How Positive Review Acquisition Helps Build the 3 Pillars of Healthcare Success

With a staggering 81% of people using online reviews to help them choose a new healthcare provider in their area, positive and current reviews are imperative to a successful practice. It is not enough to let reviews passively roll in. Positive review acquisition, the process of soliciting reviews from satisfied patients, is necessary for keeping your online reputation fresh and attractive.

In this new digital age, prospective patients research their new healthcare providers in the same way they might look up a new local restaurant or business in town. Consumers look online for a business’s positive reviews, photos, and any more information they need. Thus, an online presence is not complete without consistent, fresh positive reviews, since 80% of prospective patients say the age of a review is relevant when making their decision.

The importance of positive review acquisition connects directly with the 3 pillars of healthcare success, which are:

• A stellar online reputation
• A robust online presence
• A growing, loyal patient base

There are several ways to strengthen each pillar. All 3 pillars, however, can tie directly back to acquiring positive patient reviews for your healthcare practice.

How Positive Reviews Help Your Stellar Online Reputation

A stellar online reputation is heavily dependent upon fresh, consistent, positive reviews. With 81% of prospective patients turning to reviews when choosing their new healthcare providers across several different review sites, it’s important to have all your bases covered on more than one platform.

On average, 69% of patients visit 2 or more review platforms when evaluating a new healthcare provider during their research process. Popular review platforms used by patients are Google, Yelp, Healthgrades, ZocDoc, Vitals, WebMd, and more.

Of all the review sites for medical practices, Google, WebMD, and Yelp are the three most checked online review sites and are viewed by 66%, 39%, and 35% of patients, respectively.

Focusing your efforts on getting a steady stream of positive reviews across a variety of review sites greatly helps to build a stellar online reputation for your practice. When prospective patients can find recent positive or 5-star reviews, they see a successful practice.

Using Positive Reviews to Achieve A Robust Online Presence

Ranking for local searches is essential for healthcare practices. Your “ranking” is where your website ends up on the list with others when somebody runs an online search for a healthcare practice like yours in the area. For example, if you have strong local SEO and somebody in your area types in a search for “dentist near me,” your website would show up at the top of the results page.

Proper local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a way to increase your healthcare practice’s online rankings. Local SEO can be anything included within your web presence, from specifically chosen keywords and links, to the back-end coding, all the way to your online reviews—which is why positive review acquisition is so important.

In short, SEO is how search engines read your digital presence. If you have a clean, optimized, updated internet presence with fresh positive reviews coming in every month, search engines are more likely to show your website as a relevant result for people searching in your area.

Your healthcare practice’s internet presence includes your online reviews, which are considered by search engines when patients search online. In fact, online reviews have grown in importance in the past few years in terms of local SEO, proving that prospective patients find positive reviews greatly significant in their search for a new healthcare provider.

Source: BrightLocal

Reviews have grown a little in importance over the last few years – taking up 16% of ranking factors in 2020, compared to 12% back in 2018. - BrightLocal

It is important to manage and respond to all reviews. This shows that you care about what patients are saying, and find importance in dedicating the time to thank the patients who leave positive reviews, and addressing concerns in negative reviews.

Having and maintaining a robust online presence is not possible without consistent positive reviews and review management.

How Positive Review Acquisition Nurtures a Growing, Loyal Patient Base

A patient’s first impression of your healthcare practice is most likely going to be your online presence and reputation. Impress them from the beginning with 5-star reviews and keep them around with a great online presence, and your patient base will grow.

The top three most important factors for patients selecting a healthcare provider, in order, are the practice’s online reviews, doctor referrals, and friend/family referrals. With patients trusting online reviews even over their own friends and family, it is extremely important to acquire positive reviews to grow a loyal patient base. Referring patients and physicians will also feel confident in recommending you to new patients if you have stellar online reviews.

The Overall Importance of Positive Review Acquisition to Strengthen the 3 Pillars

We can conclude that all 3 pillars of healthcare success can be easily tied to the consistent acquisition of positive online reviews. It is simply not enough to let positive reviews trickle in when (and if) they do so organically.

Actively soliciting reviews from satisfied patients cannot be ignored for the 3 pillars to function properly. Luckily, new technology makes acquiring positive reviews simple and fast. GMR Web team has proprietary software to help in positive review generation and overall reputation management.