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Your dental practice’s reputation can be used as a huge marketing asset, especially for word-of-mouth marketing.
Satisfied patients can promote your brand just by giving their opinion of their great experience, and combining genuine reviews with targeted efforts can then improve your chances of being recommended by your patients.
Here are some important things to know about dental reputation management:
Online reputation management for dentists has never been more important
According to a local consumer review, 85% of all dental patients say they trust online reviews just as much as they do a personal recommendation or referral. Patients now look to the internet as a primary source for medical referrals, so it’s more important than ever to understand what your patients — and others online — are saying about your business.
If you’re not managing your online reputation, it means you could be losing patients and credibility (and not even know it!). Reviewing your online reviews is often the first step in your patients’ journey, and depending on what they find, it may end there. Businesses with negative online reviews may suffer by experiencing fewer website clicks and visits, or even losing long-standing customers to positively-reviewed competitors.
Having a good online reputation will increase brand trust, and that’s a crucial deciding factor for people searching for a dentist. In fact, more positive reviews on Google can actually improve your local search rankings, which provides your business with more visibility through online searches. This will bring in more business and even improve customer retention.
Negative reviews can be your greatest downfall
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Good news travels fast, but bad news travels faster”?
We have access to incredibly fast digital communications and news outlets through social media. News can be shared, posted, tweeted and retweeted in a matter of seconds — and so can online reviews. One negative review can tarnish your reputation, quickly turning new patients away. In fact, you risk losing 22% of new patients when they find just one negative review. That’s huge.
By staying on top of your online reputation management, you can influence how the public views your company and retain these customers, even when you get the occasional bad review.
It’s best to take a proactive approach
A good rule of thumb is to be proactive about your reputation management strategy. You don’t want to wait until threats to your reputation have already surfaced, but actively manage your reputational risks and create a strategy to address any negative feedback in a quick manner.
Start by doing an audit of your current brand reputation to learn what your customers are seeing when they search for your dental practice.
Do they see unsatisfied customers? Does your company offer a personalized response to negative reviews? Are you engaged? Are your loyal patients sharing their positive experiences?
After reviewing where you stand, move forward with creating a strategy to address any areas of improvement and actively seek patient feedback. Consider these engagement tips for your strategy:
- Respond quickly and in a timely manner (negative reviews are very time-sensitive).
- Respond to all negative reviews if possible.
- Leave a personalized response to each and every issue, let them know that their thoughts matter and you want to make it right.
Need help implementing a reputation management strategy into your day-to-day operations? UpSwell specializes in marketing for dentists, orthodontists, periodontists, and more. We’ll work with you to build a better reputation by monitoring all main review sites, and converting your interested prospects into loyal patients.
Set up a free consultation with one of our experts to get started on building a better foundation for your practice.
