2 Steps To Easily Request Online Reviews In Your Clinic

This process is great for all Practice Promotions clients looking to increase their online reviews.

Getting your entire staff on board with requesting online reviews can be a challenge. After all, nobody likes to feel as though they’re “soliciting” or being impersonal…

But reviews are too important to your business not to ask every patient!

 

So, what’s the best way to go about requesting reviews in your clinic?

You’ll get the best response when asking for a review if it’s done by the person the patient has the closest relationship with. This means training your entire team when and how to ask for review. Make it fun for your staff by holding a contest with a prize for the person who gets the most 5 star reviews, or a gift card for each review that they generate. Remember, that review can generate more new patients for you!

In our experience, incentivizing your TEAM for reviews is far more effective than incentivizing patients. (not to mention, Google doesn’t allow incentivized reviews)

Here is a simple, 2-step formula for training your entire staff and taking the stress out of review requests:

 

Step 1: The “Share Your Story”

For this step, train your providers to look for one critical moment when a patient has crossed a major milestone and is starting to feel better. Maybe when they started, it was hard to get out of bed each morning and now, two-thirds through treatment, they have a much easier time starting the day… Now is the time!

Follow this outline:

1) Remind them where they started.

2) Ask what improvement they’ve seen.

3) Ask if they would share that story if it meant someone with the same problem got the help they needed.

4) Hand them a Review Generation Card to make instructions easy! (include a QR code)

 

Step 2: Check Again At Discharge

For this step, train your front desk to ask “did you get a chance to review us yet?” and hand them the same Review Generation Card.

… And That’s It!

A major benefit to this method is you’ll convert many more reviews by asking more than one time, but no single staff member needs to be responsible for more than one request.

 

Common Online Review Questions:

“Can’t I just send email requests?”

Automation is great, but asking for reviews is a personal thing, so treat it as such. Use email automation to ask for reviews as a backup for asking in the clinic. The reviews you gather will be 10 times better quality if you actually ask in person and have the person fill it out after their daily session. If it didn’t happen in the clinic, the emails as a follow up will allow another opportunity to gather the review.

Check out the review request templates in your Engage Email system for ideas!

 

“Should I respond to the review?”

It goes without saying, that good manners in reviews, increases trust, since other people can view if you have responded to the person leaving the review. Use your reputation management software in the business center to see reviews coming in and respond directly back to the person, thanking them for their review.

 

“What about negative reviews?”

In the event that someone does post directly onto Google, respond right away to the negative review. NEVER try to argue or solve the problem by responding on the review. Others will see this and judge you. It’s best to acknowledge the person for their upset and say something like “our office manager will contact you right away to help you with this issue” and take the conversation offline ASAP.

Also, don’t let a few bad reviews scare you! Studies show that an average review rating of 4.6-4.9 are seen as more trustworthy than a perfect 5 star average because people assume perfect reviews may be fake.

 

“What’s the easiest way to track results?”

You can just watch your Google Business Profile reviews, but if you are a Practice Promotions website customer, your marketing analytics dashboard allows you to see Google reviews generated on a monthly basis. In addition, in your executive report, you will be able to see all the reviews left, and the performance over multiple locations. 

 

Last Tip: Focus On Steady Results Not Just Quantity.

It is extremely important to push online reviews in your clinic and never, never stop. Google wants to see continuous reviews coming from your practice, even if you have had a hundred in the past.

For more on this strategy and on getting your team involved, here’s an interview full of advice with a clinic owner who’s been very successful with their reviews (and their practice growth!):

 

 

People searching for you will check to see if there are timely and relevant reviews for your practice.

Need help with review generation cards mentioned above? Contact your Practice Promotions team on Basecamp or order from our online store here.

 

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• Sending an email campaign