In 2020, upwards of 90% of patients used online reviews to evaluate physicians and find new healthcare providers. If you don’t have a stellar reputation and people can’t find you online, how will you attract new patients and generate more revenue?
You won’t, but your competitors will.
Maybe you’ve never given much thought to building your practice reputation outside of providing an exceptional patient experience and relying on word of mouth to bring new patients to your door. And maybe you’ve managed to rely on existing happy patients to keep coming back without giving much attention to your practice’s online presence.
Now more than ever, since COVID pushed the world further into a digital landscape, there’s no turning back. You absolutely need an online presence and a 5-star reputation to keep the patients you have and attract new ones.
How do you build a 5-star reputation in 4 simple steps?
Follow these steps to boost both your practice and provider reputation.
1. Provide a great patient experience.
First and foremost, in order to build a 5-star reputation online, you have to offer a great patient experience at your healthcare facility. If patients don’t have a good experience at your practice, 82% of them will consider switching providers!
Make patients feel like they’re part of your extended family. Greet them by name when they call to book a follow-up appointment. Host a fun monthly contest, or have a “Wall of Fame”—with patient permission, of course—to recognize achievements or progress.
Anything you and your team can do to personalize their orthopedic, dental, gastro, or other healthcare experience goes a long way in making patients feel valued. And that keeps them and their families coming back to your practice for future medical concerns.
2. Request more reviews.
As noted earlier, simply keeping your current patients happy isn’t enough to attract new patients in this digital day and age. Once you have happy patients, you need them to tell your community how awesome you are!
You can do this by asking patients to leave a review after their appointment, and the easiest way to make the request is by automating the whole process. That way, none of your staff has to remember to ask for a review. SocialClimb’s integrated platform automatically sends a review request within 24 hours of a healthcare visit, and we’ve found that patients respond by leaving a review 10% of the time on average.
It’s that simple. You automatically send an email or text, and patients easily provide feedback and a (five) star rating from their smartphones or computers. When you make it convenient for patients to leave reviews, they will.
Worried about negative feedback? Don’t be. According to recent research, only 1% of patients leave “very negative” reviews. This means, the majority of your patients will give you a positive rating when they’re having a great patient experience, and all those positive ratings will boost your online reputation. (Want to learn how to respond to that 1% of not-so-happy patients? See this article.)
3. Use patient surveys to improve the patient experience and your reputation.
Concerned that your practice may be missing the mark in some areas of providing an outstanding patient experience? There’s always room for improvement, and you can get direct feedback from each patient with customized, HIPAA-compliant patient surveys.
Automated patient surveys from SocialClimb allow you to gather valuable information from current patients so you can build and improve your provider and practice reputation. This personal approach lets you send customized questions to patients via text and email and allows your team to respond promptly to patients with specific concerns.
The SocialClimb platform integrates with your practice management system, so there’s no added work for your team. And SocialClimb’s survey response rates are almost 30%, which means you get the data you need so you can easily analyze trends in areas that are going well and ones that need attention.
4. Connect with patients through social media.
An essential element of building your provider and practice 5-star reputation is showing up where potential patients spend their time in the digital space, and social media is at the top of that list. On average, adults spend close to 2 hours and 30 minutes a day on Facebook.
Do you have a presence where your audience is searching for their next healthcare provider? Facebook alone can connect you to more than 75% of people in your area ages 18-54.
Connecting with this audience is easy, too. Simply post relevant content for your healthcare services to your Facebook business page a couple times a week. Sprinkle in personalized content, such as highlighting a team member for exceptional patient care, photos of a provider having fun with family, or a community event your practice sponsors.
This type of social media content will help you educate and connect with existing and future patients. The educational content can be anything that answers a common question, such as, “What is plantar fasciitis?” or “When should I call my dentist about tooth pain?”
The personalized content shows the human side of professionals in your office in a way that makes prospective patients think, “That doctor seems nice/charitable/caring. I’m going to call and schedule a consultation.”
Ready to step up your game and build that 5-star reputation at your practice? SocialClimb can help you get started or improve upon areas that need a little extra attention. Give us a call today, or click the button to schedule a demo and see our platform in action.
