In this digital era, the reputation of a clinic or healthcare professional isn’t just built within their practice, but also online, where patients share their experiences through reviews.
For potential patients, these online reviews from Google and Yelp work as a trust indicator to decide if the clinic is worth choosing or not based on the number of positive and negative reviews.
Positive reviews show that patients are happy with your clinic’s service and find it satisfactory, impacting your clinic’s ability to attract new patients. The reason why some businesses even buy Google reviews is to stand ahead of their competitors.
But at the same time, the real reviews from your patients also play an equally important role in establishing credibility and trust in your audience’s eyes.
This blog will help you understand why patients rely on Google reviews and how you can leave a lasting positive impression on your audience.
Before diving into that, let’s first explore how often patients actually check reviews.
How Frequently Do Patients Check Reviews Before Choosing a Clinic?
Out of ten, seven patients check online reviews before visiting a clinic to check the service and customer satisfaction. These online review sites majorly include,
Google reviews
Yelp
Healthgrades
RateMDs
But what do these reviews tell? Let’s explore this in the next section.
Why Do Patients Rely On Online Reviews?
Reviews are the best judge of how the clinic is and how they are treating their patients, as they come directly from the patient’s experience. Let’s understand why patients rely on reviews so much to find a good clinic.
Finding A Trusted Clinic
Reviews give a better idea of patient retention by showing the number of patients who are satisfied with the clinic’s service and procedures. This helps them find a trusted clinic with which they can go without hesitation.
If a clinic has tons of 5-star reviews where customers are happy about the staff and successful treatments, patients are more likely to choose that clinic over others that have few good reviews.
Checking Customer Satisfaction
Online reviews show how other customers felt about their treatment with the clinic. Reviews ensure the clinic staff has proper expertise in the field and knows how to care for the patients, avoiding any complications or problems.
A clinic with reviews mentioning “good care” and “experts in the field” is bound to increase patient satisfaction rates. But if you see many negative reviews about dissatisfaction, that can be a sign that the clinic is not a good choice.
Checking Clinics’s Response To Negative Reviews
Sometimes, a single person’s dissatisfaction doesn’t necessarily represent the clinic’s quality of care. In this case, it is essential to see how the clinic responds to negative reviews to address the concern and solve the issue.
If a clinic replies to concerns and offers solutions to negative reviews, it shows that it cares about the patients.
Quality Of Service
The patients often look for ways to check the quality of service provided by the clinic through online reviews. Detailed reviews help the patients know how practical the clinic’s treatments are, the accuracy of diagnoses, and the professionalism of the staff.
Ambiance And Amenities Of The Clinic
Patients are always in search of reviews that describe the clinic’s cleanliness, comfort, and facilities. A well-maintained and clean clinic shows that the staff cares about the patients’ health and hygiene for safety.
So, how should you, as a clinic, reply to these reviews to improve your online reputation? Let’s find out in the next section!
How To Respond To Online Reviews To Increase Your Clinic’s Reputation?
A good online reputation helps you build trust and credibility and attract new patients to the clinic. But it all depends on your reviews and how you respond to them. Let’s examine how to respond to positive and negative reviews in detail.
Positive Reviews
It’s important that you reply to online reviews with gratitude to show that you care about their feedback and experience. This also encourages other satisfied patients to leave a good review about your clinic. Make sure to:
Start the review with the patient’s name to make it customized.
Say more than a thank you by telling how you’re focusing on improvement.
Offer incentives or discounts to retain the patients and show you value them.
Negative Reviews
Negative reviews show how you handle conflicts and concerns of unsatisfied patients. It’s important that you deal with them politely and professionally by:
Responding instantly to show you care about their time and concern.
Being genuine and understanding their concerns and offering a solution instead of arguing.
Saying sorry about the experience they had to show that you genuinely regret the inconvenience.
Offering a solution offline by asking for their email or number to connect and sort out the issue without extending it further online.
Conclusion
Online reviews, especially Google reviews, are essential in making patient decisions. If the reviews are positive, it shows that the clinic is trustworthy and has expert staff to handle the treatment.
But if the clinic has a lot of negative reviews with no or rude responses from the clinic, it shows that the clinic lacks reputation and might not be a good choice to go with.
If you want to attract patients by giving a push to your clinic’s visibility, you can go for Buyreviewz‘s Google reviews services, which deliver 100% real reviews according to your location to increase your local SEO and credibility.
