Whether someone is looking for a new dentist for procedures like full mouth implants or implant-supported dentures, they are highly likely to check out online reviews first. In an increasingly digitized world, it is important for dental clinics to monitor their reputation online consistently so that potential patients looking for a new dentist only find largely positive reviews.
Managing your online reputation can be challenging even if you offer high-quality dental procedures and affordable dental implants. If you have been practicing for a while, you are bound to have received some constructive or negative feedback online. So, in addition to making sure you are generating enough reviews online, you also need to be on the lookout for any negative feedback in order to address patient concerns.
How do you handle this while running an efficient practice? Let’s take a deep dive into this question.
How to Get Patients to Leave Favorable Online Reviews
Several studies show that potential patients place a lot of trust in online reviews when it comes to gauging a dentist’s quality of work and trustworthiness. If a patient is interested in a dental implant procedure, they are likely to search for terms such as “average price of dental implants”, “costs of dental implants”, “dental implants cost”, “does insurance cover dental implants”, and “dental implants near me”. If you have a Google Business Page and your past patients have left reviews on it, your practice will garner greater attention and visibility among those search results.
However, simply offering a lower cost for dental implants and outstanding customer service is not enough to get you regular 5-star ratings from your patients. Remember, disgruntled patients are more likely to leave reviews without being asked; you have to encourage your happy patients to share their experience for good reviews.
If you think it’s unprofessional to ask patients for reviews, then the only reviews your practice will get online are likely to be from unsatisfied or unhappy customers who want to damage your reputation.
To make the process easier, just direct your patients toward the most popular review sites like Facebook, Yelp, or Google (or all three), and tell them that you’d be grateful for their feedback. Also encourage them to give you testimonials for your website. The easier you make it for the patients to post a review, the more likely they are to do it.
Here are a few quick tips to keep in mind:
Set up a Google Business page if you haven’t already
This profile should include details like your website address, physical address, office pictures, and contact information.
Send review requests to your patients via text or email
Include the links to your Facebook, Yelp, and/or Google Business page in this message.
Automate the review requests
Your staff shouldn’t be responsible for manually sending review requests to each and every patient; they might forget since they already have a lot on their plate.
Send a personalized follow-up
Patients love it when their doctor – or dentist – follow up with a phone call or a handwritten letter to ask them about their experience. They will be more likely to leave you an online review if you ask for feedback this way.
Host a contest to encourage patients to submit reviews
Just to give an example, an oral surgeon could host a contest where their patients have to post a picture of themselves with their pet. The best picture might win a free dental implant. They would include a “write a review” link in the post as well to generate a lot of reviews from existing single tooth implant patients.
Keep an eye on the reviews about implant dentistry
When you get good feedback, reply to the patient and thank them. When you get negative feedback, ask the patient what went wrong and then explain what steps you’ll take to make sure their negative experience is not repeated.
When you get an obviously sabotaging/false review by a troll, competitor, or someone who is not your patient, do not engage with them at all. Instead, contact Facebook, Google, or Yelp’s administration and put in a request to have that review evaluated. You just need to ask them to investigate that review and they will easily verify its inauthenticity and remove it.
Looking to Reduce Your Dental Implant Cost? Contact Our Full-Service Dental Lab Today
Founded in 1988, Trident Dental Laboratories has remained a leader in providing dental implants and other high-quality solutions for missing teeth. Whether your patients need dental implants covered by a dental bridge or a single dental implant covered by a crown, our cutting-edge digital workflow is sure to provide you affordable solutions. To learn more about our full mouth dental implants or how we can help you reduce dental implant cost, leave a message here.