The Power of Customer Reviews for Your Dental Clinic

Today, 77% of patients go online to search out and read online reviews of dental clinics. Potential clients want to learn about the dental practice and read other patients’ experiences before deciding which dentist to visit. Therefore getting customer reviews online has become crucial if you want to be chosen among competitors. 

The more reviews you have, the more recognizable your dental practice will seem online. After all, a potential client searching for a dentist in his area is more likely to choose a business with over 50 five-star reviews than a business with just two reviews. 

The good news is, from the recent survey, 74% of customers who were asked to provide feedback, 68% were willing to do it. So don’t hesitate when asking patients to leave a review because most of them will be happy to help you out. 

What are the main benefits of online reviews for a dental clinic?

  1. You will rank higher on Google Maps and Google Searches
  2. High star ratings increase conversions
  3. Reviews build customer trust
  4. The feedback received helps you improve your practice 
  5. It’s a cost-effective way to get more clients

How to get more online reviews from the patients? 

1. Google reviews are the backbone of any local marketing strategy. If you want your clients to leave reviews on Google, the first thing that needs to be done is to optimize your Google My Business listing. Google My Business helps businesses manage their online presence across search engines.  

Basically, it’s a source of verified information about your dental clinic, including location, opening hours, prices, and reviews from patients. 

Follow these steps to set up your Google My Business listing:

  • The first thing you need to do is visit https://www.google.com/business/  
  • Create/Claim Your Google My Business Page
  • Verify your business by phone call or email
  • Add the finishing touches (website, phone number, opening hours, photos, appointment URL, etc.

2. The most engaging way to get reviews from your patients is by asking them face-to-face after the dental procedure. Ask your сlient how their experience was and if they don’t mind leaving a review.

3. If you find it hard to get your patients to leave you a review after you ask them, there are alternative ways to simplify this task. Inexpensive reputation management platforms like Amazeful can help your business generate more reviews and save time.

What are the main advantages of using a reputation management platform?

  1. It’s a fully automated process, so you don’t have to spend time asking each client for a review. In addition, the platform can integrate with your patients’ management system and automatically send email or SMS survey requests. 
  2. You can redirect your patients to leave reviews on other sites besides Google like Facebook, Yelp, or any review site that matters for your business.
  3. You can manage your negative feedback offline and deal with the issues before they escalate.
  4. You get in-depth reporting of your online reputation to analyze and find ways to improve patients’ experience. 

Positive reviews can help you build strong relationships with existing patients and attract new ones.

Considering that clients tend to trust online reviews as much as they would a personal recommendation from a friend, it’s a time to use reviews to your advantage.

Worried about finding time to get more online reviews? Start 7 days free trial with Amazeful!

How to Turn Negative Customer Reviews Into Advantage?

Negative reviews are a nightmare for many business owners. But the truth is no matter how devoted you are in promoting a good customer experience, you’ll come across negative reviews in the end. It’s a fact for all businesses dealing with customers, you can’t please all the customers all the time. What is more important is how you handle bad reviews and the way you respond to them. Moreover, negative feedback is something that can help your business to grow and improve. Instead of being afraid of bad reviews, let’s see how to use them as a positive side for your business.

Always respond to negative feedback

When you receive a bad review, first of all, understand what the customer complains about and apologize for the negative experience. If it’s appropriate – offer a refund or exchange. Show that you care about each customer’s problem and resolve it with a public response. However, if the issue requires additional actions (for example, related to services), it’s best to resolve such complaints privately. Leave a phone number or an email so customers can contact you to resolve the problem offline.

Sometimes reviews can be unfair, but try to be polite and friendly to show potential customers you’re dedicated to providing excellent service.

Build trust using negative reviews

When a potential customer sees a bad review, he also checks the response from the business side. By interacting with the clients who left a negative review, it shows you’re being proactive about addressing problems, and it helps build trust.

Besides, this way, you demonstrate to potential clients you have nothing to hide and are ready to resolve issues if they exist. Plus, customers are inclined to trust businesses with positive and negative feedback, while only 5-star reviews look more fake and not credible. 

Use a reputation management platform

Indeed, you can’t control what reviewers write, but you can manage and control negative feedback using a reputation management platform. The system captures negative reviews and sends them to you privately to deal with them offline. Dealing with unhappy customers’ issues in-house before they get the chance to go public will help minimize the number of published negative reviews on Google, TripAdvisor, and other sites. Respond to bad reviews to make customers feel heard, and there is a big chance they will change their minds and leave you a positive review instead.

Improve your business 

Negative feedback can be unsettling at first, but how else would you understand the issues you have in the business processes? All successful businesses continuously improve, and bad reviews are a great way to identify what’s working and what’s not. If too many clients complain about the same thing, it’s worth looking into it and making improvements. So even if you don’t like receiving negative reviews, they’re still necessary and helpful. The more you listen to clients’ concerns, the more you will meet their expectations, and you will provide a much better experience.

    So what to do about negative reviews? 

    1. The most important – do not ignore them. It’s okay to have some unhappy customers because you can’t always please every client. 
    2. Always respond to negative reviews. Show that you care about the issue and are ready to deal with it publicly. This way, you can even turn unhappy customers into loyal advocates.
    3. Use a reputation management platform to manage and keep track of your negative reviews. It helps to minimize the number of negative reviews on Google, TripAdvisor, and other sites. 
    4. Learn from your mistakes using bad reviews. Identify what’s not working for your clients and improve it.

    5. Get more positive reviews. Usually, only unsatisfied clients are willing to leave a review. To keep the balance between negative and positive feedback, always ask your clients for reviews.