Finding new patients can be hard, but one of the most effective ways to acquire new patients is by establishing trust with prospective patients. If you’re struggling for ways to establish trust with new patients, here’s a helpful hint; reviews, reviews, reviews!
If you thought patients rarely reference online reviews before booking an appointment with a new doctor, think again! There are numerous surveys and studies referencing the importance of online reviews in the patient selection process, so you need to take online reviews seriously. Acquiring a steady stream of positive reviews is not only helpful for establishing trust with prospective patients but if leveraged properly, it can also work wonders for your website’s SEO.
If you are new to the world of online doctor reviews or want a quick refresher, look no further. Here’s a list of some of the most popular healthcare review platforms on the internet.
Vitals (1994)
As the longest-running review platform on this list, it’s no wonder that Vitals has amassed one of a huge amount of providers, facilities, and reviews. Because Vitals.com gets a lot of their information from both public and private sources, it’s very possible that your practice already has a profile on this account, even if you haven’t created it yourself. As such, go to their site and search for your practice name to claim (or update) your practice account and make sure everything they list on your profile is accurate and current.
HealthGrades (1998)
A very strong incumbent in the field of healthcare reviews, HealthGrades.com has been a trusted source of doctor reviews since its launch in 1998. With over 1 million provider profiles and 7 million reviews on their platform, you definitely want to make sure your profile is up to date or you can be missing out on a lot of very valuable impressions from prospective patients.
Facebook (2003)
If you saw the 2010 film, The Social Network, you know this hugely popular website was started by Mark Zuckerberg, a computer science student attending Harvard in the early 2000s. What you may not know, however, is that this social network offers much more than photos of friends and family, as its Business Profile pages are extremely beneficial to providers looking to attract new patients. With over 2.7 BILLION (with a “b”) monthly active users, Facebook has the attention of a whole lot of patients. Since Facebook Pages are free to make, it’s really a no-brainer to have a page for your practice set up and current with contact information, photos, and reviews. In addition to being a valuable source for patient reviews, Facebook Pages can be a great place to communicate with your new and prospective patients on a regular basis with a strong social media strategy. If your social strategy needs help, feel free to reach out as we have a social media product that can really help you utilize this extremely effective channel.
Yelp (2004)
Did you know that one of the founders of Yelp, Jeremy Stoppleman, came up with the initial idea for their review site after coming down with the flu and noticing how difficult it was to find an online recommendation for a doctor? Not only is Yelp one of the most well-known review sites on the internet, but it’s jam-packed with reviews for healthcare professionals across all disciplines. While the significance of Yelp is stronger in some markets more than others, it’s still a good idea to keep an up-to-date profile on their platform nonetheless.
RateMDs (2004)
Also founded in 2004, RateMDS was created by the same person who founded the hugely popular review sites; “RateMyProfessors.com” and “RateMyTeachers.com”. In addition to the doctor profiles and reviews found on every site listed in this post, RateMDs also has a few extra fields of interest including “provider punctuality”, “cleanliness”, and “overall value”. If you haven’t already claimed your profile on RateMDs.com, you can do so here.
ZocDoc (2007)
Back in 2007, former McKinsey consultant Cyrus Massoumi founded ZocDoc, a site designed to help patients schedule their doctor appointments. Though Cyrus might have been regularly kicked out of Doctors’ offices back in the early days of the company, ZocDoc has certainly proven itself as a valuable resource for providers today with its recent announcement of a $150M raise as it looks to expand into telehealth. The fast-growing nature of this NYC-based startup has resulted in a website that attracts a lot of prospective patients looking for a doctor, and subsequently, a lot of doctor reviews as well. If you have ever used ZocDoc in the past, or plan to in the future, make sure you are asking any patients you get through their platform to leave a review, as it significantly increases the likeliness of you attracting more patients through their appointment scheduling software as well.
Doctor.com (2012)
As healthcare providers, I’m sure you are familiar with Press Ganey scores, and their Patient Satisfaction Scores they regularly report on, but did you know that in October last year they acquired Doctor.com? As mentioned in their press release, they are “bringing both companies’ online reputation management tools in-house to combine patient feedback and online acquisition into a single digital platform.” Much more than a review site, Doctor.com offers an extensive amount of resources, training, certifications, and insurance information for healthcare providers and patients alike. With all this extensive, and valuable content on their site, it’s no wonder they attract a staggering 30 million visitors each month! So it should come as no surprise that this is a place where you should strongly consider listing your practice as you may have a ton of high-quality traffic from prospective patients as a result.
GoogleMyBusiness (2014)
Last, but not least - GoogleMyBusinesses is the ‘newest’ review site on this list but do not underestimate its importance. Because your GoogleMyBusiness (GMB) profile shows up in Google Search Results, it is easily one of the most important listings to make sure you have up-to-date and accurate. Not only does your GMB profile showcase reviews like all the sites listed before, but it also highlights your practices’ address, operating hours, and phone number directly from the search results making it an extremely effective way for your patients to find your practice. In addition, GoogleMyBusiness has recently experimented with adding “Accepted Insurances” to your GMB profile, so this can also be a great way to help attract patients looking for providers in-network. In all honesty, a strong GMB profile should not be considered a ‘nice to have’ for your practice, but an absolute necessity. With the significant amount of patients searching for healthcare providers through their search platform every single day, you really, really cannot afford to neglect this platform.
Conclusion
In conclusion, having an up-to-date presence on popular review sites is a simple, effective way to start building trust with prospective patients. Though be warned, creating (or claiming) profiles on these sites, is just the first step. Next, you need to grow the number of reviews you receive and showcase them on your website to really gain the most value from this strategy.
It’s worth noting, however, that requesting reviews on posting them on your website is particularly easy for DoctorLogic customers. Our software helps your practice request reviews, aggregate them from 20+ different sources (including all those listed in this blog), and indicate which ones you’d like to display on your site. If you are in need of assistance to manage your online reputation, click here to learn how DoctorLogic can help.