Businesses that rely on local traffic are no strangers to reviews. According to a recent study, 67% of consumers are influenced by online reviews. A good review can convince a potential patient to become a regular patient. Additionally, consistent online reviews positively influence your search engine rankings, making your practice more visible and easier to find online. So, how can you generate more positive patient reviews, and reap the benefits of better visibility?
Meet with Your Staff
Your staff are on the front lines when it comes to encouraging patients to review your dental practice. This makes it imperative that they understand the benefits and importance of generating online reviews. You can incentivize your staff to request reviews by running an in-office competition that rewards the staff member who cultivated the most reviews. If your staff is aware of reviews and driven to collect them, then you could see your review numbers soar. Remind your office staff to be courteous, and to never be too pushy when asking for feedback, but instead to say something like “if you had a good experience, we’d love to hear about it on our website.” There a number of ways you can subtly ask for reviews without directly requesting them.
Use Signs to Encourage Reviews
Signs are a great way to remind people to review your dental practice. You can print your own signs that say something like “We want to know what you think,” or, “Find us on Google or Facebook.” These sort of simple reminders go a long way in garnering more reviews. Signs that ask questions can also generate positive responses. Consider using signs that ask a question to elicit a response in the form of a review. “How did we do?” or, “How was your visit today?” are just two examples of leading questions that can inspire a patient to review your dental practice. Remember to always include a call to action that points your patients to your social media accounts like Facebook and Yelp so that they know where to go when reviewing your practice (if you have Review Pro, everything will be conveniently accessible to them, but more on that later). Additionally, you should hang the signs in high traffic areas like the lobby or where parents are using their phones. They should be easily seen by every patient that visits your office.
Respond to Your Reviewers
Responding to reviews can go a long way in building a relationship with potential patients. It shows that you care enough about the reviews and reviewers to respond, and it also gives you a chance to make a special connection with the reviewer. A response can be as simple as “Thank you for taking the time to share your positive experience with us, we enjoyed seeing you.” By responding to reviews, you are showing that you are committed to excellent customer service, and that you care for your patient’s experience when they visit your office.
Ask for Feedback Using a Contest
You can inspire more reviews with a simple gift card giveaway or raffle! You can do short term (1 – 2 months) promotions that promise reviewers a chance to win a gift card if they review your dental practice on a specific platform like Yelp, Facebook or Google. You can determine whatever monetary value and gift card you would like, but we think that $20 is the perfect price point to encourage reviewers.
Remember to never pay for positive reviews, but instead to only incentivize reviews. Your contest should be a chance to provide honest feedback.
Make it Easy to Leave a Review with Review Pro
The easier it is for a patient to leave a review, the better. Take some time to evaluate your website to make sure that it provides an easy to review your practice. A page with links to your Facebook, Yelp and Goggle accounts is a perfect strategy to earn more reviews. Luckily, Smile Savvy is here to help with Review Pro, our comprehensive solution that makes it easy for patients to leave a review. Review Pro comes with an integrated platform that allows you to view all of your reviews on one dashboard, and gives you the power to respond to each review from one page, rather than having to log into multiple applications to do so. One of the best things about Review Pro is that it displays all of your best reviews right on your website, which goes a long way in convincing potential patients to visit your dental practice. Read more about Review Pro here, and discover why it is an essential tool for your dental practice.
