As a medical provider, you have likely placed special importance on building your reputation within the community you serve. Equally as likely is the fact that you want to be viewed as competent, trustworthy, and knowledgeable within your field of medicine.
However, your practice’s reputation is no longer based solely on a face-to-face capacity in today’s world. Most potential patients are making their buying decisions through online research that is conducted well in advance to ever contacting your office for a consultation—as such, engaging in reputation management is key to your practice’s success.
In this blog, the experts at Firm Media will describe why you should not wait a moment longer to actively monitor and manage your medical practice’s online reputation.
A Good Reputation is an Important Asset
Beginning as early as 2012, approximately 60% of U.S. patients conducted research regarding their doctors—or doctors they were considering—on the Internet, including previous patients’ reviews. Fast forward a couple of years to 2016, and that number jumps to 84%. Today, 94% of healthcare patients engage in online research about a medical practice before reaching out directly and speaking with a practice representative.
In our opinion, that number serves to solidify how important it is for a medical practice to engage in reputation management. Being engaged ensures you know what your patients are saying about you, and how it could contribute to prospective patients forming opinions about how you operate your business and the customer service your practice provides.
How to Develop Your Medical Practice’s Long-Term Strategy
Reputation management should be an ongoing marketing initiative for your medical practice. Therefore, it is wise to invest in developing a comprehensive digital reputation management strategy that can protect your practice for the long run and ensure its longevity, growth, and profitability.
Reputation management goes beyond simply attracting new patients and encouraging them to walk through your office’s doors. A proactive reputation management strategy that presents a positive online image also allows you to attract and retain high-quality employees, cements your standing as a provider of choice in the community, and could even present the ability to entice other practitioners to join your practice.
Pay Attention to Your Reviews
Encourage your existing patients to leave a good review and make it easy for them to do so by providing them links to your varied profiles on Google, Facebook, and Yelp. Secondly, if you happen to receive a negative review, do not ignore it or try to delete it (unless it is false or fraudulent). Rather, if someone has a complaint about the service they received or is otherwise unhappy and has a legitimate issue, we will help you respond in a HIPAA-compliant manner. Posting a public reply shows your commitment to patient service but offers the opportunity to speak offline to resolve the issue for confidentiality reasons.
Generate More Positive Reviews
Our team will walk you through how to proactively start the conversation with your patients about the importance of sharing their experiences. Being transparent about how asking them for a review is simply part of your business practice makes the process more fluid, and they will be more likely to take that extra step and share their feedback online. We will provide some tips and tricks for starting these conversations and help you grow your online reputation!
Show Off Your 5-Star Reviews!
Part of your reputation management service with Firm Media includes the installation of a real-time reviews feed on your website. Any time your practice receives positive feedback, it will automatically be posted to a page on your website for anyone researching you to see. Showcasing these accolades further proves that you are an expert in your profession and are the right choice for potential patients looking for a medical provider.
Firm Media is Passionate About Reputation Management
Here at Firm Media, we help medical practices realize all of the best practices in Reputation Management —and we would love to speak with you about your goals. Contact us today to learn more.
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