How often do you Google your practice? If you don’t you should start. Why? Because your patients, who you see on a daily basis, have an opinion on their experience with you. Some of these people will want to share this experience and will post a review.
What does this mean for you? Depends. Was your patient happy or dissatisfied? Don’t fear this question! Embrace it! Reading online reviews is one of the best practices you can get into. If you have a great review, thank your patient (actually respond to their review with a thank you) and celebrate! Make notes: what made them happy? Can you replicate this? Was the reason something you’ve been working towards or a happy accident?
Did you get a bad review? Good. It’s the bad reviews that help you learn and grow into a better practice. What should you do? Don’t ignore the review. You need to address it but don’t get defensive or upset. Think of this as a learning experience. Maybe their complaints are legitimate. Did they say your front desk staff were grumpy? Maybe talking about their weekend debauchery? Did the review say your practice lacked chair-side-manner? Does the atmosphere of your practice portray that of a dark scary place?
Take responsibility. Best thing you can do is apologize for this inadequate experience, acknowledge their complaint, tell them how you’ll address this issue so it doesn’t happen again, and be cheerful! Remember thousands of people see Google reviews. Even if there’s a bad review (you can’t make everyone happy) the way you respond to the situation can give you brownie points for potential patients.
**For those of you who don't know how to comment on Google reviews visit this link to learn more. I recommend every practice spend time developing their Google page. This will help potential patients easily find more info on you.**