Doctors often face reputation management crises from bad press coverage, medical malpractice lawsuits, and embarrassing public incidents. When these occur, patients typically avoid the physician and their medical practices.
To prevent these negative impacts, doctors should invest in reputation management campaigns to build their brand and promote their expertise to prospective patients. These campaigns focus on 4 key areas:
Patient Reviews
Patient reviews have become an essential part of a physician’s online reputation. Many patients rely on them to determine whether or not to choose a specific medical practice or provider. However, it’s crucial to keep in mind that not all reviews are created equal. For example, Zocdoc research shows that physicians who receive four or more positive reviews per month book nearly three times as many appointments as those with one or less reviews.
Doctors must be proactive about encouraging their patients to leave online reviews and ratings. They should also be mindful of the way they respond to negative feedback. Unfortunately, some doctors have made headlines for their rude or inappropriate responses to dissatisfied patients. These behaviors could potentially violate HIPAA regulations and tarnish a physician’s reputation.
In order to generate positive online reviews, doctors should consider implementing a system that automatically requests feedback from all of their patients after each appointment. Ideally, these requests would be sent via text or email and would be as simple as possible for patients to complete. Doctors can also encourage positive reviews by displaying them on their website and social media profiles. Additionally, they can conduct patient satisfaction surveys that capture important insights like wait times, doctor-patient relations, quality of care and hygiene. This information can be analyzed and used to shape future practices.
Social Media
Increasingly, patients are researching doctors before making an appointment. They’re looking at online reviews and ratings, social media posts, and even news stories about a doctor or medical practice before making their decision. Doctor reputation management involves keeping up with this information and ensuring that it’s accurate, positive, and visible to potential patients. It also includes handling negative press or reviews and implementing crisis management strategies in case of malpractice lawsuits or other unfavorable publicity.
A key part of doctor online reputation management is keeping a professional profile on popular social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook. Regularly posting about your expertise and accomplishments on these platforms will help build trust with patients. It will also establish you as a thought leader in your field.
Another important aspect of physician reputation management is establishing and maintaining an active blog. A regularly updated blog will show that your practice is current and relevant, and will improve your SEO ranking. It’s also an excellent way to share useful, informative content with patients and the community at large.
Finally, it’s essential for physicians to respond to all reviews, both positive and negative. This will demonstrate that you are invested in improving your patients’ experience, and it will minimize the impact of a bad review or piece of news. It’s also vital to follow up with dissatisfied patients to see how you can resolve the issue.
Local Listings
Historically, physicians have grown their patient base through word-of-mouth referrals. However, the use of the internet and social media have changed this landscape. Now patients are sourcing their medical providers through online reviews, local listings, and physician directories. As a result, medical practices must proactively manage their online reputation to attract new patients and maintain the trust of existing ones.
This involves establishing an online presence, responding to positive and negative reviews, and managing the doctor’s website to increase traffic. It also includes creating and maintaining a blog to keep current and prospective patients engaged. Additionally, doctors should claim and update their Google My Business profiles, create and claim listings on all major healthcare review sites, including Yelp, WebMD, Healthgrades, Vitals, and Facebook.
It is important that the doctor’s NAP (name, address, phone number) information is consistent across all listings. Inconsistent NAP information can confuse search engines and affect rankings. Additionally, it is important that the doctor regularly audits their listings for accuracy. A survey conducted by Yext revealed that 95% of consumers have found incorrect business information online. Incorrect listings can lead to missed opportunities, frustrated customers, and a tarnished reputation. To prevent these errors, medical practices can utilize a doctor reputation management software to update all listings. In addition, doctors can use this software to generate and promote new reviews from satisfied patients.
Guest Posting
Doctors spend years building their reputation and brand, but in a single moment it can be destroyed by an online review. Patients search for physicians and medical practices online before choosing their healthcare providers, and having a positive online presence instills trust and helps attract new patients.
Being included in local “best doctors” roundups is a huge part of doctor reputation management. It boosts visibility, and when shared on social media, will make patients feel confident in putting their health in your hands.
Maintaining a blog on topical issues that relate to your patient base is another great way to showcase your expertise, position yourself as a thought leader, and push down negative online content. Be careful when using guest posts for SEO purposes – it’s important not to contribute to any blog networks that sell links. Google is very suspicious of these and will penalize your website if you do it too often.
Unfortunately, not all patients will be happy with their experience, so monitoring and responding to reviews is a crucial part of doctor reputation management. If you don’t respond quickly and respectfully to disgruntled customers, your reputation can be tarnished despite your best efforts. By setting up custom alerts for your name, it’s easy to get notified as soon as you or your practice is mentioned online.
