Do you want new patients? Then you NEED to get more 5-star online reviews for your physical therapy practice! You need consistent 5-star reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook, and more. That’s why Practice Promotions offers online review generation tools with all our marketing plans.
In this guest blog by David Lott, he shares his secrets to getting over 800 online reviews for his practice, Lott Physical Therapy!
Lott Physical Therapy has been a Practice Promotions client since 2019! They use the Ultimate Marketing Plan to get a consistent flow of new patients. You can listen to an audio version of this blog on the Practice Marketing Podcast!
David, why is it important to get reviews for your physical therapy practice?
49% of people say they trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations (BrightLocal, 2022).
Plus, Google reviews are often the first impression someone has of our business. Our goals with review are to…
- Build trust
- Establish relevance in the physical therapy space
- Allow patients to “share their story” so others can better understand how Lott PT can help them.
Google reviews also help us better understand how to exceed our patients’ expectations. Google reviews tell us what patients hold valuable. That’s why a detailed review can be so much more helpful than a “I love Lott’s” review.
Finally, online reviews offers patients the opportunity to express frustrations and help us better understand where we need to improve. Hopefully, we get this feedback on our Net Promoter Score survey, and not directly on our Google platform.
Why is it important to get online reviews in more than one space?
You want to capture patients that may be using different platforms.
Not everyone has a Google account so it’s important to have reviews on your website, Facebook, etc. Due to our rural area we haven’t focused much on Yelp, but it’s probably something I need to look into.
Also, the “Neighbors” app is another platform that seems to be gaining traction in our area.
Why do you need to get online reviews for each of your clinic locations?
You might not know this, but Google treats each of your clinic locations as its own separate business. So, in order to rank on Google Maps and local SEO, you need a separate Google Business profile for each clinic location. On top of that, you need to get Google Reviews for each location, separately. That helps with each location’s local SEO, so when people Google “PT clinics” we pop up first in their area. We also want to pop up first for back pain, neck pain, etc in their area.
Second, each location has its own unique demographic and socioeconomic groups, industry, etc. We want to personalize our clinics to reflect the specific needs of each community.
When is the right time to ask for a review for your physical therapy practice?
Anytime you hear your patient report a positive outcome or “shares their story.”
I encourage my PT to start each session by asking: “Are you getting better?”
This is a simple, direct question that allows the patient to reflect on if the reason they are seeking treatment is improving. I have a series of questions I ask then to direct the patient to reflect on how much progress they have made. Some forget when improvements are slow. So, we must remind them where they started in the PT journey! We help them remember any aversion to seeking treatment they may have had and reflect on what it took to get them in the clinic.
Finally, we let them know that we love helping people, but we need their help sharing their story so others can get help too.
Some patients just come in excited about their progress and require no prompting! For these kinds of patients, we ask for a review on visits 3-4, or in the midpoint of their plan of care. Again, this is for patients for whom their improvement is more noticeable initially – either a reduction in pain, better balance, improved function, etc.
Finally, a great time to ask for a Google Review is during a progress report or a reevaluation when the PT is really “showing them their gains.” Reviewing objective measures will often remind them of how far they have come.
Don’t ask on their last visit. The patient will probably forget!
How do you get patients to leave the ideal review?
You guide them in “why” the review is so valuable. Help them understand that by leaving a review they are helping others get a positive outcome as well. People love to help others.
Don’t make the review about “Lott PT”…make it about helping others get great results. Explain to the patient that most people don’t know what we do. Remind them of any hesitancy or lack of clarity they may have had initially prior to starting their PT treatment. Many patients, on their initial encounter with PT services, weren’t sure how we could really help them or if PT would “fix” their problem. It’s kind of hard to explain what PT is or how it works…remind the patient that the review is simply a platform for them to share their story and help others get the great results they have.
Finally, encourage them to…
- Be specific about what is better
- Tell their story of what they can do now that they couldn’t do before
- Tell how they have tried so many other forms of treatment that didn’t help, but how PT really changed their life.
- Longer the better.
Asking for online reviews can feel awkward, or even arrogant. What are some suggestions to get your team asking for reviews?
- Start with “why” reviews are so important. Keep the need for an online review patient centered versus business centered.
PTs love helping others. They don’t love more paper work or processes that they are measured on or have to keep up. By making it clear that our focus is on “spreading the gospel” and helping to promote our profession and help others get better…I’ve found that most barriers to getting more reviews are diminished significantly.
- Additionally, clear metrics with a monthly dashboard to help our crew see the fruits of their labor. This is shared in the employee lounge TV slideshow.
- Train your team. I have a training program designed around our ID Badge QR code that offers insight on…
- Why reviews are important
- When to ask for a review
- How to guide the patient on writing an awesome review. I really stress…the importance of “telling their story”! Lengthy reviews evoke more passion and offer more insight on why their expectations have been exceeded
- I talk about why more reviews help increase our credibility and presence
- Lasty, I tell staff why current reviews are so important in demonstrating a growing, active business.
- Remind your team of your Google Review Goal. We have a “PT Marketing Cart Strategy.” Our clinicians have carts with laptops they push around all day. The purpose is to make sure PTs are more engaged with patient and looking at them even while documenting their treatment! My idea was to add a “cart billboard” attached to front of carts that can display our current initiative, whether it’s google reviews, pushing RTM with Lott HEP app, food drive, etc. This helps remind PTs and engage patients to ask about what we are trying to promote.
How do you deal with negative reviews for your physical therapy clinic?
First, you have to find the cause of the negative review. Was it the office, insurance, or actual clinic experience?
I believe we learn the most from our negative reviews on what needs to be explained better or if we need better systems in place. For example, maybe we need to explain benefits better, or think out our customer experience more thoroughly.
We have weekly PT operations meetings and review all detractor comments. The evaluating PT will call the patient OR visit with them on their next visit to discuss how we failed to exceed their expectations.
WE create a safe space first (crucial conversations) to help the patient and PT know this is not a contentious conversation. We help the patient understand that we want to improve and their satisfaction is our number one goal. Patients appreciate this approach will often give us insight on issues we had no clue existed! Usually no one did anything WRONG…other than not clearly explain the “why” behind whatever issue created their negative response.
Our goal is to make every patient encounter an overwhelmingly positive encounter…even for patients who may come in with lots of negative baggage! Being empathetic to their concerns and not OVER explaining usually leads to a positive outcome.
In that way, a detractor who left a negative review can become a promoter.
How do you identify someone who is willing to leave a 5-star review?
New patients receive an email from their PT after their initial eval, which is designed to go out at a specific date during their active episode, asking them to rate their service.
Using the net promoter system, we are able to direct ‘promoters’…with follow up email…to a quick link to google review landing page…it’s important that we THANK all reviewers OR follow up on any detractors.
IF someone rates below a 9 we always follow up on their next session to find out what we need to do better.
Besides staff asking, how else can you ask for Google reviews?
Our waiting area and PT gym slideshow highlighting our employees, services we offer, RTM LOTT App, AND explaining WHY google reviews are so important. On the slide, we tell the patient to “ask your PT how you can help others” by leaving an online reivew.
Has focusing on your online reviews helped your practice over the last few years?
For sure. Our increased reviews and 4.9 rating, I believe, has led to patients who have been encouraged by their referring provider to get PT at other locations…decide to go with Lott’s based on all the positive reviews. This has been reported to me many times by various patients.
Also, reviews really help us identify what patients see as most valuable or areas we need to work on.
How do you personally connect with patients when asking for a review?
I ask all patients on follow up visits: “Are you getting better?”
I’ve found this question is so much more effective that “how are you feeling” or “how’s your…balance, pain, etc”.
Any time a patient is really excited about their progress or shares their success story I tell them how excited I am to hear about their progress. I ask, “Did you expect that when you started PT?” Oftentimes patient’s will tell me how impressed they were with a certain PT or how they would have never believed PT could have helped so much.
This is the perfect time to remind them of how many people must be out their who are suffering with the same issues, but just don’t know what to do. BUT, “You could really help others by telling them your story”.
Remind patients of any apprehension they may have had prior to starting PT.
Are there other ways that you ask for patient testimonials?
Our primary focus for testimonials has been Google.
We do collect written testimonials, website testimonials and video testimonials.
I’d like to work on developing more video testimonials in the future, as I see this can be a great opportunity for great postings on social media. I’m working on streamlining this currently…focused on having a consistent process in place to leverage the opportunity when it comes.
Video testimonials require some advance planning that is tough during a busy clinic day…so we usually schedule these in advance and ask patients who have a great story to come in for a quick video. Our senior population is usually excited to help.
Eventually, I want to develop a video library of patient reviews for the most common areas we treat. We’ll put this on our website and have proper links to funnel the patient to setting up an appointment.
Do you ever do any patient success features in your marketing? Any tips?
In the past we have had patient success stories highlighted on our website, digital newsletter, and on our website. I hope to increase these and start posting more on social media as well.
You are a master at getting patients to leave reviews. What have been your top 4 most successful actions to make that happen?
- BE CONSISTENT in offering great care. You have to exceed expectations and provide consistently incredible care!
- Educate all your employees, both office and clinical staff, on why reviews are so important.
- Identify any barriers that keep patients from ‘telling their story’.
- Use technology to help promote the importance of reviews to your patients AND your crew by having waiting room/PT gym slideshows on your TVs, posters, etc.
Practice Promotions offers online review generation tools as part of all our marketing plans. Schedule an Instant Demo of our marketing services today!
Marketing Wins From Lott Physical Therapy
David Lott and Lott Physical Therapy have been proud Practice Promotions customers since 2019. Here are just a few of their wins…
- Increased their reactivated patients by 50% in 2023 vs 2022! Their secret? Printing & mailing custom newsletters to past patients each month!
- Got 7000 more patient visits in 2023 vs 2021! That’s a 25% increase!
They’re on the Ultimate Marketing Plan, which includes…
- SEO services
- Patient-centered website design
- Practice Newsletters!
Want to see the same success? Schedule an Instant Demo of our marketing services today!