Why Should Dentists Maintain a Positive Online Dental Reputation?

Have you ever analyzed why your practice gets fewer (or more) patients than your competitors do?

The internet shapes the public perception of your practice through dentist reviews and other online mentions of your office. While this may not be the only factor at play, public perception, often defined by uncontrollable factors, could make or break your practice.

Not many dentists realize this, but patient reviews of dentists have a significant impact on the performance of a dental practice and the maximization of its growth potential. Fortunately, dentists can now monitor and control their online reputation through online review monitoring and management.

Online reputation management (ORM) provides a dental practice with benefits such as:

• The positive Dentist reviews and a good reputation attract new patients, thereby increasing your New Patient appointment rate and revenue.
• It creates a strong online reputation for your practice and builds trust in your brand and dental practice.
• It generates a positive digital word of mouth by highlighting favorable dentist ratings.
• It improves your practice’s Google Search Ranking.

 

This article shall introduce you to the idea of Dental reputation management, the need and importance of Dental Review Management, the methods of maintaining and improving your online image, and the importance of your Social media reputation, among other crucial subjects.

 

What is Dental Reputation Management?

Online reputation management refers to the process of taking control of the online conversation about a person or a business. It is an ongoing process that aims and attempts to create and maintain your brand name and its good standing online. Its techniques and methods involve providing the right (and the ideal) information to people who look a practice up on the internet and overriding the negative dialogue about it online.

To put it merely, ORM is the act of building a digital identity, working through one online review at a time, such that anyone looking for your brand finds a plethora of 5-star ratings and reviews describing positive patient experiences.

When you hire ORM services, the online reputation management solution provider will work towards generating and promoting positive Google dentist reviews, Yelp dental reviews, Google Map reviews, and reviews or ratings on social media such as Facebook recommendations. They would solicit reviews from your patients and ensure that the positive ones reach the right channels and platforms.

 

Why Do Dentists Need to Manage Patient Reviews and Online Reputation?

A dental practice is not different from other types of businesses when it comes to the magnitude of damage that a bad online reputation could do. Hence, every practice needs patient review management and reputation management services as a part of its dental internet marketing strategy, just like any other business would. The following factors would lend more strength to this argument:

 

1. Patients Trust Online Reviews

Trust is the most crucial aspect of any doctor-patient relationship. However, trust is also something that most patients place in online dentist reviews, irrespective of their source, and accuracy. Sample this – more than 84% of patients trust a dentistry review more than a personal recommendation from friends or family! So displaying some very carefully chosen 5-star dentist ratings should be a part of Dental marketing as it can establish trust for your brand and convert leads into revenue.

 

2. Almost All of Your Prospective Patients Are Accessing Your Reviews Online

According to a survey, 97% of consumers read online reviews before they shop locally, and  85% of patients check patient reviews of dentists through review and industry sites like Yelp, Vitals, RateMDs, etc. Your patient ratings are out there on the internet, and they are accessed continuously by potential patients. These prospects must present with information that inspires confidence and increases the likelihood of converting them into a new patient.

 

3. A Few Bad Reviews Could Scare a Lot of Patients Away

82% of respondents in a survey said that negative online reviews make them less likely to use a business. Patient review management, thus, becomes crucial. Dental practices need online review monitoring and management to negate this potential loss of patients as a consequence of a negative review. If your dental marketing strategies don’t involve reputation management, then those few negative reviews could erode all the trust and credibility you’d have built over the years.

 

4. Your Business is Online, Whether You Like It or Not.

This one is a little difficult to digest, but there isn’t a more actual statement in this article. Your business is online, irrespective of whether you like it or not. Even if you don’t have an online presence, Google and review sites like Yelp indexes your practice. In your absence in the virtual world, negative reviews, and false information about your dental practice would rank at the top of the search results when a patient looks up your office online. And the last thing you’d want is for a patient to throw off by being misled. Online review monitoring helps combat this menace.

 

5. Your Patients Are Reviewing You Right Now!

If you are wondering, “well, who takes the time and effort to post a dentistry review anyway” then we’ve got some news for you – more than half of your patients do that! And this number goes up to 70% when you consider the millennial demographic. 

With so many patients reviewing you on social media platforms and review sites every day, we think it may be time to take control of this interaction through a Dental marketing strategy that has Dental Review Management at its core.

 

6. Your Online Reputation Determines Your Google and Google Local 3-Pack Rankings.

Online reviews are an essential ranking factor. Research has shown a strong correlation between the volume of reviews and the number of negative reviews with your Google search ranking. If your reviews contain a keyword you are trying to rank for and a mention of the city you are located in, then there is an excellent chance of securing a high ranking on Google My Business listings.

If you are not familiar with Google My Business, then here’s a brief introduction: Google My Business (GMB) is a tool that assists small businesses in creating and managing their Google Listing. It is essentially a business listing like Yelp. It appears on the right top of the search engine result page when a user searches for your practice on Google. The difference between GMB and other Online Listing and directories is that you can add an incredible amount of details to your Google listing and optimize it. 

The real magic of GMB lies in the Google local 3-pack. The 3-pack refers to the 3 GMB listings displayed by Google when a user shows local intent in his search, i.e., business + location search queries (for example, dentists in Tulsa or dentists near me). Most users don’t go past the 3-pack when they are actively looking to book an appointment. 

A 2018 study of Google’s local ranking factors suggests that local reviews are one of the three most significant factors that determine which businesses are displayed first for local searches. In short, your online reputation and Google My Business reviews determine your Google Search and 3-pack rankings. A bad reputation will generally ruin any chance of earning a new patient appointment. Investing time and effort in reputation management for healthcare pretty much ceases to be optional at this point.

 

 

How Does a Dental Reputation Agency Manage Your Online Reputation?

Now that we’ve established the need for managing your patient reviews and your online reputation, let us look into how a dental reputation agency does that. Knowing that would give you a deeper understanding of ORM and how it works. So here are some steps that an online reputation management solution provider takes:

– Claiming or Creating Your Business Account on Review Sites and Online Business Directories

The first step toward developing a strong online reputation is creating and optimizing an account of review sites such as Yelp and business directories such as Google My Business. Sometimes, you’d find that an account already exists for your business. This would happen because search engines index all your citations. In such cases, you must claim the account as your own through a process known as the local business listing.

 

– Maintaining NAP Consistency

One of the essential parts of Dental reputation management is to maintain NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) Consistency across all listings, websites, social media profiles, etc. This is necessary to ensure that your patients get the right information about your location, name, address, phone number, website, etc.

NAP Consistency can maintain through a process known as Online Listing Distribution. This process allows you to ensure that all online business listings carry correct information about your practice.

NAP Consistency also considered being an important ranking factor for local SEO. It helps the search engine determine that the business is genuine. This recognition also complements other practices and processes for online marketing for dentists.

 

– Gathering Reviews From Current Patients

The best form of defense against a negative review is generating positive patient reviews for a dentist. This is where you need to seek reviews from your patients proactively. Ask them to share their experience with you online and request permission to post their review on your social media, website, and third-party review sites. Use these positive Google My Business reviews, Yelp reviews, a Google Map Review, etc. to your advantage by promoting and highlighting them on review platforms to drown out the negative feedback.

 

– Maintaining Active Social Media Profiles.

Ask any dental reputation expert, and they would say that your social media reputation is arguably one of the most significant factors at play in the management of your online reputation.

Social media is where everyone turns if they have a grievance with a business. After all, it doesn’t take a lot for negativity to go viral on social media. Without active social media monitoring, all these negative reviews, which may not be honest at all, go unchecked. 

Addressing these social media reviews and mentions is one of the more critical aspects of Dental Review Management. A Dental Reputation expert would take the time and effort to reply to negative comments about your practice on social media and resolve them. Besides, when a dentist responds to an aggrieved patient on social media, it shows that his practice cares about the patients. 

Apart from this, posting informative and engaging content on social media sites on a regular basis is also a desirable trait. Out of sight is usually out of mind. So daily social media posts ensure that you remain in your patient’s view and add value to their lives with useful information.

 

– Content Marketing For Dental Reputation

ORM and content marketing go hand in hand. Creating content that paints a positive picture of your brand, and circulating it into the right channels gives a boost to your brand image. When your prospective patients like reading your content, they begin to trust your brand and skills, and they become more likely to use your services. The result? An improved online reputation and an increase in revenue!

Besides, good content has the potential to go viral. It may increase brand awareness for your practice, which would complement your ORM efforts. A well-planned dental reputation and content marketing goes a long way towards ensuring the success of online marketing for dentists.

 

 

Conclusion

Online Reputation Management is now an absolute must-have for dentists. Without dental  Reputation management services, your practice will lag behind the competition. It is a non-negotiable because:

• Almost all your potential patients will read online reviews about your practice.
• Your online reputation determines how potential patients view your practice.
• Nothing turns patients away as bad reviews do
• A positive online reputation translates into more new patient appointments and thus higher revenue. 
• Your rankings in Google’s organic search and local 3-pack are heavily influenced by the quantity and quality of reviews about your practice.

 

Also Read: Guide to Online Dental Review Management if you wish to do it yourself for your dental clinic website.

 

The role of online reputation monitoring isn’t just restricted to monitoring and managing your reviews. It allows you to gain insight into your patients’ needs, expectations, and behavior. It provides your dental practice with the opportunity to grow consistently. If you are willing to be patient and invest time, money, and effort into it, ORM will prove to be very rewarding for your dental practice.