practice marketing
“You can please most of the people some of
the time, some of the people most of the time.
but none of the people all of the time.”
– Abraham Lincoln
How To Respond to a
Negative Patient Review
A negative online review would never happen to
you, right? You are an amazing doctor, you have
a great staff and you take pride in providing the
highest level of service to your patients. The truth
is that even if you and your staff do everything in
your power to please, delight and take great care
of your patients, negative online reviews can happen to anyone.
The ever-increasing use of review websites and social media
now allows dissatisfied patients and even ex-employees to share
their frustrations with thousands. If patients feel like they were
underserved by you (whether they really were or not), they want
to share it with the world. In the past, this meant telling their
spouse and a few co-workers, but today, it means taking to Yelp,
Angie’s List or any other review website to tell their story. In
short, people love to “vent” and they want as many people as
possible to validate their feelings.
A negative review can do nothing but harm to you and your
practice’s hard-earned reputation. How? According to the
Opinion Research Corporation, 84% of Americans say online
20 NORTH TEXAS DENTISTRY | www.northtexasdentistry.com
by Marc Fowler
customer reviews have an influence on their decision to purchase a product or service. Today’s consumer has been conditioned to read reviews prior to making a purchase decision. That
means prospective patients will Google you before calling your
office and they will be looking for any negative reviews about
your practice that show up.
So, what do you do if it happens to you? For dentists who have
worked hard to build a practice, a negative review can often feel
like a personal attack. That is an understandable feeling, but
simply ignoring the review and “hoping” it will eventually
get lost somewhere in the depths of the Internet isn’t a good
strategy. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to diffuse a
negative review:
Turning lemons into lemonade
According to a Harris Interactive survey, it is possible to turn
unhappy customers into brand advocates. The report found
that by proactively addressing negative reviews:
34%
33%
removed their original negative review
then posted a positive review