Online reviews are becoming increasingly common and many prospective patients use them as a way to evaluate potential healthcare providers. Some dental practices proactively solicit online reviews from satisfied patients whenever possible. This approach has three primary benefits:
- It’s an effective way to consistently market the practice
- It can boost your ranking among search engines since new content is frequently being posted about the practice
- It provides an opportunity for the practice to gently counterbalance any negative reviews that might be posted. After all, the best defense is a good offense.
Online reviews should not be posted by anyone employed by the practice and it’s generally and strongly recommended that businesses not pay for online reviews.
Make sure that you or someone on your staff consistently monitors the practice’s pages on major business review sites so you’re aware of what’s been posted, good or not so good. It’s a good idea to do this whether or not you’ve actively solicited reviews since it’s possible that patients have posted unsolicited reviews. In most cases, it’s enough to check only the two most popular review sites, Google and Yelp. While there are companies that manage soliciting and monitoring online reviews, many practices prefer to handle this in-house.
Be sure to review the applicable regulations issued by your state dental board and all relevant state and local laws before beginning any online marketing to ensure you’re in compliance. It’s possible that some jurisdictions may prohibit soliciting online reviews by patients.
Additional Resources:
- Guidelines for Practice Success | Resources for Managing Marketing
- Guidelines for Practice Success | Managing Marketing | Social Media - Negative Online Reviews
- Guidelines for Practice Success | Managing Marketing | Online Reviews / Social Media
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