How to improve your online reputation
Online reputation is important for every business, in particular dental practices and social media has only escalated the need. So, how in this modern age of tech savvy patients, who are confident in expressing their opinions on all platforms, can you ensure that your practice maintains a positive reputation?
Many dentists ‘hide their heads in the sand’ when it comes to online reputation management, however it is estimated that patients are 92% more likely to trust their peers when considering joining a new practice, with 86% of people experiencing hesitation upon booking a consultation when looking for a dental practice that has negative reviews. Therefore, a good, peer driven online reputation strategy may bring patients closer to your door.
So where do you start? What is defined as your online reputation? Online reputation management is the process of analysing and monitoring relevant mentions and reviews that take place on the web. It is helpful to keep track of this, as this may offer useful insights on how to improve your marketing strategy.
Here’s some tips to get you started:
- Assess your current situation
Search your Dental Practice’s name in Google and look at the first page of results.
- Identify review sites such as: nhs choices, dentist finder, Google reviews- are there any negative reviews?
- Is the information up to date? Do all of the results contain the correct practice name, address and telephone number?
2. Respond & Update
If you have found any reviews (positive and negative!) respond to them either by thanking or politely apologising.
If you have found any incorrect information, contact the website the listing appears on and ask them to update the contact information.
3. Compare your website to the competition
Would you like your website to reflect the high quality dentistry you provide? How does it look in comparison to your competitors? Be honest with yourself, does it look dated? Does your website function well on mobiles and tablets, with click to call phone numbers and no need to zoom in?
It may be worth having a chat with your website designer if the website doesn’t look up to scratch any more.
4. How is your social media looking?
Do you have three or four accounts on the same network? When was the last time you posted anything? Old outdated social media pages look lazy, which will only reflect on your practice.
Delete or merge old accounts into one and give the pages some love with a new cover photo. Start to post on them at least weekly to keep them up to date and worth following. Failing that, close the accounts altogether if you don’t have time to run them effectively.
4. Create a reputation strategy
Now that you’ve identified and updated/ replied to existing matters, it’s time to think about how you’re going to manage this moving forward. For example, by training receptionists to ask happy patients for reviews, creating a social media posting schedule, booking an admin day once per quarter to look over your website and directory listings.
All of this may seem like a lot of work to begin with but, if you want to gain a positive reputation in the online sphere it’s well worth the effort.
If you would like further ideas to help market your practice in a positive light, speak to a member of our team today on 01202 677 277 who will be happy to help you.
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