December 21, 2021 | Net Health

3 Minute Read

The Key to Better Online Reviews in Healthcare Is in the Details

Online reviews in the healthcare industry have quickly turned from a nice addition to your marketing strategy to a must-have necessity. Recent studies show that over 90% of people use online reviews in some capacity to evaluate healthcare providers.1

Often, this can lead to panic and a feeling of needing to do something drastic. However, an uncalculated and emotionally-reactive response is not the way to win in the online realm. The key to earning better online healthcare reviews lies in the details.

In this article, we want to take a look at a few key lessons that can help healthcare organizations get their online reviews and presence on the right track.

Remembering the Value of a Review to the Customer

What does a client stand to gain by leaving a review for your practice? If we’re being honest, the value generally is close to zero. That customer has already gotten what they need from you and gains nothing from leaving you a glowing review. Sure, you could incentivize them for a review, but that usually goes against the Terms of Service of most review platforms.

Why is this important? It’s important because we need to realize that clients are doing us a favor when they leave us a review. They’re going out of their way to help us when there’s no real tangible gain for them. What this means is that we need to try and make the review process as simple and user-friendly as possible.

For example, which of the following is easier on the client:

• Sending them a direct link to easily leave a review or just asking them to leave a review somewhere?

• Sending them a review request shortly after their visit when it’s fresh in their mind or weeks or months later when they have to work to remember their experience?

Additionally, it’s important to stress the importance of the review to earn the buy-in and follow-through from your client. If they genuinely had a great time and you share how important a review is to you, your company, and future patients—they’re more likely to leave one. But if you just tell them you’d like a review without really selling the ‘why,’ it may fall flat. That simple detail can be the difference in how many successful reviews you convert.

Take a Lesson from the Tortoise

The classic children’s story of the tortoise and the hare isn’t just the key to getting the kids to sleep at night, but it also brings a great lesson for healthcare organizations looking to improve their online presence. Slow and steady wins the race. Succeeding in the online review game is not about one big grandiose gesture that’s the end-all solution. It’s about doing the small right things consistently day in and day out until you start to build meaningful and lasting results.

Want to learn the actionable steps you can start taking today to improve the quality of your organization’s healthcare reviews? If so, we’d invite you to get your free copy of our newest e-book titled 4 Pro Tips to Master Online Reviews. In it, our team of experts dives deep into the steps needed to take your online presence and review footprint to the next level.

If you’re ready, get your free copy of the e-book now!

4 Pro Tips to Master Online Reviews in Healthcare

Resources

1 Softwareadvice.com, “How Patients Use Online Review,” 2020.

Share this post

Subscribe and See More