Dental Reputation Management: Guide to Win Over New Patients

In this modern day, it is critical for businesses to know how their products are being received by the public. After all, there is no business without customers, so their feedback is vital. One main way to have more control over your business’s reputation is with reputation management. 

Strong reputation management can quickly help a business appear more credible than its competitors while also helping to build trust with customers. For medical practices like dental offices, the importance of good reputation management is even more critical. This is because patients cannot simply return their purchases and paying for dental care is a big investment of time and money. 

Patients have to possess a level of trust in their dentist even before they sit down in the chair. To do this efficiently, dental practices should invest in tools to build a strong dental reputation management strategy. Before we dive into review management tools, let’s take a look at what reputation management is for dentists and why it is critical for growing and managing their practice.

What is Dental Reputation Management?

The process of influencing, controlling, and enhancing the reputation of a dental practice is dental reputation management. For a practice smaller in size, word of mouth and positive reviews impact their business more than a larger practice. This is why managing reviews and building a positive reputation are critical.

Importance of negative reviews

Did you know 72%¹ of patients view online reviews when selecting a new provider? That means a majority of your potential patients are browsing your online reviews before they even pick up the phone to book an appointment. So, what does a negative review say about your practice? Although a single negative review is only from one customer’s experience, this review could equal a lost sale for future customers who browse your review page. 

Even though you can’t resolve every negative review, you can play a powerful offense when it comes to managing reviews. To do this, you can provide happy customers with more opportunities to leave positive reviews. For a dental practice, asking for reviews might not seem as important as simply delivering good service. However, potential patients cannot receive good service until they are persuaded to book an appointment. 

Benefits of dental reputation management

For a small dental practice, generating positive reviews is critical to not only growing but competing with larger dental practices. This is why dental practices need reputation management. 

Benefits of reputation management:

• Boosts Sales
• Builds Brand Image
• Improves Visibility
• Establishes Trust & Credibility
• Generates good business insights
• Grows Customer Base

Building your strategy for dental reputation management

Managing online reviews

• Encouraging reviews from happy customers

Many satisfied patients don’t want to deal with the hassle of leaving a review because traditional methods take too much time and seem cumbersome. With one simple text, Weave can send a simple review link to your patient’s phone. With a quick touch, happy patients can leave a review that only takes a few seconds and makes a big impact. More reviews mean more business.

• Replying to existing reviews 

Responding to a negative review with compassion and understanding goes a long way. To learn more about which habits are essential to gain more dental patient google reviews, click here. Here are some positive ways to respond to bad/negative reviews:

• Address the Patient Directly
• Say thank you (for leaving the review)
• Apologize & Sympathize
• Take Responsibility
• Make Things Right
• Go Above & Beyond

Positively responding to negative feedback helps other potential customers see how much your business cares about the customer experience you provide. Responding to positive reviews is much simpler but equally essential. Patients who leave positive reviews have the potential to turn into loyal customers and should be treated with importance. To learn more about the importance of responding to negative reviews, click here. 

Focusing on the Patient experience

Effective Communication & Methods (texting, social media, best practices)

Focusing on the patient experience means your practice provides a top-notch experience in and out of the office that is focused on your patient’s needs. Connect with your patients on social media and keep the conversation going with convenient Texting and appointment Reminders. With Weave’s intuitive software, you can manage reviews, comments, and interactions and send out marketing materials all from one convenient platform. To learn more about effective communication habits for your team, click here. 

The Right Tools

A surefire way to help patients leave positive reviews is to provide a stellar experience that they want to talk about. Small things like reducing wait times, friendly interactions, digital tools, and pre-check-in processes can make a big difference in a patient’s experience. Weave is an all-in-one communication and engagement platform designed to improve the patient experience. 

One way Weave does this is with digital tools your front desk team will enjoy using. Tools like digital forms can be given to patients so they can have them ready before they walk in. Convenient payment methods like Weave Texting, help patients pay in multiple ways so they have convenience when managing their bills.

Conclusion 

Weave wraps all of these essential tools into one convenient platform. When it comes to managing your reputation and reviews, patients just want a good experience. These tools and strategies can help your patients receive a good experience that they not only want to talk about but they want to receive time and time again. For more information or to receive a free demo, click here.

FAQs

How do I generate better reviews for my dental practice?

Many customers have a positive experience but leaving a review takes up too much of their time. To generate more views for your practice; ask for them! You can use software like Weave to send simple text messages with a link for customers to click on and leave a review. You can also use Weave’s software to manage past/current reviews and respond accordingly, and even use a Response Assistant that helps reduce the time it takes to respond to patient reviews by creating custom, relevant responses to patient reviews by using generative AI technology. This allows you to streamline your reputation management process giving you more time to tend to patients in your practice. 

How important is online dental reputation management for dental practices?

Online review management is important for every business because most customers check reviews before making a purchase. For medical industries that are performing medical care like the dental industry, online reviews are even more critical. 

This is because patients cannot simply return their purchase and dental care is a major commitment of time and money. With Weave’s review management software, your dental practice can generate more sales, respond to patients quicker and generate more reviews overall.

How effective is online reputation management for dentistry?

Reputation management for dentistry is critical to growing your business and could make a night-and-day difference in the number of new patients you receive. Simply put, if your dental practice has more reviews, you will have a stronger social media & online presence which will bring more patients to your door. To learn how one dental practice used Weave to increase their Google reviews from 5 to over 100, click here.

References:

1. 72% of Patients View Online Reviews When Selecting a New Provider | Patient Engagement Hit