In this exclusive interview, Philip Molden and John Pemberton share with readers how feedback, when handled in the right way, can help the dental team understand patient satisfaction and expectation, and detect areas that might need more work.

Reproduced from Dentistry magazine 25 July 2022

How would you describe Working Feedback?

Philip: In a nutshell, we collect reviews and publish them on our clients’ websites. Looking at it in a little more depth, the idea is that, whether you are looking to attract new patients, get more Google reviews, understand your dental practice better, have unique content on your social media platforms, manage your online reputation or sell more to your existing patients, Working Feedback can help do all that and more.

It is also important to mention that Working Feedback is directly integrated with the NHS Digital website and we understand the importance and the need for feedback and to collect the data required for the NHS Friends and Family Test (FFT).

As you say, the heart of Working Feedback is growth and customer engagement through feedback, reviews, referrals and significant Google and social media presence. But why is feedback so important?

Philip: Feedback is the norm now. It’s evolved from more traditional marketing and PR, and there is an expectation amongst the public that businesses invite feedback. And that’s amongst all age groups, not just the younger generations as you might otherwise imagine.

If you have no feedback, no reviews, it makes people suspicious. So actually, having no feedback because you are worried about people leaving unfairly negative responses is more damaging than having none at all.

That raises an interesting question – why are some people so afraid of feedback?

Philip: Everyone wants five-star reviews, and they don’t want anything else. When you are trying your very best, the idea of a poor review is, of course, worrying. It is understandable but, actually, there is merit in almost all feedback.

I say almost all because there are trolls, and some feedback is potentially defamatory, but those can be managed carefully and appropriately. Deletion is not the answer in almost every case, to be clear.

John: As a company, we can’t only put up the five-star reviews, as we have a level of compliance to follow, but if something is far beyond reasonable, we can discuss not posting it as long as we provide an audit trail for the CQC, to explain fully why.

That doesn’t count for Google reviews, however, over which we have no control, and nor should we.

Constructive feedback

Philip: So, if we take on board that essentially all reviews will be published, then the way forward is to look at it as an opportunity to improve. Sometimes it’s just about communication.

As an example, when practices reopened in 2020, one of our clients received a glowing clinical review. But lost stars because the patient was unhappy sitting in their car until being called in for their appointment.

Our client was able to let that reviewer and everyone else reading the review know – both present and future patients – why that was the case. Problem solved! Patients now understood the process better. Anyone reading the review understood why it wasn’t five stars.

John: That goes to show the importance of the constructive elements of feedback. We need to stop looking at things as negative and consider how feedback can be made into a positive. The way readers perceive feedback can be transformed by encouraging someone in the team to reply appropriately.

Philip: It shows you have taken what has been written on board and acted, where that is possible. People searching for feedback about the business can see you have reacted positively to it – that’s feedback gold dust. It shows you care.

Building on that idea of reacting constructively, how else can practices use feedback to their advantage?

John: That’s a really interesting part of what we do, because it can also raise the morale of the team. I’m thinking of one particular practice in Wantage – Cherrytree Dental Care – where all of their reviews are shared in their regularly scheduled team meeting.

It’s acknowledgement and a ‘thank you’ to the team for helping clients give the practice wonderful reviews. And it’s an opportunity to help iron out any wrinkles as a team, should it be needed.

It can also help with recruitment, which is no small issue in current times. As everyone knows, there is a staffing crisis and a lot of our clients are now using the feedback they have received from patients when they’re interviewing staff, to show how good the practice is. Perhaps it proves the practice is the most recommended in the area and/or that their customer satisfaction scores are really high. These are incredible attributes to shout about.

Philip: And that brings us to PR opportunities for the practice. For example, a great review or a series of reviews should be shared on social media, along with any other content being pushed out by the practice.

It’s not just about online opportunities – many practices will go to local events and, again, positive reviews should be used to communicate how good and trustworthy they are.

John: Yes, it’s really important to make use of both their digital and non-digital footprint, such as brochures, pamphlets, and so on.

I believe there is a compliance element to feedback? How does that work?

Philip: I suppose the first thing to say is that all feedback is valid feedback. We will not delete any reviews unless there are very specific circumstances – we can prove it’s a troll or it’s potentially defamatory, as mentioned earlier – and even then, we ensure we have a very strong audit trail for making that decision.

The compliance element is so important. Because of our connections with the NHS and CQC, the feedback can be used to help fulfil compliance requirements. With a few clicks, our clients have got a report that can be given to a CQC inspector or used in any other compliance setting. No longer is there the need for a filing cabinet stuffed full of thank you notes to open for the inspector with some chagrin!

Interestingly – and this is anecdotal – we understand that the CQC looks at and analyses social media. If a practice keeps getting negative reviews over a number of platforms, they are going to get inspected faster than anyone else. Preparation is key for these visits, of course. A paper trail that can be printed out at the click of a mouse is going to take a lot of the weight off your shoulders.

John: And on top of all of that, we understand the CQC takes notice of the content on NHS Digital. We can’t tell you why they do it, but we know they do.

Moving away from the NHS for a moment, what are the extra advantages of feedback for private practices?

Philip: This is a really interesting side effect of reviews. They can cross sell with no input from the practice. Suppose, for example, a practice has lots of really positive reviews about tooth whitening, people searching for that treatment will see that and perceive that is the practice for them.

It’s added reassurance, when someone else has been through something and come out the other end. They are so happy that they are prepared to make the effort to leave a review.

John: Of course, ensuring it is an appropriate treatment for individual patients and completing the deal is then in the hands of the team. But it can certainly help to bring prospective patients if – and this is an important if – you are making use of search engine optimisation (SEO).

The question then is, how can a dentist try to get to the top spot of a Google search? It’s actually simple; when they’re replying to reviews, and especially Google ones, they need to make sure to include their keywords in the reply. Because Google searches the replies as well as the original post.

Fighting chance

So, if you were a dentist in Forest Hill in London and one of your patients wrote, ‘thanks, you’re great’, there’s nothing in there for you to use. So, you want to reply getting ‘Forest Hill, London’ in there.

You might write: ‘Thanks so much for visiting our practice in Forest Hill, London. Your comment is gratefully received.’ Suddenly, Google has what they said, and you’ve got your location in there.

There are no guarantees you can get to the top because Google has so many algorithms. But you are giving yourself a fighting chance.

Philip: There is also an additional service we offer, which is actually more impactful and direct than relying on SEO. This is the ability to cross-sell additional services, whereby we create a bespoke package for the practice so that they can ask whatever questions they want during the online feedback process.

So, if a patient is filling in a review to say what they think about, for instance, their visit to the hygienist, we can ask a question such as: ‘Did you know that we also offer tooth whitening?’ Typically, that kind of cross-sell questioning results in an additional £10k worth of requests each month for the dental team to follow up on.

With all that in mind, why wouldn’t you want to use patient feedback to your advantage? The truth is, when feedback is engaged with in the right way, there’s no such thing as a bad review – only opportunities.