12 Clever Ways to Ask Patients for Reviews of Your Dental Practice

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12 Clever Ways to Ask Patients for Reviews of
Your Dental Practice

• To say that patient reviews are powerful is an
  understatement. A few words or phrases in an
  online review can have more influence on
  potential patients than an entire website. A
  difference in one-star rating may be all it takes
  for a new patient to choose a competitor over
  you.
• However, to receive glowing online reviews or
  extra stars, you will first need to request
  feedback from your patients.
• Initially, asking for reviews can feel
  self-serving or awkward, but the truth is that
  patients generally love to share their
  experiences they just may need to know how and
  where.
• How to Ask Patients for Online Reviews?
• Still not sure how to approach patients and ask
  for a review? Here are some clever (and tested)
  ways to request reviews with more confidence from
  your patients regarding your dental practice.
• Approach loyal patients first
• Patients who have more experience with your
  services are more likely to provide valuable
  information for future patients. If you are
  active on social networks, requesting your
  existing patients to review your dental practice
  will most certainly result in quite a few glowing
  reviews on social networks and third-party review
  sites.
• Send targeted emails

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• One of the best ways to get reviews is to ask for
  them at the point of care. Patients are usually
  the happiest right after the consultation.
• Consider making a follow-up call a week after the
  consultation to see how
• things are going. If the patient seems upbeat,
  take the next step, and request a review.
• Send text messages
• Sending SMS messages is a quick way to get
  reviews of your dental practice. According to
  various studies, the majority of text messages
  are read within three minutes. This means the
  probability of patients opening their text
  messages and taking the necessary action is much
  higher than other communication forms.
• Hire dental marketing experts
• One of the quickest and effective ways to
  encourage patients to write reviews is by hiring
  dedicated and professional dental marketing
  experts. These experts will send planned
  communication to patients and ask them to leave a
  review either on your social media page, website,
  or third- party review site.
• Approach patients personally

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Several dental marketing experts believe that
dentists are likely to get more reviews if they
personalize the review gathering process. For
instance, send a personal video to the patient
thanking him or her for choosing your practice,
and asking if they would leave you a review on a
particular third-party review site or social
media platform. Personalization is a great way to
maximize reviews. 6. Explain the importance of
reviews Every dental practice has its own reasons
for gathering online reviews. Some acquire
reviews to build patient trust, while others want
to increase revenue. To get maximum reviews for
your dental practice, inform and educate your
patients on how critical reviews are to your
growth. Patients who want to support you will
more than likely leave positive reviews to
promote the practice and the great care they
receive.
7. Streamline the review-gathering process If
leaving a review is a cumbersome process, most of
your patients will avoid it. This means, try
different processes- being as automated and easy
as possible. You can consider including multiple
options so that the patient can choose the
platform he or she is most comfortable on. To
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• eliminate confusion and reduce the number of
  clicks, it is recommended to provide a hyperlink
  on your website that directs to the place of the
  review field, making it quick and easy for the
  patient to fill in the review and submit.
• Strengthen presence on third-party reviews sites
• Make sure you are active on all the relevant
  third-party review sites where new patients are
  likely to visit and browse reviews. You can
  consider adding photos, contact details,
  responding to comments, and filling out the
  About Us section so that your listing is
  updated and looks professional. Grab the URLs to
  all these sites so you can share the link on your
  social media handles, email it directly to
  patients as part of review request emails, or
  include the link on marketing collaterals such as
  brochures.
• Incentivize reviews
• Consider offering a 5 or 10 percent discount to
  patients who leave reviews of your dental
  practice. Its a win-win situation for both
  parties and will encourage more patients to post
  a review quickly. Make sure you share this
  incentive in a way that encourages a positive
  review and highlights all the benefits of
  choosing your dental practice over your
  competitors. However, make sure your patients
  feel like they are earning a reward, not being
  bribed.

1. Share links in communication with patients Though
   an upfront review request can yield significant
   results, a subtle approach can also do wonders. A
   prominent Write A Review CTA in your standard
   communication mailers to patients can provide
   them with a quick way to share feedback. A
   non-prominent approach would be to add a basic
   button labeled Share Your Feedback, tagged
   with the hyperlink to the third-party review site
   or social media platform.
2. Follow-up with patients

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Just because a patient did not post a review the
first time you asked does not mean he or she will
never leave one. You might have contacted them at
the wrong time, or the patient just simply
forgot. We recommend creating email templates to
follow up, sending an email 1-2 weeks after the
initial review was requested. Persistent
follow-ups will keep your dental practice fresh
in the patients minds and provides a strong
representation of the care your practice
provides. 12. Publicly thank your reviewers Make
the patients who post reviews feel special by
publicly posting thank you notes on platforms
that allow for it. You can also choose to
advertise that you reward patients with
complementary services so that new patients know
they may get freebies in exchange for writing a
review. Do not forget, make sure you are
rewarding patients for writing a review overall,
not just the positive! Conclusion End of the
day, the best way to receive positive online
reviews is to deliver excellent patient service.
Focus on providing what your patients
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want and need, and the 5-star ratings and reviews
will come effortlessly even without asking for
them. If you would prefer to leave dental review
management to the professionals, our team at
Practice Builders is here to help. Contact us to
learn about our wide range of review management
and dental practice reputation management
services- designed to help dentists receive as
many reviews (and growth of patients) from the
web.