3 Ways to Get Started Again After a Bad Review Stops You in Your Tracks
Oh no. Your stomach sinks as you read the review. An unhappy patient. Or is it a review from someone who was never even a patient at your practice?! You can’t remove the review. What now?
Reach out. Follow up with the unhappy patient to see if you can turn their negative review around. Respond to the review online in a professional manner, thanking the reviewer for bringing the issue to your attention and acknowledging that you’ll review processes in your practice. Not sure where to start? Definitely check out Golden Proportions Marketing’s “5 Steps For Responding to a Bad Review.” It’s got guidelines for responding while maintaining HIPAA compliance and suggestions for who is best for responding to the patient directly and who is best for responding to the online review.
Overwhelm them. Ask your current satisfied patients to leave reviews, so all those positive reviews can outshine the negative few. And be specific in your ask! You might ask them
- why they chose your OMS office,
- what their experience was like during their implant or wisdom teeth removal procedure, or
- what impressed them most about their time in your practice.
Get help. There are industry partners which SOMSA members have worked with that can help you. Intiveo (a 2021 Digital Sponsor) and SixStar were two that were mentioned in a forum post on this topic, so be sure to review their services. You could also make sure the staff who make post-op calls are asking happy patients to leave reviews, or that you include request or link to leave reviews in your follow-up emails and texts.
This is a post based on forum discussion. Members, make sure you’ve joined the members-only forum–instructions here!
Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay