Medical Marketing, Reputation Management, Reputation Marketing
Simple Steps Any Chiro Practice Can Implement To Increase Google Reviews
In today's digital age, online reviews have become a crucial factor in the success of businesses. This is especially true for healthcare providers, such as chiropractic clinics, as potential patients often turn to online reviews to make decisions about their healthcare options. Google reviews, in particular, hold a lot of weight as they are often the first thing that appears when someone searches for a business. Therefore, it is essential for chiropractic clinics to have a strong presence on Google reviews. In this article, we will discuss three easy ways to increase Google reviews for a chiropractic clinic.
1. Encourage and Remind Chiropractic Patients to Leave Reviews
The first and most crucial step in increasing Google reviews for a chiropractic clinic is to encourage and remind patients to leave reviews. Many patients may not think to leave a review unless prompted to do so. Therefore, it is essential to make it a part of your clinic's routine to ask patients to leave a review after their appointment.
One way to do this is by including a reminder in your post-appointment communication with patients. This could be in the form of an email or text message, thanking them for their visit and asking them to leave a review on Google. You can also include a link to your Google My Business page to make it easier for patients to leave a review.
Another effective way to encourage reviews is by having a physical reminder in your clinic. This could be a sign at the reception desk or in the waiting room, reminding patients to leave a review. You can also have business cards or flyers with a QR code that leads directly to your Google My Business page, making it easy for patients to leave a review.
It is important to note that while encouraging reviews is essential, it is equally important to not be pushy or offer incentives for reviews. This can be seen as unethical and may result in negative consequences for your clinic's online reputation.
2. Provide Exceptional Patient Experience
The best way to get positive reviews is by providing exceptional patient experience. When patients have a positive experience at your chiropractic clinic, they are more likely to leave a positive review. This not only helps increase your Google reviews but also improves your clinic's reputation and attracts new patients.
To provide an exceptional patient experience, it is crucial to focus on the little details. This could include having a clean and welcoming waiting room, friendly and helpful staff, and a comfortable treatment room. It is also important to ensure that patients are seen on time and that their appointments are not rushed. Taking the time to listen to their concerns and addressing them can go a long way in making patients feel valued and satisfied with their experience.
In addition, it is essential to communicate effectively with patients. This includes explaining the treatment process, addressing any questions or concerns, and following up with patients after their appointment. This level of communication and care can leave a lasting impression on patients and increase the likelihood of them leaving a positive review.
3. Utilize Social Media and Online Platforms For Reviews
In today's digital age, social media and online platforms play a significant role in increasing a business's online presence and reputation. Therefore, it is important for chiropractic clinics to utilize these platforms to increase their Google reviews.
One way to do this is by actively engaging with patients on social media. This could include sharing informative and engaging content related to chiropractic care, responding to patient reviews and comments, and encouraging patients to leave reviews on Google. You can also use social media to showcase patient testimonials and reviews, which can help attract new patients and increase your clinic's credibility.
Another effective way to utilize online platforms is by listing your clinic on online directories and review sites. This includes platforms such as Yelp, Healthgrades, and RateMDs. These sites often have a high domain authority, which means that they rank high on search engines. Therefore, having a presence on these sites can help increase your clinic's visibility and attract more reviews.
It is important to regularly monitor and respond to reviews on these platforms, as they can also impact your clinic's online reputation. Responding to both positive and negative reviews shows that you value patient feedback and are committed to providing the best possible experience.
Increasing Google reviews for a chiropractic clinic requires a proactive approach, for more information on implementing some of these procedures contact us today. By encouraging and reminding patients to leave reviews, providing exceptional patient experience, and utilizing social media and online platforms, you can increase your clinic's online presence and attract more positive reviews. Remember to always prioritize patient satisfaction and provide high-quality care, as this is the foundation for a successful and reputable chiropractic clinic.
blog, Reputation Management
Your practice can add credibility and complexity to its content when you regularly incorporate the positive feedback your patients leave. This practice has an added bonus of rewarding patients for their praise, strengthening your relationship with them and encouraging others to follow in their footsteps.
You may think that simply regurgitating patient acclaim can seem like a cheap or shallow tactic. When you go about using reviews and testimonials incorrectly, that can certainly be the case.
But when you can masterfully weave praise into your content marketing and collateral materials, it feels like a natural fit. Your content becomes richer, and your brand name becomes more credible.
According to eMarketer research, online reviews are by far the most trusted source of business information. In fact, 91% of 18-34 year old consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Putting your reviews front and center in your content offer documented proof of peer approval, and no one has to go digging into third-party sites to find that proof.
So if you’re considering using patient reviews to obtain all of the above benefits and more, try putting the following strategies into action.
Pepper Website Pages, and Especially Landing Pages, With Embedded Reviews and Accolades
Medical practices have a trust gap they must clear when a potential patient first arrives at their website. No matter how comforting or flashy the site is, patients are always on the lookout for signs that they could get burned. They may scrutinize your claims or look for fine print that reveals how your offers aren’t what they seem.
Oftentimes, they will look to outside resources before they can let down their guard. The Local Consumer Review Survey 2018 by BrightLocal unveiled that 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses (including 95% of people aged 18-34) to inform their purchase decisions. Not only that, but 80% of 18-34 year olds have written online reviews – compared to just 41% of consumers over 55.
Adding reviews right on your web page immediately begins to chip away at their defenses. They can begin to feel some relief knowing that your practice has rewarded others for their trust. Evidence that people don’t regret spending their hard-earned money on your services can reduce the natural hesitation some people might feel.
This also helps keep them from heading down rabbit trails on the internet looking for outside information on your practice. It keeps them on your site. If they already see positive reviews then they don’t need to go digging through all of the other reviews online. This helps to ensure that they are less likely to encounter negative reviews that color your business in an unfavorable light.
Even if someone does do their own homework and encounters a mixture of positive and negative reviews, their first impressions are already fairly rosy. Each negative reviewer must then make their case for why this positive first impression is wrong.
When incorporating testimonials and feedback on your web pages, be sure to use the following best practices:
- Take a second to re-read the third-party reviews site’s policy on sharing reviews. They may have limitations on how you use them.
- Always ask the reviewer for permission. Nothing hurts worse than having someone who praised your business turn around and complain that their own words were used unethically.
- Don’t take things out of context. Using an excerpt of a review is fine, but don’t cherry-pick statements that paint a different picture for the reader than the review as a whole. For instance, don’t just take the positive things a reviewer conceded out of a negative review.
- Quote the person verbatim. Changing words around or using tricks like mashing two unrelated things together to make a sentence is deceptive and unethical. You may even be subject to FTC penalties.
Share Interesting or Glowing Reviews to Social Media
Getting people to leave reviews is hard work! Unless, of course, they had a bad experience. According to one study of 2,000 U.S. consumers, over half of people say they’re likely to publicly complain about a bad experience with a business—often resulting in a bad review.
A second study found that most people only leave a positive review if they were overwhelmed with how great their experience was. “If instead you had a moderate view, you’re likely to have left no review at all, finding it not worth the time and effort,” say the researchers in the Harvard Business Review.
So how do you encourage patients to leave a review if they aren’t angry with you and they weren’t absolutely blown away? Simple: reward them with a public mention!
By sharing someone’s positive review online, you reinforce the behavior. You also encourage others who want public recognition and attention to leave reviews of their own.
Let Reviews Inspire Your Content Marketing Strategy
Content should solve audience needs and conclude with a gentle promotional nudge towards your company. Treading this narrow path between information and promotion is admittedly difficult for most businesses. Seventy-nine percent of editors say they have to turn down guest blog posts because they’re overly promotional.
The problem is that most businesses can’t find an angle. “8 Reasons Our Food Is Amazing” is something no one would want to click on! But “10 Keys to Improving Customer Service” can work, especially if you’re able to point to specific best practices you can use.
When writing these types of articles, starting with positive features of your business or product as a jumping-off point can lead to a disconnect. In other words, your business could be proud of something that no one really notices.
Instead, take a look at your own reviews to get inspired. Let’s say you received a review from a patient who cites six different positive reasons they love coming to your office; it was clean, friendly staff, comfortable waiting area, short wait, and a professional doctor who took the time to really listen to their concerns.
Taking that list, you could simply write an article about the “6 Most Important Things to Look for in a Medical Practice.” Since you know people enjoy these things about your office, you can mention them honestly. You can also write while thinking about the perspective of a patient who has been to a clinic or practice that is not welcoming or that regularly has long and uncomfortable wait times.
Of course, you can also use negative criticism to inspire you. If you have had issues in the past with bad customer service, you can list “X Things We’ve Changed to Make Your Experience Better” to win people back.
Getting More Patient Reviews to Use in Your Content Marketing
All of the strategies listed above depend on a constant, fresh stream of patient feedback. If your most recent review was from 2014, you may have a problem!
To counteract this issue, make leaving a review as simple and convenient as possible. You can use third-party software tools to automatically send an email to someone and ask them for their review on your preferred platform. You can also leave a convenient link on your home page so that everyone can easily find their way to your review pages.
Reach out to some of your most loyal or satisfied patients to see if they would take the time to write a one to three paragraph testimonial on your behalf. You can use these longer reviews (with their permission) as quotes or embedded reviews framing your content or occupying your most critical landing pages.
Another surefire method to jog people’s memory is to use marketing collateral offered by review platforms both online and in real life. Place window decals on your entrance or include a ready-to-print plaque right by your cash register.
Train sales associates and office staff to ask for feedback at the end of every interaction. Be aware of specific platform policies, though. For instance, Yelp demands that you only use certain brand materials in certain ways. They also have a strict policy where you can’t ask people to “review our business on Yelp!”
With just a small amount of effort, your content quality and credibility can be dramatically improved by using patient reviews in clever ways. Patients’ trust absolutely thrives on documented proof, and they like to see that their words matter when they have something to say.
Sharing their reviews is the best way to tell them “thank you” and that their opinion is important. That’s customer service and content marketing rolled into one!
blog, Brand Optimization, Reputation Management
Click to watch the video, or watch on
YouTube.
Check out our recent Facebook Live Event where Neil talked about the importance of trust for medical providers.
With increased access to information on the internet, patient expectations are higher than they’ve ever been, and competition is fierce. Patient trust has always been important for medical practice growth and success, but this new environment makes it absolutely vital.
In addition to nurturing lifelong patients that will consistently choose your office over another, patient trust also gives your medical practice a little leeway if problems arise in the future. No matter what may happen, earning the trust of your patients ensures your company’s brand can survive.
So, what is patient trust and how is it earned? This isn’t a new concept, but it’s an area in which many medical practices fail. The transparency that leads to trust is about more than including the standard copy about why your office is better than the rest — you have to truly care about your patients and their problems.
What Is Patient Trust and Why Is It Important?
Generally, patient trust happens when you have a deep understanding of your patients’ needs and have a valid solution to their problems. You provide them with relevant information and products or services that cater to their unique needs, rather than touting the benefits of choosing your medical practice.
Ultimately, this trust is about putting the patient first in your content and your products or services.
The reason trust is more important now than it’s ever been is a direct result of the bombardment of information and options available today.
Consumers no longer need to choose between only a few brands. They have virtually limitless options and access to reviews, testimonials and marketing tricks that can give them an idea of what you have to offer. Because of this, marketers need to look beyond the competitive pricing, features, and benefits, and direct their attention more toward the history and legacy. Patients have become empowered and skeptical, so they’re looking for the whole package — one that will not only give them a product or service that’s reliable, but also a medical office and customer service that they can count on now and in the future. Ideally, your product or service will address their needs at the time, but in the event that it doesn’t, they want to know you’ll be there to make it right.
How Is Patient Trust Created?
As we know, the idea of building patient trust isn’t new, but it can be difficult to achieve. Just making promises about your medical practice is no longer enough, since consumers are looking for actions that back up your claims. This has a big influence on loyalty as well, since patients are more likely to return to the doctor that gave them the experience they wanted the first time around.
Authenticity is key. Authenticity is the one thing that transcends industries, generations and cultures, since it’s the universal thing that all patients are looking for. It’s about being transparent and giving the patients what they expect, whether in products or service, and delivering the values of the brand.
Of course, authenticity and transparency are useless for the pure sake of it. You need to be providing content that demonstrates an in-depth understanding of your patients’
needs and expectations, so you can provide them with relevant, valuable solutions. Superlatives, false claims, half-truths and other marketing hype that can’t be verified instantly reads as false, so focus on positive information of substance and value to your patient.
Also, if you’re falling below expectations in some way, it’s vital to learn from it and find a way to improve. While it may be difficult to accurately measure the value and performance in terms of patient trust, you can set standards for your medical practice to ensure that each and every aspect of your business is accountable and staying on track. This not only makes your trust tangible for your audience, but it also keeps your practice living up to the image you’re putting out into the world.
Why Is Patient Trust Hard to Earn?
There are many reasons trust can be hard to earn, especially for certain brands, but skeptical and savvy patients are the main reason. More and more data breaches and misuse of data are dominating the headlines, so it’s becoming more difficult for consumers to immediately trust a brand and be open to new or unproven brands.
Fortunately, this issue is easy to combat if you’re truly putting the patient first. A brand must be clear about its purpose and values, as well as being transparent with policy and procedures. Perception is everything, and a company that offers the truth is more likely to have good impressions with potential patients.
There’s been a shift in power between the business and the consumer. In the past, the brand had the power and patients had to accept what was given. Now, consumers have a broad outlook and understand more about what a company should and should not be, so they’re less forgiving of missteps. Patients want a brand that shows its customer loyalty and demonstrates shared values, so an effective strategy would be to align your practice’s values with the information you’d gladly offer to the public.
In addition, transparency is often forced upon brands, since patients can find dirt if they look hard enough. In all likelihood, questionable ethics and practices will leak in other media and be found by patients, leaving a medical practice looking disingenuous and sleazy, which is worse than having no trust at all.
While patient trust may sound like a swift strategy or “silver bullet” for new leads and business growth, it’s anything but. That trust is difficult to earn and keep and is far more than just a marketing strategy.
The authenticity and transparency necessary to garner real patient trust comes from honest communications, solid company culture and treating the patient as you would want to be treated, rather than just lip service.
Though it’s clear that consumers want trustworthy brands, their general trust isn’t high. This can be an area of opportunity for new or developing medical practices, or offices looking to revamp their image and surge ahead of competitors. Whether we like it or not, the power is with the patient, so it’s more important than ever to put their needs first for business success.
