Why Online Reputation Management Should Matter to a Doctor’s Office
A doctor’s office will always be in need since you’re providing vital care to folks, and this reality can make it easy for some professionals to ignore their online reputation. You know you’re needed, so you’ll always have a business. If you want to grow, this is more important than you could imagine. The following are a few reasons you need to invest some time and money into online reputation management.
Update Online Listings
Having an eye on your online reputation helps you keep track of all of the listings about your doctor’s office. Often, a new listing pops up without your knowledge. If you’re monitoring where your business is, you’ll be able to catch these listings and update them. Failure to do so can lead to incorrect information. If a potential customer finds you there and follows the incorrect information, you’ll end up with a bad reputation. Maybe these folks will visit your office at the wrong hours or will try to call and be unable to reach you if the number is wrong. These individuals need your help, and it’s your job to make sure they’re able to reach you, which is why this is a smart move.
An In-Depth Patient Insight Review
The benefits of online review management for medical professionals is that medical professionals get to absorb a tremendous amount of patient insight. Patients aren’t always willing to tell you or your staff what they think of the service you’ve provided. It’s easier for folks to be honest and unfiltered online, which is what you’ll find if you monitor your online reviews. Yes, some of these reviews might be hurtful, and you’ll need to work on improving your online reviews, but they can be helpful as well. You’ll learn if your staff needs to be more personable or if there are communication issues, like if a patient is on hold too long when they call the office. These little details can help you modify the care you give your patients and improve your practice overall.
A Good Opportunity to Be Responsive
The next thing you’ll be happy about is that your office will be more responsive to patient complaints. Having an online review management team means you’ll be able to respond to your patients online, and that’ll help improve your online reputation. Customers want to feel heard and valued. Potential customers love to see that you’re engaging with patients because they know they’ll get the same attention. If you’re responsive, you can show potential clients you’re willing to solve problems for folks even if they say something negative. When you respond to customers, be sure your team is as honest as possible. Don’t make promises you know you won’t keep. Highlight the changes you’ve made to solve past problems.
Fighting Back Against Fake Reviews
Having a management team monitor these reviews also helps reduce the chances of dealing with fake reviews. This is a major problem that businesses, including doctor’s offices, have to deal with. Sometimes, these fake negative reviews come from competitors who are just trying to lure your patients over to their side. Other times, fake reviews come from folks who know angry patients, and they just want to support this person. To catch fake reviews, you need to respond to them and find out if the incident they’re talking about actually happened. Call out fake reviews to restore your online reputation. Not all fake reviews come from outside the business; there are a few frustrated doctor’s offices out there that pay to get better reviews, which is not a good idea. Search engines can discover these and flag you.
Get a Competitive Advantage Through Monitoring
Monitoring your online reputation also helps you gain that competitive edge if you pay attention. You’ll have to find out what’s working for your competitors through some of their online reviews. For example, you might find out many of their customers are happy about your competitors’ online appointment process. Maybe folks aren’t saying this about your practice, so examine why your competitors’ online appointment process is easier. See what you can do to modify your own. Examine everything your competitors are doing right, and improve on your weaknesses using online reviews. You also want to highlight the aspects of your practice that folks fall in love with.
Now, you know why online reputation management is important for practices like yours. Don’t let all of the valuable information that past patients are giving to you freely go to waste. It’s going to take a while to go through everything if you’ve never tried to monitor your online reputation, but you’ll get a lot out of this.
