If you want to increase new customers and to manage your reputation online, then getting good reviews is crucial for any dental practice. This is a huge part of reputation management, as well as general dentist marketing.
The problem though, is that getting good reviews online is remarkably difficult – even if you are genuinely providing an excellent service. The problem is that most people can’t be bothered to write a review unless they feel particularly moved to. And the main way that that happens is if you do something wrong and upset them. Provide the service that is ‘expected of you’ and you’ll be less likely to get a good review.
That’s why you should follow the below tips to start getting much better reviews so you can grow your business.
Under Promise, Over Deliver
One strategy for getting good reviews to grow your business is to ‘under promise’ and ‘over deliver’. This means that you will marginally lower expectations, such that you are seen to have gone ‘above and beyond’ for the customer. This in turn makes them feel obligated and is thus more likely to trigger a good review.
How might you do this as a dental practice? One example would be to add a couple of minutes to the wait time thus that they are ‘pleasantly surprised’ to be seen quickly. Another strategy is to give free gifts – especially to your younger clients.
Ask!
Another way to get better reviews online is to simply ask your patients to leave a good review if they felt they had good service. You can do this through social media or in person. Note that often people just don’t think to leave reviews, so don’t be afraid to give them a little nudge in the right direction.
Respond
Of course if you do get bad reviews, you can always respond to them on most sites. This way you can put forward your story and this is a good way to reduce the damage that can be done by a bad review. If you respond well and are sincere, you may even find that the person who left the review decides to change their rating and comments!
Better yet, you can also try using dental marketing companies to try and change which of the reviews are most visible to web users and to try and get your own site to rank above the review sites.