Reputation Management for
Dentists
A simple google search of ‘Dentists in Newark, New Jersey’ gives over 200 results. If one is to decide upon a dental practice by going online, the first thing they will check is the reviews. Dentist Reputation management thus becomes an essential part of your practice’s business operations.
With so many options by our side nowadays, choosing the best and fitting service for us can sometimes feel daunting. What do we usually do in such situations? Ask those who we trust the most, our friends and family. Sometimes our needs and their experience don’t align. And so, we turn to the internet! Therefore it is very important to know what is online reputation management and what it can do for your practice. In the present digitally-centered world, managing your online reputation isn’t an option, but a necessity.
What is dentist reputation management?
Dentist reputation management includes actively being involved in the process of managing, responding, requesting, and keeping track of reviews. These reviews are mostly found on review platforms. The process also involves identifying negative and positive reviews and responding to them according to pre-established strategies.
Identifying fake reviews that might be damaging to your practice reputation is also an integral part of the dentist reputation management process.
When a potential patient searches for your practice online, how they perceive your practice will be based on what they read about your practice on the internet. The biggest contributor in establishing a good reputation thus becomes having a firm grip on your reviews and what patients are saying about you online!
Why do dentists need reputation management?
Imagine someone has a dental emergency. They quickly look up a dental clinic near them and see about 10 results. Out of these results, one shows 8 reviews, and two others show a 4-star review. Out of these 4 star rated clinics, one has over 200 reviews, and the other one just 10.
It’s crystal clear that the first clinic is out of the picture because it lacks credibility.
The other two, while they both have stellar reviews, differ in a very major aspect i.e the number of reviews. One of them succeeds the other stupendously. When almost 200 patients have had good things to say about a clinic, over just 10 it clearly shows how well sought out and credible that particular practice is.
To achieve this status of the 4 star reviewed dental clinic with over 200 reviews, you need to pay attention to these two things :
1. Collecting a decent number of reviews for your dental clinic
2. Collecting quality reviews and responding to these reviews.
So, how should you go about doing these?
The good news is most people like sharing their experiences and opinions. When asked almost 70% of customers said that they would gladly leave a review. The key here is, of course, asking. There are a number of ways you can go about asking your patients for reviews.
- You can have your staff call them up after an appointment and request for a review
- Send an email to your patients requesting a review
- Send a text message to your patients requesting a review.
All these methods have their advantages and can be applied according to your benefit. While calling your patients will grab their attention, it is oftentimes difficult to get hold of people through telephone calls. It’s important to call them at the right time, or your message just might go to voicemail.
Text messages have a supreme advantage in that the read rate of text messages is 98%!
That means that it’s almost entirely certain that your message will be read.
A combination of both text and email review requests sent to your patients will certainly help you gather more reviews!
Studies suggest that customers pay attention to both negative and positive reviews when looking for reviews. Before sending review requests, you might want to filter out those patients who you know are most likely to say good things. However, do not shy away from asking for feedback from those patients who might have to say things on the contrary. These can prove to be a vast repository of knowledge to better operations in your practice.
With Emitrr, you can allow your patients both options: leaving a review or leaving feedback.
The second thing that is imperative in dentist reputation management is a response to the reviews received. If you are using Emitrr’s software you will be able to receive a notification as soon as someones leave a review for your practice. Responding to reviews in a timely manner is also very important as it reflects how seriously you take patient feedback.
It is also important to note that, if someone leaves a negative review and you do not respond to it, it will cause a lot of harm to your practice reputation. Another imperative part of dentist reputation management is learning how to respond to negative reviews.
Keeping an eye on reviews across different platforms can be a little difficult. With Emitrr, you will be able to see the reviews left by patients on review platforms such as Google and Facebook under one dashboard. You can view all the reviews and respond to them too!
Which review sites are important for dentists?
Speaking of review platforms, there are a lot of them out there. But which of them, should a dentist pay attention to?
The review platform giants Facebook and Google take precedence over all other platforms.
Given that having a google my business listing is absolutely essential for every dental clinic, paying attention to google reviews is quite important.
People use google search and google maps to find clinics around them. Both of these have a review option and people with or without google accounts can easily leave a review.
Takeaway – Claim your GMB listing if you don’t have one, or always keep your listing updated if you do have one!
Facebook is another platform where people love giving reviews and recommendations. Because Facebook is a platform that connects friends and family, the reviews they share are taken seriously.
Healthgrades and yelp are other popular review sites where you can find patients looking around for the best dentist in town!
In summary, dentists need to pay attention to reputation management not just to prove their credibility but also to generate more revenue. The more your practice’s brand is portrayed in a good light, the more patients you will get.
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