When a potential patient or customer is looking to purchase a service or product, one of the first things they look at is whether it is recommended by others or not.
Having existing patients share their experiences about their visit to your dental practice online serves as a strong and rewarding new patient acquisition tool.
Based on your reviews – you could either convert a clicker to a client or lose your chance at a new patient. Online reviews have power – both in driving high amounts of traffic to your dental practice and in influencing the perception that new patients have of you.
See below for what you need to know about online reviews, your reputation, and natural business growth.
Why Reviews Are Important for Trust and Growth
Personal recommendations used to be the best way for people to find a new dentist. Nowadays, online reviews seem to be prospective patients’ go-to for finding a new doctor. In fact, 84% of consumers trust online reviews and about 68% of people are willing to share their experiences as feedback for others [1].
With so much information readily shared and available, it makes sense why people are leaning towards trusting those who post positive and negative feedback.
Here are some additional reasons why you should solicit feedback from your patients in the form of online reviews [2]:
- A prospective new patient will form trust with you after reading multiple positive reviews about your dental practice.
- 86% of consumers read through local business reviews (and95% of them are between the ages of 18-34).
- 91% of those between 18-34 trust online reviews and in-person recommendations equally.
- 89% of people will read through a dental practice’s response to a reviewer – so be sure to respond to reviews.
If you don’t have more than 10 reviews online and you aren’t soliciting reviews from existing patients, then you’ll need to consider engaging more in the online community. Without multiple reviews, you are missing out on an excellent opportunity to allow your patients to grow your dental practice for you.
How Do I Ask for a Review or Recommendation?
There are several communication channels you can use to ask your existing patients (and newly on-boarded patients) to leave a review.
- Set up an in-person system that gives patients the chance to leave a review during the billing of the appointment or during the scheduling of future appointments.
- Ask patients in an email soon after their visit. This will save them time and allow them to leave a review at their leisure.
- Call patients directly and ask if they would give you feedback. This builds trust with patients and proves that you truly care how their visit went.
- Send patients a quick text message. Similar to emailing – texting allows patients to leave a review conveniently and at their leisure.
- Consider asking patients via a social media direct message (if they booked their appointment through socials). This route works even better if you have a business page that allows reviews to be posted directly.
How Do Reviews Impact Your Dental Practice’s Reputation?
Positive reviews that are given willingly have a direct impact on revenue, loyalty, trust, and credibility. In fact – there couldn’t be an easier way to grow your practice and increase your bookings than online reviews and testimonials.
How Do Reviews Impact Your Dental Practice’s Reputation?
Positive reviews that are given willingly have a direct impact on revenue, loyalty, trust, and credibility. In fact – there couldn’t be an easier way to grow your practice and increase your bookings than online reviews and testimonials.
How Can I Take the Work Out of Asking for Recommendations?
With the hectic day-to-day operations of running a practice – manually asking for reviews may not be feasible. Plus, not every patient is going to remember to reply to your text, write on your social media page, or respond to an email.
You can choose to automate your system with review automation software which streamlines the process through automatic notifications. This type of software integrates with your current system by pulling relevant patient information and sending out a notification after their visit with you. Automated reviews are much less personal – but are simple, secure, and efficient.
About the Author:
Clayton Patterson is the founder and CEO of Digital Space Marketing. After spending nearly a decade developing websites and launching successful marketing campaigns for medium sized companies and startups, Clayton knows what truly drives conversions and brings growth to an organization. In addition to his extensive marketing experience, Clayton is a lawyer with a deep understanding of website accessibility laws and the technical requirements that all websites should abide by.
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