You might believe providing excellent service to your patients is the cornerstone for making them revisit you and do your mouth-to-mouth publicity. While that’s mostly true, these modern times have changed a lot. And for good! Now, online reviews play an essential hand in influencing clients. Including dental patients reviews.
As per a Zendesk survey, 90 percent of respondents indicated positive online reviews affected their purchasing choice, while 86 percent said unfavorable reviews impacted their decision.
Google and other search engines recognize the value of offering excellent business listings to their visitors (your potential patients). So, if your listing has a hundred four and 5-star ratings, search engines will take notice of your excellent online reputation, resulting in a higher ranking on search results pages.
Because 91 percent of Google users never scroll past the first page, you should ensure that you are on it.
So now you may wonder how to ask your dental patients to leave reviews? You want to employ strategies that won’t look unprofessional and will also get the work done, so let us discuss some ways.
Why Do Reviews Matter?
Consumers use reviews to assess healthcare providers before scheduling visits. So if you have good informative reviews, the patients are more likely to choose your practice than your competitors. Let us discuss what makes reviews so effective when selecting a new service provider.
#1: Your Visibility Is Boosted By Online Reviews
Google prioritizes local businesses depending on their reviews. If you have enough favorable reviews, then your practice has a higher chance of securing Google Local Map listings, which promote companies that Google has verified.
Your average review rating is highlighted in the listings to help consumers choose your clinic over others in your region.
#2: Online Reviews Aid In The Differentiation Of Your Dental Practice From The Competition.
When your target audience is looking for a dentist, online dental patients reviews can influence their decision-making process, influencing them to choose your practice over others in the region.
Reviews may indicate the services you provide. It can highlight the team members who provide outstanding service or give feedback regarding your expertise.
#3: Online Reviews Help To Establish Reputation And Trustworthiness.
Whenever someone provides a review that praises your abilities and knowledge, it sends a message to the prospective client that your practice is reliable.
One way to look at it is that online reviews can assist in clarifying any doubts that prospective patients may have and make them feel more confident in their decision to visit your practice. Online reviews can also help you enhance your dental SEO and bring in new patients.
This can make a significant difference if you live in a region where you deal with multiple other practices.
The Obstacles To More Reviews In Dental Practices
#1: Waiting Too Long
You’ve been putting off requesting patient reviews for far too long. People are more inclined to post reviews after leaving your dental clinic in the hours and days following their visit.
If you wait too long to ask them, they might not feel as eager as they would right after exiting your office with satisfying results.
#2: Avoiding Automation
You are not taking advantage of digital ways of requesting reviews but are still relying on asking them in person. Your team members may not get the chance to ask patients for reviews one at a time if they are occupied all day.
Asking for reviews can become time-consuming if you don’t use automation.
#3: Fear Of Bad Reviews
You’re concerned about bad ratings. We all want good feedback. However, you can’t let your fear of negative feedback stop you from asking for it online.
While you may aim for perfection, no one succeeds 100 percent of the time. Even negative criticism can help you solve a problem you may not even know existed.
10 Ways To Ask For Dental Patients Reviews
#1: Send An Email With A Personal Touch
Asking new and long-term dental patients reviews via email is the most basic option. Dental email marketing is cost-effective and can aid in the development of patient trust.
When a new patient arrives at your clinic, please make a note of their email address on the introductory paperwork. You may add them to your email list and contact them after you’ve served them to ask for a review.
Thank them for visiting you, and urge them to leave a review in the email. You can make it simple by providing a link to your Google listings.
#2: Talk With Them In Person
Ask patients to submit a review of your practice while they’re in your office for an appointment. Don’t inquire during a cleaning or treatment, but you can ask when you are done with the treatment. You can even have a staff member do the task for you.
Ask them when they are the most likely to be happy! Typically, that will happen after they’ve received the treatment but before they’ve paid.
This type of face-to-face engagement is not for everyone, but if you are comfortable with being upfront, you should give it a shot. You can even give out a business card or a flyer with links to your review sites.
#3: Request For Reviews On Social Media
Getting your practice on social media is essential if it isn’t already there. You don’t have to be everywhere all of the time. Having just a Facebook profile might help you gain more exposure and help you engage with current and potential patients.
You may even be able to remind patients who haven’t visited you in a while about the treatments and services you provide by posting relevant and informative content on your dental practice’s social media.
4. Ask Through Direct Mail
Direct mail solicitation of reviews may appear to be an outdated strategy. It can, however, be successful because a letter is harder to ignore than an email or a Facebook post.
Bulk mailing costs are still reasonably priced. Receiving mail from you can seem more personalized and intriguing to some patients than receiving an email. Because this shows you took the effort to send them something, this can make them more inclined to leave a review.
5. Request Reviews Through Your Website
Do patients use your website to make appointments or ask questions? If that’s the case, you could choose to include a call to action (CTA) on the sites asking for feedback.
If the patient sees the CTA on your site, the repeat clients who haven’t rated your practice before may be motivated to do so. A direct link to a third-party review site should be included in your CTA. We recommend directing individuals to Google because ratings there has the most influence.
6. Cards For Appointments
When someone sets a new appointment, handing out appointment cards is an excellent approach to reduce no-shows. You may not realize that it’s a great approach to attract them to leave you a review.
We recommend writing the URLs for your Google and Facebook listings on the back of the card, then requesting the patients on the spot to take a look.
7. Instructions For Reviewing At Home
A few patients may have never posted an online review before and will require assistance. Providing them with take-home instructions can assist less-experienced employees in completing the review process.
The URLs of your web listings and some direction on what to put in a review should be included in your guidelines. You may, for example, ask patients to describe which services they received, who attended them, and how their experience went.
When customers are unsure what to write, simply offering some advice will help them overcome any apprehensions they may have about leaving an online review.
8. Free Products For Marketing
Many dentists purchase inexpensive promotional things to offer to their patients. These products are a low-cost solution for keeping your brand in the forefront of people’s minds in between sessions. Few items, such as pencils, pens, lip balms, toothbrushes, etc., are great for promotional products.
If you are giving promotional products, they should be printed with your name and contact information. Consider including the URL of your Google or other review sites with a note to encourage more dental patients reviews.
Everyone enjoys a freebie, and those who receive your promotional gifts will be compelled to reciprocate by providing a review.
9. Postcards
They’re small and cheap to print, and if used correctly, they can inspire individuals to submit online reviews about their interactions with you.
Sending postcards out after you’ve had a significant event, such as a business anniversary or a service expansion, is the finest way to go. You can even send a postcard following up with the patient after an appointment. This can earn you plenty of positive reviews from individuals who just forgot you asked them previously for a review.
10. Messages Sent Through Text
Text messaging has become increasingly popular as a tool for dentists to communicate with their clients. Texts are easier to read and respond to than emails. Also, they have a greater open rate.
While reminding the patients about their next appointment through text, add a request for the dental patients reviews along with it. After reading the appointment text, the recipient already thinks of you, so they are way more likely to leave a review.
The most suitable time to do it is shortly after an appointment or operation when the experience is fresh.
Assisting Patients During The Review Process
Sometimes, when you speak with patients about reviews, they may be hesitant or fearful of writing one. If that’s the case, you can offer some basic advice on what to do next.
We’re not talking about telling reviewers what to say about you. Instead, we’re simply providing them with some recommendations to get them going.
Provide Examples Of Good Reviews
The first step you can take is getting a few reviews on your accounts to show patients examples of well-written dentist reviews. If you already have a listing on another review site, simply send them to that page and recommend that they read other reviews for inspiration.
But if you’re just starting and don’t yet have any dental patients reviews already, get an example or sample review from another dental business account and share it with your clients.
Highlights To Mention In A Review
One major thing that can be useful for patients who wish to write reviews is to provide them with a list of possible subjects to cover in their reviews.
Topics include clinic hygiene or design, service quality, processing times, quality of dental treatments, advanced technologies, patient satisfaction experience, and so on.
You may assist them in getting started by giving them details to include in their reviews.
How To Moderate Review Websites?
It’s critical to obtain reviews for your dental business, but your work doesn’t stop there. You’ll also need to get into the practice of moderating review sites to avoid having your reputation tarnished by a bad review.
Nobody likes receiving negative feedback, yet most businesses must deal with it at some point. How you respond to unfavorable evaluations can significantly impact how prospective patients see your practice.
Even if you’re not in charge of assessing reviews, we recommend checking in regularly to ensure everything is running smoothly. Future reviews may be impacted if existing reviews are not replied to immediately or managed appropriately.
Conclusion
These are just a few ways to ask your dental patient to leave reviews, but don’t stop here and get creative, as you don’t want your methods to get repetitive and old.
Writing online reviews and soliciting comments are both popular practices. Urge your patients to offer their opinions frequently, soon becoming second nature to you.
Being diverse using several ways will enable you to reach out to a wide range of people. Your online reputation will flourish in no time with a little effort!
Another important step towards a flourishing online presence is claiming your business listings on major multiple review websites. One such review website is ReviewFoxy.com, where hundreds of businesses like you have claimed their listings. Because the more review listings you have, the better!
