Cheerful,Female,Dentist,Holding,Drill,And,Smiling,Near,PatientIn the last decade, social media and digital presence have become absolutely indispensable for growing your dental practice. We live in a world that is more intricately connected than ever. More and more, customer loyalty and trust are becoming cornerstones of a good doctor-patient relationship.

At the same time, the web is becoming saturated with content. This overwhelming wave of data, accurate and inaccurate, means that, while the internet is still a good place to find reliable information, it can sometimes be misleading.

As a dental practice, how is your team supposed to communicate your professional integrity and values of care? The average patient is used to standardized website and social media text, and though it is useful to highlight positives about your practice, most businesses make similar claims about themselves.

So, how can you differentiate your practice? When standard marketing is not enough to get your message across, the answer is simple: let your patients talk you up!

Since they’ve been around for some time, we tend to forget the power of publicizing online reviews, but feedback remains one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal.

Highlighting your feedback is simple. Our marketing team has put together these quick tips, based on data from the 2022 BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey, so you can be sure that patients respond to your reviews and feel incentivized to leave positive reviews of their own.

Tips for Prioritizing Online Reviews

  • 67% of people will consider leaving a review for a positive experience, while 40% will consider leaving a review for a negative experience. If a patient has a positive experience, they are far more likely to write about it than if they have a bad one. So, if people are leaving reviews, it means you’re not only providing top-notch dental care, but ensuring a customer service experience that is positive and noteworthy.
  • 89% of consumers are ‘highly’ or ‘fairly’ likely to use a business that responds to all of its online reviews. So don’t leave anybody hanging! Respond to both positive and negative reviews with professionalism. Never get defensive. Always be understanding.
  • Avoid fake reviews. 62% of consumers believe they’ve seen a fake review for a local business in the past year, which doesn’t bode well for those companies. This new generation of patient is focused on a human connection with their dental clinic, and faked feedback flies in the face of this promise.
  • If you don’t have a Patient Feedback section on your website, or if it’s hidden in a sea of copy that makes it impossible to find, it’s time to change that. 98% of consumers claimed to read reviews for local businesses, with 78% using the Internet to find out info more than once a week. Your patients need an easy digital path and unobstructed access to your testimonials, so that you can get your core mission across to them.
  • Turning a bad situation into a good one is important. 80% of consumers say they would be ‘likely’ or ‘highly likely’ to leave a review if they initially had a negative experience that was turned into a very positive experience. So, never treat a disgruntled consumer as a lost cause; treat them as an opportunity to earn even more goodwill for your practice!

In simple terms: customers believe other customers. If your practice wants to prioritize patient-centered care, it starts before your patients even walk through the door. It starts with the message you are sending out.

ProspectaMarketing can help you highlight and prioritize online reviews in order to make your team approachable and put your patients at-ease. We are an experienced Internet marketing firm specializing in dental practices and the tools of Internet marketing. We help you reach key prospects who are looking for what your practice has to offer. Our unique and thorough approach provides visibility, financial accountability, and ongoing refinement and improvement. You can find out more by contacting Lane Anderson toll-free at 1-877-322-4440 Ext 101, by email using the form on our Contact Us page, or online at ProspectaMarketing.com.