Online reviews have become a substantial component in acquiring new patients. A lot of people rely on online reviews to make an informed decision when looking for a new dentist. Patients are more likely to choose a dental practice with a higher rating, which is based on its online reviews. The higher overall rating your practice has, the better your digital storefront appears to prospective patients. Review management systems help businesses manage the online reviews they receive, minimize the bad reviews, and increase the good ones.
Public online reviews, such as Google Reviews or Facebook Reviews provide powerful leverage that can help potential patients make decisions about where to go for dental care. By proactively curating great reviews, your practice’s online presence can work towards guiding new patients to your office for treatment. How?
The first step in utilizing Review Management Software is understanding the importance of online reviews. Online reviews are not always accurate, but they are highly impactful in making decisions about where we go and what we do. Prospective patients who read positive reviews are more likely to go to that dental practice than those who read negative ones.
Understanding the Importance of Online Reviews
We have discussed the significance of acquiring positive online reviews in previous blog posts (Read: “The Art of Acquiring New Patients”). A study by the American Academy of General Dentistry found that 80% of people use online reviews to help them choose a dental office. The study also found that 68% of people who read bad reviews said they would not visit the practice, while only 16% of those who read good reviews said they would not visit.
As mentioned, understanding the prevalence of your office’s online listing and reviews, and in turn, digital reputation, is the first step in taking control of your practice’s reviews. Moreover, realizing the devastating blow that negative reviews can have on your practice’s virtual storefront should provide motivation in acquiring strong, positive public feedback.
How Review Management Makes Patient Acquisition Simple
Review Management is a proactive approach to patient acquisition. Compiling multiple positive online reviews is the best way to naturally acquire prospective patients. Negative and critical reviews, however, are particularly damaging to your online reputation. At first glance, having multiple positive reviews indicates patients are likely to have the same experience if they go to your clinic. However, negative reviews and lowered scores can easily turn prospective patients away quickly.
Review management systems can help you in acquiring positive online reviews, minimize the bad ones, and increase good ones. ABELDent provides a review management solution for your practice in the form of ABEL Reputation Management Service (RMS). By sending a link to a brief online survey patients are prompted to click on stars from 1-5 rating their experience.
- Step 1: Send an automated email to the patients that your practice saw today.
- Step 2: The patients are prompted to click on either a positive or negative reaction in the email.
- Step 3: If the patient clicks on a positive prompt, they will be brought to a page to leave a public review (such as Google or Facebook). If the patient clicks a negative indicator, they will be directed to a private form instead that goes directly to your practice. This ensures the patient can still voice their concerns and feel heard without damaging your Google score.
Reputation management systems such as ABEL RMS not only help you evade a negative review, but also provide you with an opportunity to mend a patient’s negative experience by providing a private and meaningful response. Doing this may encourage the patient to come back despite the negative experience, and may even turn into a positive review further down the road.
If you are interested in using ABELDent’s Reputation Management Service (RMS), please let us know here, or call us at 1-800-267-ABEL (2235) and press 1 to speak to our team directly.
