Your dental or medical practice’s online reputation can make or break your business. It plays a big part in whether potential patients decide to use your services. And it can even determine whether existing patients turn into repeat customers.
But, in order to achieve a stellar online reputation, you need to work on actively managing it.
In this guide, we explain the importance of healthcare reputation management and offer seven effective strategies for improving your practice’s brand online.
Why Reputation Management Matters in Healthcare
Reputation management is crucial for ensuring the success of a healthcare business. It increases patient trust, leads to better online visibility, and can improve patient retention.
Increased Patient Trust
84% of people look at online reviews when choosing a healthcare provider.
If your business has a positive online reputation based on plenty of reviews, prospective patients will feel more comfortable about giving your practice a chance and trusting you with their health.
Better Online Visibility
Having many positive Google reviews for your healthcare business can increase the chances of appearing in relevant local search results. Couple this with a strong star rating (4+ stars), and you’ll likely see more qualified leads on your site that can turn into dedicated patients.
Strong reviews on other relevant platforms (such as Healthgrades and RateMDs) can also lead to increased referral traffic to your website.
Improved Patient Retention
Addressing patients’ concerns and issues in both online reviews and in-person feedback shows that you’re dedicated to their satisfaction and well-being. This, in turn, can make patients more likely to consider using your services again.
Similarly, effectively handling negative feedback and complaints can help turn dissatisfied patients into people who are willing to give your practice another chance to win them over.
Challenges of Reputation Management in Healthcare
Medical practices deal with a few unique challenges when managing their online reputation. Namely, complying with HIPAA regulations, managing reviews across multiple locations, and balancing patient feedback with operational realities.
HIPAA Compliance and Responding to Reviews
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is a U.S. federal law designed to safeguard patients’ protected health information (PHI) — including their name, address, diagnosis, and treatment plan.
Complying with all HIPAA regulations is a must for healthcare providers. But, it can make it difficult to manage online reviews.
For example, healthcare providers aren’t allowed to acknowledge that someone is a patient when posting a public response to a review. Or share any details about the patient’s diagnosis or treatment.
This can make it hard to handle reviews, especially negative ones.
Managing Reviews Across Multiple Locations
For a multi-location healthcare business, service quality may differ across locations. Some locations might have a better ratio of positive to negative reviews compared to others, which can lead to an inconsistent brand reputation.
Having multiple locations also means managing more review profiles, which can be time-consuming, especially when dealing with negative reviews.
Balancing Patient Feedback With Operational Realities
Sometimes, patients can have unrealistic expectations when it comes to appointment scheduling, availability, and treatment results.
This can result in them leaving negative reviews due to factors that might be out of your control.
7 Strategies for Healthcare Reputation Management
Ready to improve your practice’s online reputation so you can get more patients and retain existing ones? Here’s what to do:
1. Claim and Optimize Online Listings
The first step to taking charge of your online reputation is to claim your business’s online listings across platforms like Google, Healthgrades, and RateMDs.
This will allow you to update your business information on these websites and respond to patient reviews.
Here’s how to do it:
Start by navigating to your location on Google Maps by typing in your business’s name.
Look at the search results and try to find your business listing. If you find it, click on it and then on “Claim this business” at the bottom.
Note: If you can’t find it, you’ll need to create one from scratch.
On the next screen, click on “Manage now.” You’ll then need to prove that you own the business — this will usually involve phone or video verification.
Keep in mind that it can take Google up to five business days to verify your business.
Healthgrades
Claim your Healthgrades profile on this page. Type in your location and name, and then click on “Find Your Profile.”
On the next page, you’ll need to enter:
- Your email address
- A password
- The last 4 characters of your DEA number
- A phone number for verification
Then, click on “Send Verification Code.”
Once you complete the phone verification, you can access your Healthgrades profile.
RateMDs
To claim your RateMDs profile, search for your business name using the search bar located at the top of the page.
Then, click on your profile and hit the “Claim Profile” button. Complete the verification by uploading the necessary documents (a driver’s license or bill statement in your name).
The RateMDs team will contact you about reviewing your verification (usually within one business day). Once the verification is complete, you can access and edit your profile.
After claiming your online profiles, fill out all your business information accurately (including your address, working hours, and phone number).
2. Monitor and Respond to All Reviews
It’s important to monitor your practice’s online reviews and respond to each review promptly.
Use a reputation management platform like Chatmeter to track online reviews across multiple platforms and get notified when your business receives a new review. This ensures no review goes unnoticed.
When responding to reviews, address both positive and negative ones.Positive reviews are fairly easy to handle — thank the customer for their business and the review and invite them to visit again whenever they need help.
Negative reviews are more difficult to handle, especially because you need to stay HIPAA compliant. Here, you’ll want to move to a private conversation as soon as possible and avoid revealing any protected health information publicly. Your public response can simply say something like:
“We’re sorry to hear that the experience didn’t meet your expectations. Due to privacy regulations, we can’t discuss specific details online, but we would like to address your concerns as soon as possible. Please reach out to us at [contact information] so that we can help.”
Then, address the matter privately. If you are able to resolve the issue, you can ask the patient to post an updated review sharing their experience.
3. Encourage Patient Reviews
Most review sites don’t allow businesses to provide incentives in exchange for reviews or use “review gating” (only requesting reviews from happy customers) — both of these practices can get you penalized or result in having your profile deleted.
But, you can still request reviews responsibly. Here, it’s important to make it as easy as possible for patients to leave reviews.
For example, create a QR code that leads patients directly to a page where they can leave a Google review for your business. Place that QR code on feedback cards, appointment reminders, receipts, or on a poster in your waiting room.
You can also use a tool like Chatmeter to automate email and text message campaigns to request patient reviews.
4. Share Patient Success Stories and Testimonials
Sharing success stories or testimonials can be a great way to show social proof and improve trust. A few places where you can do this include:
- Website: Your website is the best place to share patient testimonials. You can display these on your homepage or on a dedicated web page.
- Brochures: Print materials, such as brochures (placed in your office or distributed locally), are another opportunity to showcase testimonials. Besides adding social proof, testimonials can also make your brochures more engaging.
- Posters and waiting room displays: When they’re not looking at their smartphone, patients will look at the posters and displays in your waiting room. Take advantage of this by including relevant testimonials.
Again, it’s important to stay HIPAA compliant and keep the testimonials anonymous. Alternatively, you can also get a patient’s written consent in order to share any personal information.
5. Use Social Media to Build a Trustworthy Online Presence
Social media is an important tool to improve your healthcare practice’s reputation. New and existing patients can use social media to learn more about your practice and stay updated on future developments.
Here are a few ways you can use social media to build trust:
- Share educational content: Relevant health tips and advice, updates on medical advancements, and explainer videos for your procedures are all good to share with your audience to build trust in your expertise.
- Answer questions: Use your social media pages to answer questions from potential or existing patients. But be careful not to discuss patient-specific concerns publicly (you can send a reply in a private message instead).
- Show what goes on behind the scenes: Another way to build trust with your audience is to share behind-the-scenes content, such as posts about the doctors who work at your clinic.
6. Leverage Surveys and Sentiment Analysis for Patient Insights
Surveys can help you understand common concerns and issues your patients have with your clinic (e.g., long wait times or difficulties scheduling an appointment). Use survey insights to address any issues you find directly, which can help reduce the number of negative reviews your practice gets and result in a better overall review rating.
Here are a few factors you can measure using a survey:
- Overall patient satisfaction
- Likelihood to recommend
- Staff professionalism
- Scheduling experience
Apart from surveying patients, you can also use sentiment analysis to examine existing feedback. Sentiment analysis involves using natural language processing to analyze patient feedback and uncover patterns and recurring themes.
Chatmeter’s sentiment analysis solution, Pulse, can identify issues before they damage your reputation and reveal opportunities for improvement and growth.
7. Train Staff to Deliver Consistently Positive Patient Experiences
Positive patient experiences lead to positive feedback and reviews, which in turn impact your brand reputation.
To ensure consistently positive patient experiences, provide your staff with adequate training. Here are a few things you should focus on:
- Active listening: Patients can often feel scared, anxious, and frustrated. Train your team on active listening and empathetic responses so they can allay patients’ concerns and give them a better overall experience.
- Proactive communication: Teach your staff to communicate proactively so patients aren’t left in the dark. This can mean updating patients on wait times or explaining medical information in simple terms.
- Conflict resolution: Some patients will inevitably be unsatisfied with your services, which might lead them to act out in anger. Make sure to take time to train your team on handling a variety of difficult situations (e.g., by teaching them different de-escalation techniques).
How Chatmeter Supports Healthcare Providers in Building Patient Trust
Chatmeter is an AI-powered reputation management software that offers a host of features healthcare organizations can use to build patient trust and implement an effective reputation management strategy.
It makes it easy for both single and multi-location healthcare businesses to monitor and manage online reviews across all the popular review platforms. And request reviews through automated email and SMS review campaigns.Ready to learn more? Book a demo today.