How to choose a medical clinic you can trust with your health? Many acts in an old-fashioned way, turning to friends and acquaintances for help. But the vast majority focuses on information about a medical clinic posted on the Internet. In the modern world, the number of customers who leave feedback about a particular company’s work is constantly growing. A significant influence on the reputation of dental and medical clinic, in general, is played by the opinion of their patients, left on social media in medical marketing and on the company’s website. The credibility of such reviews is increasing every year. Therefore, online reputation management becomes important in promoting any medical institution.
The term SERM (Search Engine Reputation Management) includes work on the reputation of a company or brand. Today, more than 88% of potential patients are looking for information about dentistry on the Internet. The study reviews Google and Yandex maps, websites, social networks, and various aggregators. Search results are key for many in choosing a medical clinic and (or) a doctor. That is why timely work with negativity and maintaining a high company rating on the Internet are prerequisites for any successful business.
In dentistry, the number of competitors is quite high. For your company to succeed, it needs to stand out from competitors, including online. Reputation on the Internet – depends on whether the client chooses you or prefers your competitor.
Online Reputation Management: What is it?
Online reputation is everything that your potential clients see when they search for your medical clinic name. Those pages given to them as a result of such a search will form their first impression of your dentistry. It is on their basis that they will conclude whether it is worth contacting you for medical help or not. Pages play the leading role in forming a reputation on social networks, the company’s website, clinic pages on maps, and reviews posted on aggregators. Therefore, you should pay attention to them to increase your company’s rating in the eyes of potential patients.
Reputation and profit: is there a connection
Our agency’s research confirms that the rating on the cards below the average significantly affects the company’s revenue. There are two primary causes for this.
Reason 1. The deterioration of the rating leads to a decrease in the number of hits.
This is evidenced by the owners of dentistry, whose rating on the same maps was either high due to positive reviews or neutral. However, with the advent of negativity in the network, company owners noted a decrease in the flow of patients. This problem was usually discovered by accident when issuing page reviews about the company in the search engine. At the same time, customers rarely write about positive experiences but are willing to post negative experiences online.
Reason 2. Low rating compared to competitors
Patients like to compare pages on maps of different medical clinic. And not only on the cards! The same Yandex pulls up the rating of the clinic when issuing its name in search engines. And for obvious reasons, a potential patient will prefer dentistry with a rating of 4.5 stars, not 3; due to a drop in the rating, the conversion of the clinic promotion on maps decreases, and the effectiveness of other advertising channels – CTR. As a result, the clinic receives fewer appeals.
The statistics obtained by our medical marketing agency as a result of an audit of advertising companies of network medical clinics are as follows.
- With a rating of 4.5, chain affiliates have 2.9 times more audience reach than affiliates with lower scores.
- The number of targeted actions with a rating of 4 or more stars is 20 times higher than affiliates with zero ratings.
- Users perform twice more targeted actions on affiliates’ pages with a rating of 4 stars and above.
Reputation management online
The main strategy for managing reputation on the Internet is active monitoring. Use any search engines for such an audit. With their help, you will find pages with mentions of your company and reviews about its work.
Your company must be present on the resources that your potential patients visit. In this case, you will understand what attracts them to your dentistry and causes negativity. You can quickly resolve problems and respond to negative reviews on these pages.
Issuing negative on the first pages: how to clean
The technique that allows you to do this is called SERP Cleansing. With its help, you need to optimize the reviews on at least ten pages that got into the search results. This is where most of the negativity associated with the company comes in. This list may include:
- The site of the company;
- clinic pages on Yandex and Google maps;
- aggregators that contain information about the clinic and its doctors;
- Social networks.
How to remove negativity from these resources
Site
Allow your customers to leave reviews on your site. Enter the appropriate block with the ability to publish reviews after moderation.
Ask your clients to leave handwritten feedback about the work of the clinic as a whole or its specialist. Please take photos or scans of them, and add services and (or) reviews on your site to the section. This will increase the ranking of your page in search.
Google and Yandex maps
Most often, negative reviews appear on these pages. And, alas, no one is immune from them, even if it seems to you that your doctors and administrative staff are working perfectly. Therefore, it is very important to track negative reviews from patients who were dissatisfied with the service in your clinic, respond to them on time and understand the situation within the walls of dentistry.
Aggregators:
There are some technological platforms on which the rating system operates. When positive reviews appear, it rises. When negative thoughts arise, it decreases. Encourage your patients to post testimonials on these sites. This will increase the ranking of your clinic when searching for relevant services or specialists. The disadvantage of such sites is that it is not always possible to respond to the reviews left there. But if there is such an opportunity, work with the negative in the same way as on the cards. Answer promptly, calmly, and competently. This will substantially improve your company’s reputation.
Social networks’
social media presence is one of the best tools for connecting with potential customers. This is where you can build a trusting relationship with them that will affect your reputation for the better. Pages in any social network allow you to keep in touch with your patients, present and future, and share useful information, news, and clinic promotions with them. It is essential to note that the extent of your participation in social networks has a direct impact on your trust in search engines. Successful content directly affects the issuance of information about your company when searching for it on the Internet. Post positive reviews about your clinic here. They will also affect her online reputation. It is advisable to do this before negativity appears on the network about your dentistry.
It would help if you worked with existing reviews on social networks like maps and aggregators. First, respond to all available positive and negative feedback on time. Then, give an expert assessment of the negative.
How SERM can help with intentional trolling
Negative reviews appear on the network, the authenticity of which you are not sure. What can be done in this case? First, write to the support service of the corresponding site, Google or Yandex Maps, stating that this review was written intentionally to discredit your reputation. Unfortunately, the chances are high that you will not be met halfway, and the negative will not be removed.
The main goal of reputation management is not to remove the negative but to expertly process it and push it out of the search results to the third page and beyond, where the likelihood that such a review will be noticed is extremely small.
Well-organized work on tracking, identifying, and responding to mentions on the Internet will help improve your clinic’s reputation, increase its ranking and strengthen its position in a competitive industry.
The rating of the clinic on the maps is below average: what to do.
In this situation, tracking reviews about your company and encouraging your customers to leave is important. This will help keep your company’s online reputation high.
- Collect real reviews from your patients and publish them on the website, social networks, and aggregators.
- Offer your patients a bonus for leaving reviews.
- Always thank for positive feedback and leave comments under neutral.
- Don’t ignore the negative! Always answer it as a company official.
- Timely update information about the clinic on maps, aggregators, websites, and social networks.
Low ratings, an abundance of negative reviews about the company, and the lack of positive ratings will sooner or later affect your reputation and your profit. Ignoring this problem sometimes costs owners hundreds of thousands of rubles and dozens of lost potential customers. Therefore, our agency encourages you to work on the reputation of your business online regularly. We assure you that you will see the fruits of your work in a few months.
