How to Ask Dental Patients for Reviews
Reputation is an essential part of any dental practice’s success. If a patient is nervous about finding a new dentist (or going to the dentist at all), a great reputation can ease people’s concerns and encourage them to get the dental care they need. Back in the day, most people found out about different dental practices through word of mouth. Today, people are more inclined to go online. In order for your practice to have a great online reputation, you’ll need online reviews from your patients. Learn more about the benefits of online reviews and how you can request them from your dental patients.
Table of Contents
- Why Online Reviews Matter
- Common Barriers to Getting More Reviews
- How to Ask for Online Reviews
- Get more reviews with BirdEye
Why Online Reviews Matter
An improved online reputation is one of the main benefits to getting more online reviews, yet there are other benefits as well. Online reviews help your practice be found, stand out from the competition, and establish credibility.
Be Found
When most patients begin a search for a new practice, their first stop is Google. If you are not discoverable on Google, chances are you are not being discovered at all. Did you know that 75% of people don’t make it past the first page of a Google search? This means it is more important than ever to go above and beyond to rank for relevant search queries. Online reviews help you get closer to that coveted first page spot. The more online reviews you have, the higher your SEO, or search engine optimization, will be. This means that, as you get more online reviews from patients, you will rank higher and higher in Google search, helping you be found by more potential patients.
Stand Out From the Competition
Chances are, there are a few choices when it comes to dental practices in your area. Online reviews are one way you can get ahead of your competition. Imagine that a potential patient is doing a Google search of the various dental practices in the area. If your practice has multiple positive reviews, and your competitors have no reviews, you will tilt the scales in your favor. Online reviews play a big role in your patient’s decision making process, and can help you stand out from the competition.
Establish Credibility
One of the most important elements to running a successful dental practice is to have your patients trust you. Many people are afraid of going to the dentist, and they can put it off for a long time. When someone is searching for a new practice, they want to be sure that they feel comfortable. Knowing that other patients had a great experience helps calm their nerves and know that you are a credible, trustworthy practice.
Common Barriers to Getting More Reviews
Before you learn how to ask your patients for reviews, it’s important to understand common barriers practices can face when collecting online reviews.
Requests Aren’t Sent Quickly Enough
Oftentimes staff will go through the effort of sending review requests to patients, only to have very few of them respond. This can be frustrating, and even feel like a waste of time. However, there is a solution to this frustration.
It is crucial for your practice to send online review requests as soon as possible to get a high response rate. But with all of the patients your practice sees day to day, this likely isn’t practical to do yourself. This is why BirdEye’s review requests are so helpful. BirdEye boosts patient response rate by sending out review requests as soon as the patient has finished their appointment.
Manual Requests Are Time Consuming
Many dental practices have struggled with collecting more online reviews because it is a drain on the staff to send manual review requests after each patient. A dental practice needs all of its staff focused on their work to keep the practice running smoothly. Sending review requests manually takes time away from the staff’s other necessary tasks.
Instead of sending requests manually, with an online reputation management system like BirdEye, you can automate the review request process. Once a patient has completed their appointment, they will receive a review request through text or email asking them about their experience. This way each staff member of your practice can focus on their work, and your practice can collect valuable patient feedback without ever giving it a second thought.
Worried About Negative Reviews
Whenever you start collecting more customer feedback, chances are you will get some negative reviews as well. It’s impossible to please everybody. But don’t let this deter you from collecting reviews. If you are worried that negative reviews will hurt your practice’s reputation, here are some important facts to help ease your concerns.
- Let all of your customers’ voices be heard. With automatic review requests, you will be collecting feedback from all of your customers. This prevents a vocal minority from skewing your online reputation inauthentically.
- Be alerted whenever you receive negative feedback. BirdEye’s notification system alerts you whenever you get a bad review. This helps you respond quickly to solve problems before they escalate. By apologizing right away and working with the patient to solve their problem, you can turn past frustrations into opportunities.
- Negative reviews have value in their own right. Even though this may seem counterintuitive, patients don’t trust practices with perfect 5 star reviews. Some businesses have indulged in dishonest review practices like paying for good reviews, or finding ways to filter out bad reviews. This has made the public wary of any business or practice that has a perfect online reputation. When you have a few bad reviews, it proves to patients that you are interested in authentic feedback. This earns your patients’ trust even more.
How to Ask for Online Reviews
When you are asking your patients for online reviews, follow the recommendations below. These are best practices for how to ask patients for google reviews, or any other platform.
Make It Easy
When your patients leave reviews for your practice, it is ultimately a favor to you. The patient is taking time out of their day to provide you with valuable feedback. To encourage patients to leave reviews, it is imperative that you make the process as easy as possible.
Reach out to your patients through whatever communication method they prefer. With so many people being connected through mobile devices, text and email review requests work well. Remember to include the link to complete the review within your text or email. If the patient needs to do their own research to figure out how to leave your practice a review, you are putting too much of a burden on them. Instead, send your patients a quick text or email with the link to the review included so that all they need to do is click to leave you a review.
Make It Prompt
If you wait to send a review request, the customer will likely forget about their experience and be less inclined to leave a review. In order to get the most valuable information, send your customers review requests right after their interaction with your business.
By sending timely review requests, you also increase the chances of getting a response. If you wait too long, your patients might think that their opinion isn’t valuable. With prompt, timely review requests, you will increase the chances of response, and show your patients that their feedback matters.
Make It Clear
Using precise language shows your patients exactly what you need from them. If the language in your review request is not formal or clear enough, you will make your patients think that their reviews aren’t important. Be clear in your intention when requesting a review. Here’s an example dental office review template:
“Thank you for choosing [name of practice here]. Please leave us a review at your earliest convenience. Every review provides us with valuable feedback to keep making our practice better. Thank you! [insert link here].”
The clearer your review request is, the better the better chance you have of getting a response from your patients.
Get more reviews with BirdEye
Help your practice get valuable, timely reviews with BirdEye. This customer experience and reputation management platform has everything your practice needs to get the patient feedback you desire. Create a seamless review request process, monitor your patient responses, and get notified when patients leave new reviews. So, what are you waiting for? Start collecting patient feedback for your practice today!