Online reviews are the new word-of-mouth advertising. But in this interconnected internet age, there’s one major difference. It’s not just a single person’s opinion, but dozens or hundreds of opinions, that are now instantly available online to thousands of people. It’s a massive understatement to say that online reviews impact dentists’ new patient attraction efforts and dentists ignore this brave new online world at their peril.
Stars, Words, Decisions
As crucial as online reviews are to your marketing efforts, your prospects may never see them.
The “star” rating system is the first thing that searchers usually see. On a five-point scale, fractions of a point matter. If your competitor’s star rating is 4.8, but yours is 4.4, guess which dentist a prospect is going to investigate further?
Stars and reviews generally go hand-in-hand. It would be unusual to receive a 5-star rating on a negative review. The upshot is that dentists need as many 4- and 5-star positive reviews as they can get. They also need to minimize the impact of negative reviews.
That’s a tall order for most dental practices. There are at least eight popular review sites that dentists should watch. Should, but often don’t, because busy dental practices are more focused on seeing patients and solving their dental problems.
Still, the challenge remains, and smart dentists will take steps to meet it.
Introducing RAVE Reputation Management
SmartBox has taken steps to help dentists manage their online reputations. Our RAVE Reputation Management system makes the process of obtaining, monitoring, and responding to reviews practically painless.
RAVE automatically solicits reviews from your patients after each appointment via SMS messages or emails. That frees up valuable front office time – not to mention that people are more likely to provide reviews when they haven’t spent an hour in the chair.
When new reviews are posted, RAVE promotes 4- and 5-star reviews to popular review sites while “parking” lower-rated reviews. You or your staff can deal with the parked reviews at your leisure. Your practice is notified via email of each new review, and there’s a “one touch respond” option to facilitate engaging with your reviewers.
Unlike other reputation management systems that host your reviews on a separate website, RAVE directs your reviews straight to Google and other places where prospects (and web crawlers) will see them. That’s great for your new patient numbers and your search engine optimization.
Best of all, the reviews you want to keep are permanent. Even if you stop using RAVE, your reviews remain online. That’s in contrast to other reputation management services that magically make your reviews disappear if you stop using their service.
RAVE Pays For Itself, And Then Some!
Start enjoying RAVE reviews for a fraction of the value of one new patient a month. More 4- and 5-star reviews can help you get many more prospects calling your practice.
For more information about SmartBox’s RAVE Reputation Management system, visit ravereviewsystem.com.
You can also call one of our Digital Practice Consultants at 502-509-1413 for more information.
Take back control of your online reputation with RAVE!
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