The internet is a powerful tool for people to access information instantly and is especially convenient for researching local businesses and services. While business information is important, online reviews are playing an even larger part in a consumer’s purchasing decisions.
In fact, 82% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, with 52% of 18-54-year-olds saying they ‘always’ read reviews. For this reason, dental offices should encourage patients to leave feedback on their experience. Here’s how these reviews on platforms like Google Maps and RateMDs can benefit your dental office:
Establish Credibility
When looking up new or unfamiliar businesses, consumers rely on reviews to conjure an overall image of the business. Dental offices with high rankings and positive reviews are perceived as more trustworthy. Similarly, offices with lower ratings are often avoided.
However, the recency of the feedback also affects the consumers’ perception. Anything over three months old tends to have less impact on the consumers’ decisions. To keep your reviews fresh, it’s important to be diligent in asking patients for feedback.
Increase Patients Acquisitions
Dental offices with a good reputation would have a higher patient acquisition rate. Here are interesting statistics on how consumers are influenced:
- 67.7% of purchasing decisions are impacted by online reviews
- 84% of people trust online reviews e.g. personal recommendation
- 74% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more
By providing a memorable experience from booking an appointment to post-visit follow–ups, new and current patients are more likely to leave a positive review. This is important, as an abundance of positive reviews will inspire confidence in a new patient to give your office a try.
Room for Improvement
While not all reviews will be positive, this is still good feedback for your dental office. These reviews can help you identify areas that need improvement, such as patient wait times, customer service, professionalism, etc.
You can also use this opportunity to build on patient relationships and increase patient retention by reaching out to them directly and addressing their concerns immediately. This way, the patient will feel that their feedback is valued and in turn, you can build their loyalty.
Getting More Reviews
Knowing the importance of positive reviews for your clinic, it’s time to implement plans to ask your patients to rate their experience. Set a goal for how many reviews you want to receive per month so that you don’t exhaust the list of patients who have yet to leave a review.
Here are some ways in which you can receive more feedback:
Provide an Incentive
If you’re finding your patients hesitant about giving feedback, offering an incentive (e.g. discounts, free whitening treatment, etc.) often encourages them to do so. However, be aware that this method can lead to lower quality reviews as the patient is doing it for the incentive
Run a Newsletter Campaign
Sometimes patients aren’t aware that they can leave a review for the dental office. Sending out a Newsletter to your subscription list is a good way to make them aware. You can also run a giveaway campaign where the patients are entered into a draw for leaving a review.
Send a Direct Link
While you can mention leaving a review to a patient when they check-out, there’s a high chance that they will forget. A great way to remind them is to send a direct link after their visit so that it’s convenient for them to leave feedback right away. This can be done with our upcoming Paradigm Mobile: Reviews module. You’ll be able to send out text messages to select patients to prompt them to leave a Google review to build your reputation. You’ll also be able to send out patient surveys to receive feedback and office ratings to help improve your services.
Patient reviews are vital to a dental clinic, as they are used as reference when choosing their oral care providers. While you may not be seeing patients at the moment, this is a good time to devise a plan for when everything is back in full swing!
If you would like to learn more about how our modules can help you obtain more reviews, please contact us at sales@logictechcorp.com. We’ll be happy to share more information!