The Importance of Feedback & Reviews in the Healthcare Industry
The Healthcare industry, like many industries, heavily relies on reviews and constant feedback that give crucial insights on the quality of care and patient satisfaction to a large audience.
Now more and more people depend on their smartphones, laptops, and tablets to book an appointment. Therefore, feedback has become a critical aspect in new patient acquisition and retention for doctors and dentists.
These days it is almost impossible to compete in the healthcare industry without soliciting feedback from patients on your performance. The constant feedback cycle is the only proof for physicians, dentists, and practices to become patient-centric.
4 Tips To Deal With Negative Reviews From Patients
1 Respond on-time
In this super-fast inter-connected world where messages can reach from one point to another instantaneously, businesses have all the tools and resources under their disposal to close queries or work for a viable solution within 24 hours. Your support team must deal with negative reviews on time, every time before they escalate and put your practice in the bad limelight.
2 Respond in a polite manner
Always stick to professionalism and do not personally react negatively. Responding politely to criticism will put you in a better light against neutral readers helping you build trust and credibility in the long run.
3 Handle the problem directly
After acknowledging the issue, offer to handle the out of public view. Establish direct lines of communication with the patient with your official email or contact details so you can discuss and resolve the matter as per the pressing need. Once the issue is resolved, you can post a public comment outlining the agreed outcome if necessary.
4 Encourage your patients to write a review
You can encourage your patients who are happy with the services and treatments you provide to write reviews. Be careful not to risk your credibility by asking them to leave only positive reviews.
Top Review Sites Where Patients Rate You
Gaining regular reviews and feedback is a proven way to increase your visibility, ROI, and most importantly your reputation. Let us look at some of the top review sites that online users depend on:
- Google My Business Page (GMB) – The #1 tool to bring your practice to the patient’s attention, GMB is free and easy-t0-use. You are 70% more likely to get local traffic if you are listed on GMB.
- Facebook – Facebook has become an excellent place to gather your patients, share treatment information, and provide reviews. You can build a local dental seo community by posting relevant, useful, and informational content to increase your online presence.
- iwantgreatcare– This review site allows patients to search for practices and facilities based on speciality, location, and insurance.
- TopDoctors UK – More than 1 million users a month trust top doctors to handpick medical specialists.
Why are negative reviews/feedback good for your practice?
If you are running a practice, chances are that more and more people in your area will rely on online reviews to form first impressions about you. No business is perfect. You will always encounter positive, neutral, and negative feedback in this journey. While it is true that you cannot control what patients write, you can always control how you respond to negative reviews.
The best thing about responding to negative reviews is that you make your patients feel heard, and that can even prompt them to change their sentiments. As a matter of fact, negative feedback and criticism will actually make you look more credible. A study in 2013 found that more than 65% of people trust reviews more when they see both the good and the bad scores.
Example of a Bad Customer Service and How to Avoid Them
❌Wrong way to handle customer complaints
Customer – I believe my package is lost and I cannot connect to the support team. Can you help me in finding my package?
Support Team – Hi, please wait 48 hours for a business response. We appreciate your patience.
✅Right way to handle customer complaints
Customer – I believe my package is lost and I cannot connect to the support team. Can you help me in finding my package?
Support Team – Hi, we are so sorry that happened! We will connect you with a customer service team member who will be in touch shortly to assist you with this.
Manage online customer reviews efficiently by:.
- Understanding how different types of review sites work
- Registering with Google alerts to track the mentions of your business
- Registering with review sites, especially industry drive sites, so you can be alerted when a patient posts a review
- Letting patients know you are listed on various review sites and providing them with details about how to post a review
- Sharing the reviews with your in-house team and staff to grow your practice better.
How Head45 Dental Helps You Stay on top of Your Patient Reviews
Handling negative feedback and reviews is all about responding professionally to reviews in a fast turnaround time. With many review sites easily accessible to online users, your dental practice will always be subject to negative online reviews knowingly and unknowingly.
The ultimate objective is to start a dialogue in a professional manner that will not only help to take care of the patient’s concerns but also improve patient relationships in the long run.
At Head45 Dental, we help you with all types of dental marketing services such as setting up GMB account and integrate relevant platforms that will expand your dental practice reach. Be it negative or positive reviews, your dental team would be in a better position to respond thoughtfully to feedback, while also keeping in mind your broader dental brand image that remains as authentic as it can be in front of your target audience.
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