In today's digital world, a practice's reputation is always in the spotlight in social media discussions, online forums, and third-party review sites. Many years can be spent caring for patients, but one negative review on social media platforms from a dissatisfied dental patient can instantly destroy all that hard work.
With so many review sites and social media platforms, keeping up with what patients are saying about your dental practice and services is a difficult task, but not impossible. That's where dental reputation management comes in!
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What is Dental Reputation Management?
More than ever, potential dental patients are relying on the Internet to find their next dentist. They visit numerous third-party review sites and read the content available online to help them decide whether to choose you or your competitors for their dental care needs.
Dental reputation management involves monitoring and managing your practice's online presence. That way, when potential patients search for your dental practice on the Internet, they only read content that presents your brand in a positive light. This will not only help you attract new dental patients but also retain existing patients, giving you an advantage over your competitors.
For many dental practices, their online reputation is their most important marketing tool. Reputation management for dentists involves proactively encouraging positive dental reviews online, regularly monitoring those reviews to detect issues, and responding quickly to issues for correction or mitigation.
Those who do not implement dental online reputation management may miss the opportunity to quickly correct or mitigate bad reviews. This creates a perception of negligence or arrogance that hurts your chances of attracting new patients.
All dental practices get a few bad reviews. It's not a problem, don't worry, just take appropriate action. The absence of at least one bad review can make your reviews seem edited or not real. Dental reputation management should also help you encourage more positive reviews, mitigating the negative effect of a single review. Dental online reputation management should not "game the system" but instead encourage active and optimal use of the system.
Why is Dental Reputation Management Important?
Gone are the days when personal recommendations were the most important way to build a dental practice. Today, 81% of patients trust online reviews more than personal recommendations. Online reputation is one of many valuable marketing tools. However, if not managed properly, it can be a source of greater loss.
A strong online reputation (as well as positive online reviews) will give your dental practice a significant competitive advantage.
The growth of your practice is directly proportional to the attention you pay to dentist review management.
As a dentist, you should consistently create positive online reviews and monitor hotspots that are more likely to attract negative reviews.
Benefits of Dental Reputation Management
Stand out from the competition: With so many other dentists out there, it's essential to stand out from the crowd. Through website optimization, quality content creation, SEO techniques, and advertising campaigns your brand will be at the top of Google search results.
Improve search engine rankings: Online reviews have the potential to significantly improve your search engine rankings. Google often uses patient reviews on third-party sites like HealthGrades and Yelp to determine how your dental website ranks against your competitors. Positive and recent reviews are more likely to appear at the top of the list. Online reviews and star ratings also impact the click-through rate for your website, which is a key factor in determining your website ranking.
Analyze patient reviews to improve services: The goal of implementing dental reputation management is not just to acquire patient reviews. It's about analyzing online reviews to identify areas for improvement and making the right changes to improve the quality of dental care.
In today's online marketing for dentists, good reviews are essential! They are no longer optional. When potential dental patients find your website in the search engine results, they want to see a star rating and a good number of reviews under it. Don't let this sabotage you! Online marketing for dentists is related to your reviews or lack of them, and one affects the other. If you're spending money on online marketing, make sure you have a dental reputation management program in place!
Monitor your competitors: Many dental practices don't realize that an effective dentist review management strategy includes monitoring other dental practices in the area. By monitoring your competitors' online reviews and mentions, you can determine how people perceive other practices and compare the quality of services. You can also look at how your dental practice ranks, compared to your competitors. If you are falling behind, use the data from the competitive analysis to make appropriate changes. Even the most minor changes can improve the patient experience and increase patient satisfaction. However, if you are ahead of the competition, keep moving forward and never stop investing in dental reputation management.
Remove fake reviews: The number of patients who leave fake reviews about dental offices might surprise you! Sometimes it's an unintentional mistake. The name of your dental office may be similar to another practice in your area, and you end up with a scathing online review. Other times, the reason is malicious. It could be a competitor trying to hurt your dental practice by posting negative reviews online. Receiving fake or false reviews is very concerning, but don't get into an argument with the reviewer. Engaging in public discussions will only add damage to your reputation. Try to remove fake reviews this way here.
Benefits of Dentist Review Management
Getting positive reviews on sites like Vitals and Healthgrades will not only increase organic traffic to your dental website, it will help turn visitors into patients. In terms of organic traffic, positive reviews can improve your Google ranking and make your website appear first on Google search results, ahead of competitors. Since most potential dental patients looking for a local dentist don't look beyond the first two pages of Google, appearing at the top of the list will help you attract more patients.
There are dozens of websites dedicated to collecting good dentist reviews... and negative ones. Yelp? Facebook? Healthgrades? Which one is the best?
The answer is the one that currently has the most positive dental reviews for you! Once you have accumulated a large number of reviews on a site, your star rating will be safe from any significant change due to a single review. Once you have accumulated a large number of positive dental reviews on one website, move on to the next website and do the same. If you don't currently have any reviews (which is rare), start with Facebook if you use social media, or Google my business otherwise.
Should Dental Reputation Management Be Your Top Priority?
If you have no reviews or your reviews average less than 4.0, then you should consider dental reputation management a top priority. The answer also depends on the other marketing challenges your dental practice is currently facing, but because of its impact on other online marketing activities for dentists, online reputation management should be part of your marketing plan, even if it's not currently the top priority.
