One of the first aspects on your website that potential patients look for is the reviews section of your GMB listing. Having established and esteemed reviews conveys authority in the local dental industry, setting you apart from any neighboring dental clinic that may not appear as highly regarded as you. This benediction subsequently leads to greater brand visibility, as the more people choose to go to your practice, the greater the likelihood that a larger sum of people might hear about it elsewhere.
Reviews are what all established dental practices should look to master, for while it isn’t the sole determinant in obtaining a steady influx of patients, it is a facet within the nexus of bolstering the physical and online presence of a dental practice that can lead to a variety of benefits.
While there is no guarantee that your practice will obtain a grand review profile, there are a few ways that, if enacted, could set the review facet of your dental clinic apart from leading dental competitors who may not be utilizing the same strategies. In this article, I will be covering what strategies have a higher likelihood of building review repour based on years of observation and experience within the dental digital and physical landscape.
Review Discounts
One of the most overlooked yet integral components of establishing a steady review profile is providing discounts on dental services if said patient gives you a respectable testimonial. This tactic has worked for a handful of clients that I have partnered with, some of whom have thousands of reviews solely because of their discount compromise. While your services must provide patients with quality care in parallel to your practice having an established online profile, providing review discounts in junction with other various dental practice enhancement strategies truly maximizes and sets your clinic apart from the rest.
Providing excellent dental services and conveying respect through an esteemed online profile is great in its own right, but if your quality services can come at easier to expend rates for budget-conscious patients, then you have maximized three important aspects of creating a respectable, captivating, and successful dental office that would be able to yield envious results for years upon years to come. However, it is vital not to compromise your prices to a level that could hurt the ROI of your practice.
Keep the rates professional so patients know that the services you offer are of pristine quality while maintaining a noticeable level of compromise to appease a handful of patients. Once this balance is hit, you will not only increase patient retention and acquisition, subsequently bolstering revenue but your bottom line on enhancing your review profile will be met and continue to grow.
Encourage Patients to Leave a Review
This may sound very cliché, but there are noticeable improvements in a clinic review profile if you remind the patient to leave one as they are leaving. If the service they received was pleasant, and then momentarily afterward, they are encouraged to leave a review, the likelihood that they will leave a testimonial is high. This is because if your services were in fact satisfactory, the proclivity to come back to your clinic for a follow-up or other general dental procedures is significant.
The mere fact that they might return to your clinic in due time means interpersonal relationships had been or might soon be developed, resulting in the patient leaving a review no longer out of demand but out of newfound desire and appreciation for the quality care, services, and relationships built within the walls of your dental office.
Reminding patients to leave a commendation is sincerely overlooked in almost all industries, and because of that, they are missing out on a great number of potential reviews that they could have been obtaining. Instilling the thought of leaving one a review is enough to have somebody take time out of their day to do it, maybe not during their first visit, but eventfully once relationships are enhanced further with time.
While one might get discouraged seeing little to no reviews being added to their review profile utilizing this strategy, its important to recognize that no strategy is a guarantee. Rather, the probability of obtaining a handful of satisfied reviews encouraging testimonials over doing nothing at all is heavily in your favor. Encouraging reviews is a wise and sound strategy that every dental specialist should participate in, for it only takes a few seconds out of your day to say it, as the level of care you provide is going to do most of the talking.
Maximizing Reviews with SEO
Before one even thinks about building a strong review profile, first and foremost, you need to climb the ladders of the google search engine. Without an SEO-optimized website, your practice will be a mere afterthought to the local patients who see your leading competitors highly esteemed on the first page of Google. In order to counteract the dilemma of not having adequate local and global brand visibility, search engine optimization (SEO) strategies need to come into play.
Once SEO internet marketing tactics have been enacted, you will then more easily start building towards a strong review profile, as patients will begin to seamlessly find your practice online and commence purchasing your dental services through the nearing years. Implementing search engine optimization is the hardest roadblock in establishing a dental practice.
However, once this has been circumvented, you will have reduced resistance moving forward in all of your dental endeavors. In order to properly execute the SEO process, purchasing dental SEO optimization services is the wisest path to take, even if the initial expense may seem unfavorable. This is due to society’s transition into a newfound digital world where marketing has become a glaring focus in magnifying one’s dental brand, consequently rendering SEO as the most essential tool for all things that are in your clinic’s foreseeable future.
Flyers, email outreach, social media ads, and PPC advertising are temporary marketing fixes that, while they might be able to yield short-term results, are not cost-effective and do not give your brand the same level of bestowment that search engine optimization would be able to bring. SEO is the catalyst of the online world, for without SEO, nobody knows who you are, the quality of the services remains a mystery, and the lack of testimonials will degrade your practice’s credibility.
Remember, while SEO is the hardest part of the review management process, you do not have to do it alone if you partner with a qualified SEO digital marketing specialist. This affordable yearlong partnership sets the stage for your practice within the forthcoming years, allowing for greater review management opportunities and patient inflow from the ever-growing digital world, giving your clinic the edge over the hundreds of dental practices within your local and global vicinity.
Feedback Surveys
Feedback surveys are essential to have installed on your website or physically present at your dental practice. This is due to you being able to learn from what patients don’t like in order to properly transition into a more favorable dental specialist. While you won’t be able to please everybody, showing that you care by providing these surveys conveys open-mindedness and may render negative reviews obsolete due to your customer satisfaction efforts.
Responding to Google reviews also goes hand in hand with feedback surveys, as dissatisfied clients may instead take their thoughts to your Google review profile over the survey. Do not panic if this happens, as most all practices get stuck with a bad review every now and then. Maintaining composure, responding with professionalism, and having a strong concession to a need that was not met will give you the upper hand, as potential patients who read the poor review will start to see your perspective and may appreciate the effort you went through to fix the issue.
With all of this said, feedback surveys can still serve as an extra layer of resistance, as discontent patients may leave their poor reviews on the survey fields rather than going through the effort of plaguing your review profile. Not only do surveys benefit as a deterrent, but at the moment of a patient’s dissatisfaction, they might see it as the dentist showing a level of care and empathy to patient needs.
Once the survey has been submitted by a patient and you see that they did not appreciate the services provided, you will have the opportunity to swiftly message them privately and see what issues you might be able to attend to. Essentially, surveys are very valuable tools that can potentially prevent your review profile from being damaged and can help you stand out as a dental specialist who does what most leading competitors do not, such as finding valuable ways to better meet patient expectations.
