Have you gone onto Google and found that your dental practice isn’t located on the first page of Google? How about the feedback received on your Google My Business listing? Is it positive or negative?
It takes a huge amount of dedication and effort to maintain a positive online reputation. Sometimes, negativity creeps into your practice reducing your popularity, trust and search engine ranking position.
As we’ve mentioned before, negative reviews are not the be-all and end-all. It can actually help your practice. Although, it is important that you learn how to turn any negative actions into positive actions to improve your reputation.
Let’s find out what these tips are.
Deliver A Quality Service
If you want the reputation to be positive, the first thing is to deliver that positive experience in the dental practice. Continue to deliver quality to every patient that visits. They are more than likely to leave positive feedback if patients are happy with their dental results at their appointment. The foundation of building a positive reputation starts with you as a front-line dentist.
Stay Engaged Online
Whilst inciting customers to leave feedback, feedback isn’t necessarily always for patients to express their experiences. Current or prospective patients may have a question about the services you provide, location information, opening times etc. Responding to an online audience is a sure way to take care of your reputation. This demonstrates that you’re proactively responsive and care about audience opinion. This also builds trust between the practice and the audience and is more likely going to result in prospective patients choosing your practice. Not only through responding to comments, share your dentistry expertise through regular blog content. Offer true value and practical importance where your reputation stems through quality and truthful dentistry content.
Learn How To Respond To Negativity
Negative reviews are a natural sticking point for many businesses. It is important that you don’t consider a negative review a “be all and end all”. Understanding how to transform that negative feedback into something positive is an astute skill that shows the quality of your service and a willingness to transform opinion. Don’t ever expect your reputation to be 100% positive. There will always be a negative review or two as the service you provide may not be satisfying for some compared to others. Stay calm and respond to it accordingly. You can learn more here about how to respond to negative reviews to enhance your reputation.
Expand Your Presence
Where can prospective patients find you? You shouldn’t just rely on one platform because online audiences have their own preferences in researching brands. Some audiences may seek contact information to directly contact your practice to learn more about your practice, whereas some may rely on feedback from others to judge your reputation. Give all audiences the opportunity to contact your practice, and you can do so through the following mediums:
- Google My Business (GMB)
- Yelp
- Trip Advisor
- Yellow Pages
The more spread your practice is online, the likelier audiences will find you. Ensure your content stays accurate and fresh.
Summary
If you think your online reputation isn’t as positive as it should be, it is never too late to improve it. Ultimately, your reputation is more likely to become damaged if patients leave the feedback from a negative experience at their appointment or a lack of quality communication to a question or comment. Keep delivering quality in your service and maintain fresh, quality content.
Is engaging with people not one of your strong points? It can make or break your practice. Read here to learn some tips on how to effectively engage with your audience on social media platforms such as Facebook.
Are you seeking support with your online reputation? Contact us at Smile and Grow today and we’d be happy to help.
