Since we launched DentistFind.com in 2011 the most common question we are asked is that if DentistFind.com offers reviews. Third party review is one of the most important factors when choosing a dentist. For most, it may not be the only factor but it is definitely one of the important deciding factors to book an appointment. The dental clinics that better manage their online reputation are more successful in attracting patients based on their behaviour to choose a dentist.
There are several sites where the patients can leave reviews for you. We recommend Google Reviews – it will give you credibility and rank your site higher. The best strategy is to get reviews on all the major channels such as HealthGrades, Yelp, RateMDS, DemandForce, Facebook, and DentistFind.com.
Yelp is one of the trusted sites that patients use for finding reviews of doctors online. The chart below shows this:
Almost 44% patients feel that Yelp is more trustworthy as compared to other sites for online reviews site.
Did you know that patients use the online reviews as a first step to find reviews about doctors? Here’s a finding that verifies it.
Source: softwareadvice.com
Here are a few steps you should take in order to get genuine patient reviews.
Ask for the review
Always hint or ask for the review before giving instructions to the patient. Ideally you want to use this with one of the methods mentioned below because you want to give them something they can refer back to. If you want reviews from patients, you have to give them a small hint first and then instruct them later.
Include link and QR code on appointment card
When you will print the appointment cards for them, it is a good idea to nudge them at this point. What you can do is give the direct link to your profile on the site. The fact that the patients will already be thinking about your clinic when seeing the appointment card will work in your favour and it is highly likely that they will visit the link provided to them on the card.
Include the URL and a QR code. You can make a free QR code from here.
Printed Instructions
Other than DentistFind.com the process for the patients to post a review can be difficult. To increase the success rate for those that want to post a review, have clear written instruction. Here is a sample of one for Google which is one of the most trickiest sites to find and post a review for.
Have patient fill it in the waiting room
When the patient is waiting in your waiting room to see you, it is the best time to get them fill out a review. It’s fresh in their mind and they have some extra time. A great method is to use a tablet in your office and provide it to the patients. DentistFind.com review system works well. Google and others have an algorithm , which bans suspicion reviews that are coming from the same IP address within a certain time.
In this case you can have a QR code which they can scan and lead them to the review page on their mobile phone.
TIP: For our clients we create simple URLs to direct the patients. For example WorldDental.ca/google redirects to the Google profile and WorldDental.ca/dentistfind redirects to their DentistFind.com profile which makes it easy to post reviews.
Send Emails
You may have noticed that clinics that use demandforce have a substantial amount of reviews. The method they use to get all the reviews is that they send emails to their patients after the appointment. This feature is also included in the paid upgrade of DentistFind.com.
While it would get you the same amount of reviews you can also direct the patients to your Google profile in the email. But once again be careful not to send a one time email blast. You want to scatter the reviews so Google doesn’t trigger off Google algorithm and have the reviews blocked.
Link on website
We posted a ‘Google Places’ icon on the homepage of Chef Yan’s website. If you compare the results in Google, Chef Yan gets almost the same review as his competitors ten times it’s size. When your patients are on your site they are thinking of you, and have access to post a review. Hence they will be more likely to post it than any other time. Take advantage of this unintuitive opportunity.
Software Apps
There are several software apps such as DemandForce and Reputationloop that is designed to help you get more reviews. The idea is it automate the asking of your patients to post a review. DemandForce taps into your Practice Management System and pull out patient contact and send them an email to ask for them to post a review for you. With Reputationloop which is designed for all industries you will need to upload or enter your patient emails.
The clever element in software like these is that they will contact again the patients that give you 4 or higher stars and ask them to post a review on Google, Yelp, or other review platform. DemandForce is $250/month and ReputationLoop is $90/month.
DentistFind.com has a free tool that integrates into your profile on your site. This is the easiest way to get patient referrals.
How to utilize the reviews
Having reviews on other sites will persuade many new patients but how about patients that don’t go to the review sites? There are the patients from advertisement and patients from your own site. Make sure to copy the best testimonials to the homepage or a subpage of your website. Also include the testimonials in the design of your printed advertisement. Make sure to consult with your state or province’s college/regulators.
Start implementing one of these at a time to build up a multistep patient review strategy and watch your patient reviews grow.
According to a study conducted by softwareadvice.com almost 26% of the patients will go for a doctor that is not in their insurance network only because the doctor has higher reviews that the one who is in network.
The findings also suggested that only 25% of the patients use the online reviews to research doctors. Even though this is not a very encouraging figure, you just can’t ignore this 25%, as this contributes to a major chunk of patients.
Overall, make sure that you get are able to collect as many reviews as possible from the patients and keep your information on the review sites updated.