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TOP 5 WAYS TOGet Positive

Reviews

The best way to attract patients has historically been through word of mouth. In the old days, this consisted of neighbors and friends sharing information about doctors that they liked... and also those they didn’t like. In 2015, the same principle applies, but the sharing is much more widespread: With the vast majority

of Americans on the Internet, the reviews your patients leave you are more important than ever when it comes to medical marketing.

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If you don’t have a lot of reviews or, worse, if you only have a few and some of them are not as flattering as you’d like, you need to do some work in order to get your name out there in a positive light. Check out these five tips for getting positive reviews for your medical practice.

1. Check your profiles on health review sites. Make sure that your name is spelled correctly and that the address is listed accurately. If patients aren’t positive that the listing belongs to you because the site lists your first name and you are known professionally by your middle name, they’re less likely to leave a review. Some sites to double check include Vitals, Healthgrades, Yelp and RateMDs.

2. Make it part of your office staff’s job to encourage patients to leave a review. No one wants to get hassled to leave a review, so make it part of the check-out procedure instead of asking any and all staff members to ask patients to go online and write about their experiences.

3. Communicate with your patients electronically. Every time you send out an email blast or a newsletter, include a link asking for reviews on your website or websites of choice. You can also include this information on your Facebook and Google+ pages; some patients will be looking at these social media sites first, so having a five-star rating on your pages makes a great first impression!

4. Offer an incentive. Sometimes an incentive will prompt patients to leave a review even if they weren’t going to before. One caveat: Do not give the impression that you are rewarding only good reviews! One way to offer an incentive is to conduct a weekly or monthly drawing from all of the people who left reviews (positive, neutral or negative) over the given time period on your website of choice. Prizes can be related to your practice (a free dental cleaning if you are a dentist or a free skin exam if you are a dermatologist) or something like a gift card for a massage, dinner for two or even a Thanksgiving turkey!

5. Go old-school. Some of your patients are more likely to respond to requests sent via the U.S. Postal Service. Print a line on the bottom of your invoices asking for a review so anyone with a balance gets a reminder. You can also print the request on the postcards your practice sends out reminding patients to make their yearly appointments or with other health-related news.

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The danger in asking for more reviews, of course, is that you might accumulate a

few more negative reviews than you otherwise might have gotten. This

should be balanced by the greater number of positive reviews that begin

coming in; remember that if damage control becomes necessary, diluting

those negative comments with the comments from your satisfied patients is generally the way to go.

If you need additional help in gathering up positive reviews, the marketing gurus at HealthCare Marketing Group are ready to assist!

Call us today at 800.258.0702 to schedule a free consultation. We’d love the opportunity to go over what’s going right -- and what isn’t -- when

it comes to your medical marketing strategy.

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