It’s important for healthcare providers to maintain a good online reputation.
Here’s why: over 80 percent of patients check online reviews when choosing a healthcare provider; 40 percent won’t visit a healthcare provider who has poor reviews; and 75 percent would only consider providers who have at least 4 or more stars.
These statistics are from a recent survey of over 1,700 adults in the United States, conducted by RepuGen, an all-in-one healthcare reputation management platform. The same survey found
69 percent of patients visit two or more review platforms, before deciding on a healthcare provider.
The days of providers not being concerned about online reviews are over.
“We tell providers you have to address it,” says Ajay Prasad, CEO of RepuGen. “This is something you cannot ignore.”
The patient’s visit extends beyond the doctor’s office. While patients often don’t leave comments when they have a positive experience at a healthcare practice, they often leave comments about negative experiences. Plus, they tend to leave those negative reviews on as many review sites they can find.
Not having any reviews is detrimental to a provider’s reputation too.
“If a doctor has no reviews, it’s as bad as having bad reviews,” says Prasad.
Reputation solution
RepuGen can be a review solution for providers. The automated tool for health practices sends satisfaction surveys to patients immediately after they’ve had an appointment with their provider.
About 30-40 percent of patients take the survey. If a patient gives positive feedback, they’re encouraged to leave a review on different social platforms. That often results in a few written positive reviews a week. Medical practices can showcase their positive Google-ranked testimonials on their website.
Negative patient reviews are referred to an internal patient feedback box to discuss the appointment. That feedback is sent back to the practice so they can follow up with the patient.
The top three reasons for negative feedback are quality of care received, the provider’s demeanor, and billing issues. The study also showed that younger patients are more likely to leave a negative review than older patients.
“You can reach out to unhappy patients so that you can quickly recover them,” says Prasad, noting the average recovery rate of RepuGen users is over 80 percent.
He says patients typically appreciate the provider’s feedback and ultimately don’t leave the negative review.
Recent reviews
Providers should solicit reviews on a regular basis on a variety of review platforms to increase patient trust. There are seven key review platforms, with Google and WebMD being top sites, as well as Yelp, and others like HealthGrades and Facebook.
“You have to have reviews on all these sites,” says Prasad.
Cross-platform reviews are important because consumers of different demographics don’t all check the same websites. For example, the survey says that patients ages 18-60 trust Google, while patients 60 and older trust WebMD more.
Reviews need to be recent too. “Recency of reviews are as important for the patient as the ratings,” he says.
According to the RepuGen survey, half of patients wouldn’t trust a review that’s older than one year.
Win-win
The healthcare reputation management platform helps providers garner more reviews from patients and gives them the opportunity to assess their patient experiences.
Positive reviews can help improve a provider’s online reputation, increase referrals from other providers, and help them acquire new patients and retain current patients. All of these factors can result in increased revenue for the provider.
“Patients all deserve to be heard and respected and be taken care of,” says Prasad. “It creates a win-win situation.”
Learn more about RepuGen and schedule a demo: repugen.com.