Online reviews for your hospital or practice have the potential to ramp up your revenue generation. To increase the likelihood of being booked for a consultation by a patient, you must vie for a high average rating and a minimum number of reviews. Consider this: it takes reading about 40 reviews for a person to gauge if the feedback reflects the score or stars your service has garnered.
Learning how to get more reviews may be daunting, as well as time-consuming, for busy practitioners and hospital administrators. But those who want to elevate their healthcare business can focus on devising a review generation strategy.
This strategy can include these practical tips we’re about to share on how to ask for a review. You can choose to streamline the process by yourself or call in a professional team or partner. We also run through the tactics related to building an online presence, such as:
• How to get more Google reviews
• How to get more Yelp reviews
Go ahead and read our super-quick five-step resource on healthcare reputation management – you’ll be finished before you can flip your “Doctor Is In” sign at the door.
1. Know Where To Find Patient Reviews of Doctors
With online reviews taking second place as the most trusted source of information among healthcare consumers, next to word-of-mouth, you should be aware of where people are posting their feedback. Patient reviews of doctors, dentists and other healthcare providers are found on various sites. Some cater to all kinds of practitioner and hospital reviews, while others focus on one specialization.
Get to know five of the most reliable medical review sites out there.
- Healthgrades: There’s no single tactic on how to get more reviews on Google. But this platform could help you achieve that objective. With 1 million daily active users, this trusted and popular resource can bolster your hospital’s or clinic’s healthcare reputation management.
- RateMDs: Add this site to your arsenal of physician reputation management tools. It provides options to rate and review doctors based on patient satisfaction.
- Vitals: Increase your online presence, boost your listing and generate more patient reviews on this resource for gathering information about certified healthcare providers. After claiming your listing (more on this below), you can start building solid relationships with your patients.
- Doctor.com: Your doctor reputation management won’t be complete without this site. Here, doctors can be verified and gain amplified exposure on search engines through its three-tiered program.
- Wellness: Your doctor reputation management won’t be complete without this site. Here, doctors can be verified and gain amplified exposure on search engines through its three-tiered program.
Aside from industry-specific review sites, here are several well-known platforms that include doctor reviews. They’re so popular that their listings often appear in search engine results. Enhance your physician online reputation management by understanding and using the following review sites:
- Google My Business: No need to go elsewhere when you’re strategizing how to get more Google reviews. The search giant has its own local business listing platform. And it may include your information in search results for relevant queries.
- Yelp: If you’re wondering why you need to learn how to get more Yelp reviews, just check out the patient reviews of doctors on the online directory. The ratings and feedback correlate with care quality, according to a peer-reviewed study.
- Facebook: Social media plays a critical role in physician reputation management. Specifically, with 2.8 billion monthly active users, the channel’s real-time business rating system is ripe for raising brand awareness, engaging customers and acquiring more leads.
2. Claim Your Listing on Review Sites
You may come across a pre-made profile on any of the medical review platforms cited above. This is generated based on your publicly available information, but you can claim your listing and start optimizing its content. Doing so allows you to be verified by the review sites, expand your digital footprint, enhance your visibility and encourage more people to leave physician reviews.
Adding search-friendly details in your profile also boosts your doctor reputation management strategy. Ensure your name, address and phone number (NAP) are correct, write a complete business description and apply the proper categories. Physician reputation management experts also emphasize placing consistent information across all your listings.
3. Encourage Patients To Leave Reviews
Here at Thrive Reviews, we often tell clients and readers that the best way to get a customer review is to just ask for it. However, it’s understandable why hospitals and private practices hesitate to request unbiased doctor reviews. The question of whether it’s professional to do so comes to mind. While it seems natural for a plastic surgeon to get physician reviews and ratings from clients, would it be appropriate for a neurologist or oncologist?
As long as you keep things professional and simple, we believe that asking for doctor, dentist or hospital reviews is well within reason. It’s an integral part of the customer experience these days. Some patients even expect it. In order for you to “just do it,” here are tips on how to get more physician reviews on Google, Yelp and the specific medical review sites:
Ask After an Appointment
Sometimes, figuring out how to ask for a review from customers does not require high technology or complicated processes. According to Tim Clarke, Thrive Reviews’ senior reputation manager, “[You] can have the staff at the front desk area give a brief, verbal reminder [to leave a review] to the patient as they leave and schedule the next appointment.”
Place the Reminder on Printed Materials
If you’re giving out business cards or appointment cards during each consultation, you may include your review request in them. This option also caters to those who aren’t technologically savvy.
While sending a text message or SMS seems a valid alternative, too, we can’t do SMS in the medical industry because of privacy issues,” said Clarke.
Set Up an Automated Email Campaign
It’s commonplace today to collect patients’ email addresses. So, if you get stuck wondering how to ask for a review from customers, let your email marketing do the work for you. If you’ve won their consent to receive newsletters and promotional materials, send an email reminder for them to write a review. Timing is also vital in your physician online reputation management. Use the short window post-appointment, when the experience is still fresh in their minds.
Alternatively, specialists on how to ask for a review from customers or get more Google reviews advise sending a “thank you” note when sending out a survey. In the email survey, link them to your website, where they can access your preferred review platforms.
Seal the Deal on Social Media
Try this marketing channel to improve your branding, patient engagement and lead generation. Social media is accessible to many people. And leaving ratings and reviews happens seamlessly on these platforms.
4. Respond to Online Reviews
Responding to patient reviews in a timely and professional manner can leave an impression on past and potential patients. SoftwareAdvice found in their study that almost 71 percent of patients get their first impression of a practitioner, clinic or hospital through online reviews.
Review response also nudges curious individuals to check out your healthcare business and services. Even negative feedback can improve your physician online reputation management if you respond with calmness, reason and confidentiality. In the same SoftwareAdvice survey, 38 percent said it’s moderately important to get a response to negative, unbiased doctor reviews, while 28 percent deemed it highly important. Indeed, it would help people see how you value patient experiences and opinions and good communication practices. And in turn, you earn their trust and their business.
5. Make Automation a Part of Your Review Generation Strategy
Generally, tons of authentic and unbiased doctor reviews (some consumers can spot fake reviews fast) can entice others to post their reviews too. How do you acquire more healthcare professional and hospital reviews for your doctor reputation management to reach this level?
You already know that you have to employ the steps above. However, these can be time-consuming and even overwhelming in reality. This is where automation for generating more doctor reviews comes in. As we said earlier, email campaigns and other feedback acquisition processes can be automated, “so [doctors and hospitals] don’t need to manually send patient lists,” said Clarke.
With solutions like what Thrive Reviews offers, we can also “integrate with any major medical software or electronic health record (EHR) system to fully automate review generation and monitoring,” he added. “This allows doctors and staff to fully outsource these efforts, save a ton of time and avoid headaches.”
5. Make Automation a Part of Your Review Generation Strategy
By nurturing your patients and ensuring they receive the best service and have a pleasant experience, you delve into how to get more reviews on Google, how to get more Yelp reviews and how to get more reviews on healthcare review sites.
But let’s face it. Your job can be demanding of your time, health, energy and other resources. Entrusting your review generation strategy to experienced professionals is the most critical choice you can make.
As we mentioned above, Thrive Reviews offers review management automation solutions through our online reputation management software. Among our specialized tactics are review generation, review monitoring and survey campaign management.
Increase your patient reviews and improve physician reviews and ratings just like this client. Contact us to schedule a quick assessment of your current standing and find out how we can help you reap the benefits of a patient review generation deep dive.
