How Important Are Online Reviews?

How Important Are Online Reviews?
3 September 2015 | | Marketing

Are you aware that your patients are leaving you reviews on sites such as Yell, WhatClinic and on your Google Business page?

You may not know that for some searches, that potential patients do for your practice, that your Google Business page will appear in these search results – sometimes even shown against your domain name!

So just how important are reviews and how might they affect your practice?

BrightLocal carried out a Local Consumer Review Survey and some of their findings are very interesting:

 

Do you read online customer reviews to determine whether a local business is a good business?

  • 92% of people regularly or occasionally read online reviews

 

Which device / method do you use to read reviews for a local business?

  • 73% use PCs to read reviews
  • 67% use mobile Internet or tablets to read reviews

note – respondents were able to select more than one answer.

 

Which of these business types have you read online customer reviews for?

  • Restaurants & Cafes, Doctors/Dentists and General shops were the most commonly read at 60, 35, 30 percent respectively.

 

How many online reviews do you need to read before you feel that you can trust that business?

  • 73% of people feel that they need to read between 1-6 reviews to gain trust in a business

 

How recent does an online review need to be to be relevant?

  • 84% say that a review must have been written within 3-6 months to be relevant

 

Do you trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations?

  • 80% will trust reviews as mush as personal recommendations

 

For which of these local business types does “reputation” matter the most when choosing a business?

  • Reputation matters most for Restaurants, Cafes, Doctors & Dentists

 

Take-aways

The statistics, shown above, clearly show that your potential patients are using online reviews to build their trust in your practice and to gain an understanding of your practice’s reputation. However it is likely that the most recent reviews will have the greatest impact on your practice.

To help your practice’s online reputation, it is wise to start with building the number of Google reviews you have – as this will be the most visible in Google’s search engine results. We can add a Google reviews instructions page to your website to help facilitate this. But you would need to be asking your patients on a regular basis to leave your practice a review.

You will need to monitor and reply to the reviews you receive, especially if there are any negative reviews, as this can help potential patients understand that your practice is actively trying to resolve any issues patients might have with any treatment at your practice.

 

If you would like to know more about how Dental Design can help your online marketing, please give us a call on 01202 677277.

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