By: Jesus C. Vazquez, PMAC
We look in the mirror every morning before we step out and carry on our day to make sure we present well in all of our daily business interactions. We ensure that our business’s practices reflect that of integrity and good customer service. However, do you take the time out to check your practice’s online presence? Many times, a physician’s reputation and practice suffers as a result of unnoticed negative reviews or comments online.
Here are some simple steps you can take to make sure your business shines online with a healthy presence.
Perform a simple Google search of your practice’s name, or Physician’s name.
Assess the information listed online: Keep printouts of the reviews various sites may have, along with the URL(website address). This comes in handy for future monitoring of additional reviews on these sites. Make sure to share the information you found with your entire practice.
Positively manage negative content online: A great tip to deal with a negative review is to enlist positive reviews from your other patients. In doing so, this will help you overwhelm the negative review when a lot more positive reviews are posted. This Article will give you additional helpful tips. http://www.reputation.com/reputationwatch/articles/how-doctors-can-manage-negative-content-online
In the absence of an online presence, make one for your practice: The best marketing you can do is to have online profile listings on many sites. Here is a list of some website portals to get you started. Each one of the following links takes you to the support page to help you claim your business and manage your online profiles:
Make sure all listing have accurate information about your practice. Do all listings have the correct “Contac US” information and your Website address listed? Include pictures, times of operation, services available, and insurances accepted among others.
Encouraging satisfied patients to go online and post positive reviews. The most powerful marketing tool are positive reviews. Have small cards with the website addresses to your online postings, direct patients to go online and give you good reviews. Remember a lot of your patients are more than eager to tell others about you.
A small cautionary warning is to refrain yourself, other employees, or relatives from going online and posting positive reviews. Not only is this unethical, but many recent instances have brought embarrassment to businesses for doing exactly this. Remember even if anonymous, postings can always be traced back to an IP address ( the address to the computer used).
Through out the month make sure you periodically monitor your practice’s online presence. A lot more patients are going online and doing simple searches to find referrals to physicians. It is extremely crucial to do so, since it is easier for unsatisfied customers to go online and often anonymously post negative comments that reach a far greater audience.
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