As a healthcare provider, the status of your reputation has quite a bit of impact on your overall success. Patients need to feel like they can trust you to be thorough, insightful and compassionate while they’re in your care. When it comes to their health and wellness, there isn’t any room for settling. Google reviews play a role in building that trust, which means a bad review can also hurt it.
The unfortunate reality is that no matter how good you are at your job, there’s always a possibility of getting a negative review. And it’s often due to factors that have nothing to do with your actual quality of patient care. However, negative reviews can still hurt your reputation and make people think twice about booking an appointment with you.
Read on to learn how negative Google reviews impact your reputation and what you can do to minimize the damage.
How bad Google reviews affect your practice
Research shows that more than 90% of consumers have avoided pursuing a business with negative reviews. That statistic seems to be accurate for patients of healthcare providers as well, with this study showing that negative reviews of a provider decrease a person’s interest in becoming a patient.
If people start to associate you with negative reviews, the word of mouth can spread, painting you in a negative light and causing your reputation to take a hit. Your authority and credibility as a provider is linked to your reputation, which means that having a less than positive reputation makes it a challenge to be seen as a reputable practice.
The good news is that just one or two negative reviews aren’t likely to have a big effect on your reputation, especially if you’re already established in the community as trustworthy. But it’s still important to know what to do if you get a bad review on Google.
How to handle a bad review’s impact on your practice’s reputation
People are more likely to leave a negative review than a positive review because they always expect a moderate to positive experience as the standard. If something strikes a negative chord, they are more likely to make it known to others online because it caused an unexpected emotional response.
If your practice has received a negative Google review, here are a few things to keep in mind when trying to keep your reputation intact:
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Always respond
Engaging directly with the reviews strengthens your brand voice and helps to break down the provider-patient barrier. You should respond to every Google review, even the negative ones. Or ESPECIALLY the negative ones. Here are some ways to properly respond to a negative review:
- Thank the person for the feedback, stressing how important their experience is to you.
- Empathize with their frustrations, and apologize if necessary.
- Pose a solution.
- Follow up with them offline.
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Highlight positive reviews
Shining a spotlight on your positive reviews can boost your reputation as well as increase engagement. Focusing on your positive reviews and posting them on your site or throughout your content will help drown out the negativity.
Here are a few ways to highlight your positive reviews:
- Post patient testimonial videos (with permission).
- Have Google reviews on your site’s homepage.
- Post reviews on your social media, such as on an Instagram post.
- Include reviews throughout your blog posts.
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Continue to publicly promote values
One of the best ways to boost your reputation is to show current and potential patients what type of foundation is used throughout your care. Showcasing your values as a provider can help people gain a better idea of the environment you’ve built in your practice and why they should put their trust in you.
You can incorporate your values into your site’s “About Us” page as well as in your content. Here are a few values that you may pride your practice on:
- Empathy
- Collaboration
- Integrity
It’s important to remember that Google won’t remove any negative reviews unless it’s in violation of its guidelines or considered fake.
Want to improve your reputation despite a negative Google review? BURG+CO. can help
While you can’t stop people from writing negative reviews, you can be proactive about handling them to keep your reputation intact. BURG+CO.’s digital PR services can help you with that. We ensure that you have the credibility and authority you need to establish a strong brand reputation that can’t be tarnished by a negative review.
Our team has years of experience in helping healthcare brands improve their digital presence to attract new patients and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more potential patients to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help.
Want expert support with your digital marketing? Connect with BURG+CO. today to explore how we can help your healthcare brand grow.