Online Reputation, Dentists, Negative Reviews
The Internet has given dental patients the ability to find and easily post online reviews and testimonials. Dentists will often find themselves, their practice and even their staff or assistants being reviewed at a number of websites — which were created just for that purpose.
Each week we receive a number of inquiries from dentists complaining that their reputation is ruined and asking if we can help “eliminate” a negative review posted on the Web by a disgruntled patient. Their concerns are legitimate since more and more patients today seek out ratings and reviews of doctors to help guide their decisions. If the dentist has a poor rating score, or several “bad” reviews, he or she may just lose the patient to a competitor.
Adding To Their Woes
In an economic downturn, a negative review is one of the last things the dentist wants or needs, especially when they are already struggling with rising costs, not to mention the hard cold fact that new patient numbers are down and “no shows” and cancellations are increasing.
Many dentists react to a negative review emotionally and expect, or demand that the website in question remove the “offending” comment. Still others attempt to seek legal recourse and retain an attorney, hoping the law firm can get a review removed. Unfortunately, neither of these methods work well and sometimes the dentist finds they are far worse off than before.
Even if the comment borders on defamation and the dentist wants to pursue legal remedy, be warned. Attorneys often charge a minimum of $5K-$10K retainer - with sometimes a $100K - $200K total fee to handle such cases.
Accepting Your Dilemma
Obviously, adopting a preemptive awareness policy within the practice that such a potential exists will help prevent poor reviews from being posted. However, once confronted with a negative review, it is possible to turn it around in your favor. You may have to swallow your pride and humble yourself, though the overall learning experience can pay big dividends.
Resign yourself to the fact that the reviewing website will under most circumstances never remove the patient’s remarks; they will likely be there forever. Patient comments are essentially free content generated for these sites by the public — and they equate to the site owner’s bread and butter.
How To Address Bad Reviews
Once you’ve found a bad review about your practice, your best course of action is to post a response. Create a user profile under your real name, navigate to the comments and reply to the person who posted. Keep in mind never to do this in haste, or if you’re angry; you’ll want to plan what you say carefully. You want to mitigate the problem - not compound it.
Handle the situation graciously with tact and integrity. You’ll have to come up with your own words, though here’s a 5-step guideline to follow.
1. Validate the patient’s feelings; acknowledge that she’s upset.
2. Let her know that you’re sorry she experienced a problem and that you’re glad she told you about it.
3. Assure her that you will make it right and something will be done.
4. Ask the patient how you can make it up to her — e.g. what would make her happy.
5. Make an offer to remedy the situation — one which shows you sincerely care about her.
Alternative Solutions
While the above suggestions will remedy most negative reviews and provide the public with an alternate, positive viewpoint, there may be occasions where other means will be needed to diffuse the impact of a bad review on your practice. Many of these can implemented by dentists themselves.
Since the reviews are found by prospective patients via the search engines, the idea is to push the websites where the review is found, down deeper in the search results, or displace the site so that it’s moved to the second or third page results. Most people will not venture past the first page of SERPS.
Improve Your Online Presence
The good news is that the solution to your problem is actually part of a marketing strategy that you could have used already; a bad review can be seen as the incentive that you needed to get started.
Your practice website is your first line of defense; it should be search engine optimized to position the dentist profile, or bio page above all other websites in the search results for your name and/or your practice identity.
The next item on your to-do list is to create multiple profiles for your name online; there are plenty of free ones too that have sufficient “link juice” behind them to exceed, compete with and dilute negative review sites. Here are some of the most popular sites where you can establish a profile.
- twitter.com
- meetup.com
- linkedin.com
- youtube.com
- hotfrog.com
- facebook.com
- zoominfo.com
- squidoo.com
- myspace.com
Since a person might search reviews for your name, in all instances be sure to use your real name which will appear in the title for your profile.
Free Blogs / Google Sites
Here are more free ways to crowd out the review sites; these platforms will require a little more work on your part, yet they’re still fast and effective. Again, ensure that you use your full, real name when creating these channels.
Low-Cost Online Directories
Another valuable venue are those directories which in addition to providing a link to your website, also offer a dedicated “details page” devoted to your listing. To reiterate, use your name or practice for the submission title.
- incrawler.com
- splashdirectory.com
- dentistsdirectory.us
- drquery.com
- octopedia.com
- seoma.net
- vmoptions.com
Still more options include press releases, article submission sites and niche mini-sites for your practice that can be positioned in the search engines. The key point to remember is that a bad review is not the end of the world. There are ways to deal with them — and as an extra bonus, the experience can also help you grow as a person — and become an even better dentist.
Monitor Your Reputation Online
One of the simplest methods to assist with managing your reputation is to set up free Google alerts (for your name and practice). Whenever a mention of your name is found, you’ll receive an email alert so that you can then deal with any problems immediately.
Search Over 40 Top Dental Review Sites
You can instantly search every major medical and doctor review site on the Internet for your name or practice — all with a single click. Simply enter your information right here on The Visible Dentist.
October 13th, 2009 at 6:23 am
Great article! The only way you can attempt to fix a disgruntled patient situation is to know it exists in the first place. Thanks for the tools too. Yet another thing to add to my tool box!
October 13th, 2009 at 6:47 am
Becky, you’re most welcome!
Hopefully you’ll never have to worry about using the information!
Dentists and doctors alike can get even more data about the issues asscociated with online reviews by reading the doctorbase.com blog.
John
October 28th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Really good article, especially where you emphasized creating a positive response to a patient’s complaint rather than getting all steamed and threatening legal action.
On that point, dentists who have a website might consider asking some of their best patients for a video testimony of the dentists practice that they can then post on their website. I have a friend who is a carpet cleaner who does this and he says that half the time his customers are all too happy to say something good about his service and his website statistics show that these testimonials are the most visited pages on his carpet cleaning website.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Online reviews are a great idea and taking ownership of a patients problem is not only proactive but a long term positive solution.
November 9th, 2009 at 4:44 am
From what I’ve heard, the reputation of sleep dentists isn’t as bad as that of regular dentists. These specialists can help you have a relaxing and pain-free experience when visiting the dentist.
November 10th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
@Sleep Dentist
Perhaps it’s because patients can’t remember what was done to them!
…just kidding!
John
December 6th, 2009 at 5:09 am
Really a great article. Thanks for the tips and discussing the matter so clearly..It would definitely help…Specially online review idea is great.
December 18th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Although not a dentist, I do run my own practice that is subject to review. Hopefully I will never have to implement some of the above tips but I’m glad I’ll be prepared if the situation arises. I am taking a lot away from the “improve your online presence” info. Thanks for the post.
January 6th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Your tip to set up a Google Alert really helped me a lot to moniter my online presence. Thanks for this post.
- Herman Swan
January 21st, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Hi there from Vincent,
We love your blog and think you are right to raise this important issue. We have been thinking along similar lines here in Sydney. It is good to connect with other psychologists and like-minded thinkers on these issues. Keep up the good work and keep the debate going.
Cheers
Vincent T.
Associated Counselling Psychologists Sydney
April 8th, 2010 at 7:05 am
Great advice! A practice owner’s reputation also affects the value of the business when he or she is getting ready to sell, partner, or bring on an associate for a buy out. The potential buyer should do some in depth research of the practice, and online reviews by patients will likely surface.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if politicians, professional athletes, and others in the spotlight followed your suggestion to take responsibility for their actions? We, ourselves, react with disgust when they try to avoid blame or explain their involvement away. On the other hand, in spite of initial “heat” for accepting responsibility their actions, such individuals come out ahead in the long run for showing they can be accountable for their deeds.
Addressing situations properly may not only persuade a few potential patients to come to your office or not; it may also mean the difference of tens of thousands of dollars when negotiating a practice purchase price.
Keep up the great articles!
Todd Christensen
Owner/Practice Appraiser
Assist to Practice
June 17th, 2010 at 11:17 am
Great article. For dentist as well as for many other types of businesses, reputation is everything. I completely agree with you that today more and more people rely on the internet to find and choose services they need.
It is demonstrated that testimonials are one of the most important decision factors for people that do research on the internet. Positive or negative reviews can determine whether a business is going to get a customer or not.
You have listed a good amount of social media tools/websites that everybody should know how to use. I lately came across this new web site http://propadoo.com/home that seems to do something new for your business: it collects testimonials and streams them on your web-page, making the process of collecting and managing testimonials a lot easier.
June 24th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
I adore your blog - great effort!
June 25th, 2010 at 12:39 am
Thanks Harrisburg!
jb