Online Reviews to Build Your Practice
Considering how much our society relies on their phones to make decisions on where to eat, where to shop and where to get cosmetic procedures, it is vital to take advantage of this powerful tool. If you do a search for any business online, most likely their Google plus and Yelp reviews will show up along with their website. How can we use this powerful tool to build our practice?
Update Your Business Profile on Yelp and Other Review Sites
The customer wants to feel connected so they actually feel comfortable making a call to your office. Having good information about the procedures your practice offers with a positive mission statement will help the interested party. Show pictures of the office and staff and include some before and after photos to stimulate interest. Also add as much detail about office hours, payment type accepted, parking and any other information will answer most of the potential customers questions and save time when they call.
Have Positive Online Reviews
As you would expect, it does not benefit your business if the online reviews are negative. Our practice uses all the reviews that we get as a learning tool on what staff is getting the best feedback, what procedures are patients the happiest with and what is the overall vibe of the office. Make sure you immediately reply to any negative reviews and find out why their experience led to a bad Yelp review. It is best to work on a solution to make the patient happy but as we know some people you just can’t. I would suggest not treating those patients that have unreal expectations as it will come back the hurt your online presence.
How to Capitalize on Yelp Reviews
Yelp will tell you not to ask for reviews but if Yelp does not find out, why not. Try sending an automated follow-up email, post procedure with a link to or Yelp page. This makes it easy for customers to find us and we give them a little bonus for doing so.
“We just wanted to take a minute to thank you for your business, and for your recent visit to The Laser Image Company. We hope your service was excellent and if you have any questions or concerns please reach out to us without hesitation.
We would love for you to share your positive experience with others so please Review us on Yelp and as a thank you we will give you $20 to use towards any future service. “
What to do When Your Practice Receives a Review
When your practice receives a review, respond to it immediately or as soon as possible especially if it is negative. Try to contact the patient who was unhappy and find a solution to make them satisfied. If the review is positive, which is our goal in our service industry, Yelp has a simple one click way to share it on FaceBook & Twitter. It is also good practice to respond with a thank you Yelp message back to the patient.
Promoting positive experience is the overall goal so share the reviews with staff so they can get constructive feedback on the service that is being provided.
Advertising With Yelp
I always suggest trying all different types of advertising but our experience was not the best. We calculated that the increase in sales over the 6 months with the ad spend we did with Yelp just covered the cost of the program. With no money spent on advertising, every customer that came through the door because of our reviews was at zero cost. Well nothing is ever free because we do spend time making sure the positive reviews are praised and the negatives are made happy.
Yelp Reviews Conclusion
A positive online presence is vital to the success of any business especially those that offer a service. Create a robust company profile to start and keep in touch will all those that review your practice. There will be a some negative reviews but if you cultivate the positive ones, your business will grow without spending any money. MD Needle Pen, Educating Our Practitioners for Success.
