People post online reviews about everything from the sandwiches they eat to the colleges they attend.
It’s not surprising, then, that people also share online opinions about their healthcare providers.
Smart medical professionals read and respond to these opinions. That’s because online reviews could help them do so much.
Form opinions about practices
Many people go into internet searches blind or may have little to no knowledge about a subject or subjects.
Internet searchers might know a little about something, but they’re searching for information to learn more or answer questions about it.
The first things online searchers might learn about healthcare practices might be through reviews. If the comments are positive and practices acknowledge them, these reviews might lead to patients and prospective patients doing more research about them, such as visiting websites and interacting with the practices themselves.
Reviews show that practices are active and are doing something. Their mere presence indicates that practices are real entities with real workers helping real people.
That previous statement might seem odd, but the internet does have its fair share of fakery, scams, and exaggeration. Online reviews attach real, human elements to medical practices’ public images.
If they’re concerned about their health or the effectiveness of potential doctors, people want authenticity. Reviews could help provide it.
Demonstrate practices’ soft skills
When patients don’t know anything about healthcare practices, online reviews might serve several functions.
They could give people factual ideas about what practices do. Such facts might include the hour’s practices are open and the conditions their professionals treat.
Just as importantly, reviews could help current and future patients understand practices’ soft skills, that is, information about the professionals’ personal qualities.
Soft skills related to health care (and other fields) include being
Online reviews might not mention whether medical professionals practice all these skills. But they might mention a few using different words.
Reviewers who write at length about a professional’s willingness to spend time talking and listening could be excellent testaments of the professional’s communication skills. If there are multiple reviews about the same topic, they emphasize the practitioner’s skills even further and could be even stronger endorsements.
Help attract new patients
Endorsements are still crucial because they help attract new patients and retain current ones, so offices should promote them. But the old-fashioned word of mouth and recommendations still have their roles. Big roles, in fact.
Patients who leave positive reviews could serve as digital recommendations. Reviews might prompt people to learn more about providers, such as by reading additional reviews, interacting with the professionals’ websites more, or engaging with the healthcare professionals in question.
As much as practices try to promote themselves, people still want to know what real patients really think about them. Digital reviews could provide these sorts of answers.
When comments are positive, people are more likely to choose providers they feel they can trust. If the reviews think professionals are trustworthy and give credible explanations why others are more likely to trust them as well?
Demonstrate a willingness to engage
Medical practices might find it easier to earn trust if they engage with others.
Using online reviews is a good way to develop this interaction. Many review sites have functions that allow people to respond to reviews, especially if they’re the subjects of such conversations.
Responding to reviews illustrates multiple things. It shows that practices are technologically savvy and know how to navigate and use the internet. If they’re knowledgeable about online sites, they might be skilled enough to consider and use other types of technology to provide optimal care.
Answering reviews demonstrate the graciousness and gratitude of practices when the reviews are good. It shows humility and that they care.
Negative review responses also indicate how medical professionals care. It’s not easy to take criticism when we’ve worked hard, but it’s important to thank people for taking the time to offer their opinions.
Such acknowledgments indicate that professionals realize that other people might not be satisfied with their work. It indicates a willingness to solve problems and fix situations.
A negative review, then, could ultimately be positive. It could give people the truth and opportunities for growth.
Promote a practice’s location
Most patients want health care close to home. Reviews could help people find it.
Maybe a particular medical office offers treatment advantages due to its location or is in a geographically desirable place. Patient reviews might mention these assets, or office employees could mention them when they’re responding to other comments.
In these answers and other forms of communication, providers might want to use their signature lines to include their locations and other information they’d like to highlight. It’s a quick, easy way of putting correct information out there and promoting medical services.
Practices also might add if they’re the only provider or one of the few providers who work in a specific specialty in a certain geographic area. This uniqueness could encourage patients to consider specific offices instead of others.
Mentioning a geographic location in reviews and web pages could help search engines find practices and add them to their results listings. Phrases such as optometrists in Joliet, Illinois, or mentions of other medical specialties and locations could match exact search queries and shine a spotlight on the offices who use such search terms and keywords.
Explain how practices and patients are relevant
When they write and post reviews, people are acknowledging that medical practices are doing work that impacts their lives.
If people didn’t care, they wouldn’t say anything at all. If practices didn’t care, they wouldn’t look for such reviews and respond to them.