mission fidelity.
Add Value to Your Response by Highlighting the Office
Review responses offer a unique opportunity to shine some much-deserved light on the practice and staff. For example, you might be replying to a happy patient who’s praising a restorative procedure, and you also work in a few sentences about the doctor’s use of a laser to improve quality and comfort. Maybe a patient has a great hygiene appointment, and you mention the professional award this hygienist received. A patient could recognize your meticulous standard of care, so you explain how a commitment to preventative dentistry not only maintains good oral health but also prevents costly procedures in the future. Use your imagination; there are so many ways to build value into a patient’s perception of your brand. Of course, you don’t want to overdo it and end up sounding like an infomercial, but a few skillfully placed highlights can truly strengthen the practice in a very public way.
You’ll Get Some Negative Reviews
Of course, you hope that every review is positive, that patients will leave your office ecstatically happy and write glowing comments online. The reality is, however, that some people won’t be happy with your treatment or staff or waiting room décor or your hair or voice or name. For whatever reason and whether or not their comments have any merit, some patients will gleefully blast their negative thoughts across the internet.
When you respond to online patient reviews that are less than flattering, take a deep breath. Avoid impulsive reactions. Your best ally in this situation is measured thinking, focused on mitigating damage and finding ways to use the comment productively. Be honest with yourself. Are the comments true? Partially true? Unpack the claims and decide what part you own. Maybe the review is completely false. Maybe this person isn’t even a patient, which is something that you can—and should—appeal (In many cases, sites will remove slanderous and false reviews.); but, at this point, it really doesn’t matter because the review is there, a constant blight on your reputation and visible to everyone looking for a dental home. You need to respond immediately.
Your first job is to discuss strategy with senior staff. Who knows this patient? Who can offer insight into behavior in the office? Maybe this patient recently had a major life event. Really dig in and ferret out the truth. Brainstorm. Keep in mind that you’re ultimately writing for all the prospective patients who will come across this review and your response. It’s natural to retreat into a defensive position when someone attacks you. Resist this urge. Instead, express sympathy in your words and tone. Let’s assume that you’ve been wisely accumulating some five-star Google reviews; the vast majority of your patients are very pleased with your practice and rave about you online, so this negative review looks out of place. You can be sure that people searching online will also notice this. Most importantly, keep your comments general to avoid any HIPAA violations (Never discuss a patient’s specific clinical treatment in a public setting.). Basically, you want to assure the reviewer that these claims go against your mission statement and code of ethics. Extend an invitation to discuss the matter. Let your words reflect complete transparency. So in a nutshell: 1) You understand his/her feelings. 2) You sympathize with these feelings. 3) The review clearly describes a violation of the practice mission and code of ethics, so there must be a misunderstanding. 4) You wish to discuss and resolve the matter—your goal is 100% satisfaction. Any reasonable person looking for a dentist online will see your efforts as ethical and fair; it might even inspire this prospective patient to call and schedule an appointment. Lemons to lemonade.
Details Really Matter
Like all your social media marketing, stay current. To express your commitment to punctuality, reply to reviews within a couple days. New patients schedule appointments because of many small details. Now that everything is online, the public has a lot of information to make judgments about your practice. It’s not enough to have a flashy website if your social media posts are mediocre. You can’t expect to dominate the market solely on good reviews. You’re not going to have a full schedule just because you have a great location. To thrive today, in this fiercely competitive (and largely online) dental market, it takes an unyielding commitment to detail. You need to have it all—an effective website, organic and engaging social media, great reviews (with great replies), SEO, local marketing, targeted direct mail, proper signage, community involvement, videos, pictures, high-quality content, etc. True, when you respond to online patient reviews, it might seem like a small thing. You might think, Does it really matter if I reply to a five-star review? I mean, we already got the praise online. My short answer: It only matters if you want to grow your practice.
Thanks for your blog. It is so well written. very informative.
Thanks for the encouraging words, Lisha. So Many Molars is committed to helping dental professionals grow their practices and improve the oral health of their communities.