Review Management for Physicians and Doctors
Reviews are, perhaps, the single most powerful marketing tool any business has at its disposal. This is especially true for those in the medical field where reviews might be the only way a patient has to predict their experience. In the past, a typical patient journey might look something like this: A patient may visit their Primary Care Physician (or just ask a friend), the Doctor may make a recommendation, and then the patient calls to make an appointment.
Today those steps largely hold true with the added step of, before a patient makes the appointment they will read your reviews. On top of the direct benefit of helping prospective patients confirm your fit a good review can help with SEO, can improve patient retention, and even help with local search.
Why Have a Robust Review Generation Plan?
See above. But really, a review generation strategy is a must for modern practice. It helps increase awareness, brand equity, and retention. On top of all that, it is one of the easiest plans to generate: all you have to do is ask.
Tips for Successful Review Management for Physicians
Offer a place for patients to leave feedback (negative) internally and direct testimonials (positive) to the correct place:
- For us, we prefer sending our review to Google My Business to capture the local search audience and boost SEO. Other sites can be beneficial such as ZocDoc and Yelp!
Make it as Easy as Possible for Patients to Leave Reviews:
- You can set up a QR code that sends patients to your review page
- Physicians can send follow-up emails to recent patients asking for a review
- Some offices even have tablets in the office to ask for reviews
- Our Physician clients even engage in text-based follow-up requesting reviews
Respond to Reviews (positive and negative)
- The more you respond to reviews the better. Always be nice, and never be the business owner who lashes out at a negative review. Reviews and responses are incredibly hard to take down
Post Excellent Reviews on your Website
- Self-explanatory but the more you can highlight your raving fans the better
Make it a Team Effort
- We know that Doctors (especially practice owners) have incredibly busy lives. Build a culture of excellent patient care and excellent review generation and your practice will thrive
Conclusion
Having outlined the importance of reviews and some quick tips for generating reviews our parting thoughts are this: Review management for physicians is one of the most important aspects of growing a successful modern practice; they also take very little expertise to generate. If the only difference between you and the competitor down the street is a few good reviews shouldn’t you start today?
As always, we are here for you if you have any questions or are ready for expert help. Reach us at: info@alphacomarketing.com, visit our website, or give us a call at 713-714-5229.
