How you respond to the negative reviews from patients will go a very long way in determining how your medical practice is perceived by your prospective patients and will have a direct impact on the revenue and success of your medical practice.
In my last post, I talked about the importance of regularly monitoring your online reviews and comments and how you can set up /routines, so that’s easier and faster for you to respond to them.
Today, I’ll give you some of the best practices that you can usewhen responding to negative online reviews from disgruntled patients.
Now, the majority of your online reviews will be positive, but there are always going to be some bad reviews that will pop up from time to time.
You need to be consistent in how you respond to these.
Here are some of the best practices that you can use for handling
negative online reviews.
The number one rule when responding to a negative or a bad review is to never, ever reply straight away, especially if you’re feeling upset because the reviews are unjustified or unfair.
I understand that it can be frustrating and upsetting that a patient can say whatever they want about you or your clinic, even when it’s not based on any facts. And I know it can be upsetting.
So I strongly suggest that you wait for at least one day before drafting a response.
This will give you enough time to calm down, and you can also investigate the issue so that you can give a measured reply to the patient.
Another thing to keep in mind before drafting, your response is to remember that you should also never ever reveal any specifics of the patient. Do not mention his diagnosis or treatment, even if he has mentioned them himself.
Patient confidentiality is a very important thing that patient considers when choosing a health care provider, and they would be reluctant visit you if they feel that you disclose these details out in the public space, on social media or on Google listings.
Your response should be polite and you need to stick to the facts.
The good news is that surveys show that around 75 percent of the negative reviews are about things like long wait times at the clinic, rude behaviour by the front office staff, bedside manner of the doctor.
So, apologize if it’s a case of poor patient experience, especially if he feels
aggrieved by the way he was treated or how long he had to wait before he could see the doctor.
Take this opportunity to highlight your commitment to a great service and talk about the measures that you’re taking so that the subsequent visits are much more pleasant.
Now, if the complaint is about cost. Then explain why, sometimes the best treatments, are often not the cheapest.
Tell them why the procedures or treatments you suggest without going to specifics is always in the best interest of your patients and not about the money.
And the last thing you should do is always take the conversation offline by asking the reviewer to contact you or your clinic by phone or e-mail, so that you can address any other concerns or give any further clarification.
Now, when you follow these best practices, you will notice that a lot of the patients who have given negative reviews will go back and either remove their negative rating or in a lot of cases even give you a positive one instead.
So that is why it’s so important how you go about handling these negative reviews.
Remember, your online reviews are being read by hundreds, if not thousands of prospective patients. And their decision to contact you and visit your clinic will depend on how they think you’ve handled the negative reviews.
Now, while you should always respond to every negative review that you get.
Also remember to give your response to some of the positive ones as well.
Especially if the patient has taken the time and made
the effort to write a nice review highlighting his great experience at your
clinic or the results that he got.
Show the prospective patients that you and your clinic staff are genuine, caring, credible and professional.
Also, take the feedback you get from these online reviews and use it to improve the overall patient experience at your clinic.
You can train your staff, give them some good training on
how to treat the patient with much more empathy and patience.
You should try to figure out how to reduce the wait times for your patients.
Identify the bottlenncks in the patient flow and remove them and make it smoother.
You can provide better amenities if that is one of the gripes of your patients, provide better parking facilities or valet service for them etc.
These best practices on how to respond to online reviews will go a long way in establishing a great online reputation for you and your clinic and also generate an ever growing flow of new patients who become raving fans because of the way you and your staff treat them.
This will not only reduce the number of negative reviews but you will have more positive reviews than ever before.
