When it comes to your medical practice, having a strong online presence and reputation is absolutely necessary to acquire new patients and prevent referral leakage.

Today, there are so many ways that patients can share their feedback, communicate with others, and let you know how you did in caring for their needs with just a click of a button. One of the most critical and widespread forms of reviewing any business is through Google reviews!

How do Google Reviews Work?

Google assists the consumer (or patient) by providing everything they need to make an informed choice with ease. When leaving candid reviews, consumers help other consumers by providing an inside perspective of what the business, product, or service is like. One great review can produce another new patient and one bad review can cost you that new patient.

Just as Google users consider a restaurant’s star ratings when they're deciding on where to go for dinner, it's the same when deciding on which doctor's office to go to for medical care.

Side Fact:

90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business and 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

How to get more Reviews

If you believe that any of your patients seem happy with your service, request them to leave a positive Google review online. If they feel compelled, they will share their favorable views without any hesitation. Patients can rank your practice from one to five stars, and they also can leave comments. Your objective should be to collect at least a few genuine 5-star Google reviews every week. These positive Google reviews will not only help in improving your online reputation but more importantly – getting more patients to your office!

How to turn Negative Reviews into an Opportunity

When your medical practice’s staff has been working so hard to provide excellent care for your patients, reading a negative online review can be upsetting to say the— least. However, you can use negative feedback as an opportunity to alert your practice to issues that live in your blind spots.

What would you rather have?

A big drop in returning patients with no explanation as to why OR a candid review that tells you what might be causing patient dissatisfaction?

If a patient was too shy to tell you or your staff about an issue during their visit, they may be emboldened to post about it on a Google review. As much as you don’t want to read Any bad reviews, you can still extract honest patient experience issues and use the bad reviews as improvement opportunities.

The main goal after reading a negative review for your business should be to improve on patient experience; in doing so, it will limit future negative reviews and build on the positive ones.

Positive Patient Reviews of Doctors Make Up for the Negative

Even if your practice accumulates a couple low star reviews, the positive reviews WILL make up for the negative ones. Google reviews for doctors are also a great PR opportunity! By having someone at your business reply to your practices reviews, both <negative and positive> it’s a great way to build goodwill and trust; and shows patients you care about what is being said.

When you respond empathetically and request to resolve an issue in a private channel, those who are reading a negative review will instantly see your thoughtful and caring reply. This tells potential patients that you and your practice are actively engaged in providing a high quality of care.

Responding to positive reviews, tells prospective patients that you do care about them having a great experience and that they are not just a number.

Why it’s Not good to have NO Google reviews

When a medical practice is new, it may not have any online patient reviews for its doctors yet. While no reviews mean there are no negative comments to influence consumer opinion, there are also no positive comments – so your practice can be upstaged by a competitor with a 4.7-star rating listed right above yours.

Get started now by soliciting reviews so you can build a strong online profile on Google.

How Great Reviews Impact Your Local Search Ranking

When you do a search for a term or phrase that brings local search results, the shortlist of three businesses you see at the top is known as Google’s “local pack.” These are the websites that are relevant to your search and have also garnered high star ratings.

The top three results will get the most visibility in local SEO (search engine optimization) search. The medical practices that have consistently high star ratings are in the best position to edge out a competitor for Google’s top search results

Hire Experts to help

Achieving a five-star rating for your business is a huge accomplishment. It takes lots of work and bumps in the road. So, if you’ve had a peek at your medical practice’s Google reviews and know you can do better, our Google experts here at ModFXMedia are here to give your business a boost. With our experience in marketing and google services for doctors and other medical professionals, we’ve grown client’s reviews by 160% or more and can help your business do the same.
Our team knows how to best handle existing reviews and how to ramp up your online reputation velocity by bringing in more positive ones. Call us today (904)673-7587 or click here for our contact form!