Why Online Reviews Matter and How to Get Them
Before we discuss how to generate more reviews for your orthodontic practice, let’s start with why online reviews are so important.
Online reviews are the bigger, better form of word-of-mouth marketing, and they are more powerful than you may realize when it comes to the success of your practice. You can harness the power of online reviews to increase visibility, drive more business, and establish a reputation of greatness…but how?
Four Reasons Why Online Reviews Matter
1. Reviews establish trust
People trust other people’s opinions. You may run ads claiming to be “the best orthodontist in the city,” but having dozens of 5-star reviews feels more real to prospective patients. People are more inclined to choose your practice when they see other people have already had a great experience. The more 5-star reviews you have, and the more frequently people are leaving them, the more confident patients will feel when choosing your practice.
2. Frequent reviews boost local rankings
Google looks at three factors to determine where a business will rank in local search: relevance, distance, and prominence. In short: the more reviews you generate and the more engagement you drive with them, the better SEO your site will have.
3. Increase your brand’s reputation
Before online reviews, businesses couldn’t easily reach audiences outside of friends and family. Now, online reviews can influence audiences anywhere. Online, you have the power to interact with users during micro-moments. Someone can ask a question directly or quickly find the answer in another review. These small interactions position you as a responsive, informative brand that cares. That’s exactly what patients want.
4. Care for more patients and drive more profits
When you’re browsing products online, are you more likely to choose the one with six good reviews or 600 good reviews? The same goes for orthodontic practices. Patients gravitate toward doctors with more reviews and online feedback than ones with only a handful of people vouching for them. The more positive reviews you have, the more patients you will attract, driving more business.
How to Get More Reviews at Your Orthodontic Practice
More online reviews lead to higher brand visibility, which drives more patients into your office. That’s the cumulative power of reviews. To tap into this power, there are ways you can drive more reviews and ultimately feed into the success of your practice.
1. Claim your business on Google My Business (GMB)
You can’t get reviews if there’s no place for people to leave them. If you work for a practice or plan on opening your own, claiming your GMB listing should be at the top of the list. To do this, do a Google search for your practice and if there’s an existing listing for your business, claim it. If not, create a new one at business.google.com.
2. Ask patients to leave reviews
Patients don’t always think about leaving reviews, even if you provided the ultimate patient experience. Encourage your staff to ask them in person or via a personalized text or email to leave a review following their treatment. Patients who are unsatisfied are quick to leave a negative review, so you want to encourage your satisfied patients to leave reviews to keep your overall rating high.
3. Place signs where people see them
In your treatment areas, waiting rooms, and patient information packets, remind patients to review you online. You want to make leaving a review as easy as possible, so keep it short and tell people exactly where you want them to go (Google, Facebook, etc.). Provide a link or QR code so they can leave you a review as soon as they read your message.
4. Respond to reviews, good and bad
Respond to good reviews by showing gratitude that they took the time to leave a review. If faced with a negative review, express your concern and offer a solution. This could include giving a phone number to contact you directly. Many times when you can talk with someone who has left a negative review and offer a resolution, they take it down or change it to something positive.
The bottom line is that online reviews are a powerful tool that propels your practice forward. Whether you’re a brand new orthodontic practice or have joined a practice that’s been operating for many years, online reviews are a necessity to thrive in today’s digital environment. With active online review measures in place, you will improve the patient experience and ultimately grow your business.
