With potentially challenging financial times ahead, John Pemberton and Philip Molden consider how reviews can help guide new patients to dental practices.

For a long time now, we’ve been aware of the incredible significance of using patient reviews to help guide new patients to practices.

And with our patient feedback system having won Overall Product/Service of the Year at the Dental Industry Awards 2022, we now want to make sure everyone else in the profession and industry knows that, too.

This is especially significant as we turn to face the new year, which we all know will pose financial challenges.

However, one sure way that we at Working Feedback know will help to overcome such difficulties is by capitalising on the feedback process – inviting patients to leave reviews about their experience at your dental practice.

The power of reviews

To provide some context, data indicates that 5% of all Google searches are health-related and the healthcare consumer journey often involves extensive research, with consumers evaluating numerous providers before taking action.

In fact, statistics suggest that 71% of healthcare consumers ran a search before scheduling an appointment with a dentist.

In addition, 94% of healthcare patients use online reviews to evaluate providers, because reading reviews is a simple initial step for potential patients to get a feel for your practice.

Also of significance is the fact that 84% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations, which means that having a strong feedback strategy is key to bringing in more patients and therefore achieving future business success.

When is a negative not a negative?

Many people who run a business – and dentists are no exception – are nervous about the possible repercussions of a negative review. This is understandable, but there is another way of looking at such a hiccup – by turning any negativity into constructive feedback to inform change within the practice.

That is one of the key things Working Feedback helps dental practices do, as well as help to manage fake reviews that can otherwise damage a business’s reputation and deter team members from asking patients for reviews at all.

Please don’t shy away from asking patients for feedback because you fear negativity. At Working Feedback, we’ve found that the easier you make it to leave feedback, the more people will leave feedback, and that results in 95% more positive reviews.

Plus, the truth is that a bad review doesn’t define you and actually provides an opportunity to demonstrate in a special way that your practice cares about patients and is listening.

Publicly replying in a professional manner to negative or constructive feedback shows how much you value patient feedback and makes your practice look transparent and receptive.

SEO matters

There is another, very important benefit to responding to reviews: that of search engine optimisation (SEO).

For instance, a patient might write: ‘I had whitening treatment and I can’t recommend the practice highly enough’. That’s great as far as it goes, but by responding with a ‘Thank you, from all at (x) dental practice in (town name)’, suddenly Google has more information on you, and up you climb the SEO ladder.

This is no small issue. Forbes has stated that, to create long-term brand awareness, expand the target audience and make more money, SEO is vital.

We have seen for ourselves that reviews are a key form of online feedback because they are an important component of SEO.

This is because the more exclusive content there is about your business online, the more important a search engine considers you to be and the higher it puts you in search results.

Automation makes things easy

We are far from alone in recognising that. What does set us apart, however, is that Working Feedback capitalises on automating the whole process, giving hours of valuable care time back to the dental practice.

In a nutshell, Working Feedback collects reviews and publishes them on your website. At the same time, it integrates with leading practice management solutions, Software of Excellence and Dentally, as well as the NHS Digital website to enable valuable feedback and to collect the monthly data required for the NHS Friends and Family Test (FFT).

What’s more, Working Feedback can ask for, collect, share and reply to Google reviews directly through its platform. This is possible as Working Feedback is fully integrated with Google My Business.

Offering one example to provide further insight as to how effective this can be, one of our clients is getting 32 Google reviews on average a month.

The system even has options for reviews to be posted directly onto your social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

They can also be placed on your website, instantly helping you to stand out from your competitors who are failing to use Google reviews to their greatest extent.

The system even has options for reviews to be posted directly onto your social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

IF YOU WOULD LIKE to join the growing number of practices embracing the benefits of this award-winning and trusted feedback system for a successful 2023 and beyond, visit www.workingfeedback.co.uk, email [email protected] or call 0800 043 2100.

First published in Dentistry magazine January 2023.