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Managing your business reputation on-line

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What is on-line reputation management (ORM) and how does this apply to dentists?

In this highly connected, web enabled world, bad news about a business can travel fast and wreak lots of damage very quickly. It’s very easy, perhaps too easy, for a disgruntled client or disenchanted staff member to leave a poor web review and give your reputation a severe kick.

What’s more, those bad reviews can linger around for quite some time, visible in the search engines and continuing to damage your business for months to come. Not a good situation for any business.

This is all too true for dental professionals – you will possibly have looked in Google and seen those one star reviews against a dental practice which stick out like a sore thumb and provide an instant turn-off? This is a nightmare scenario for all business owners and one which needs to be managed closely.

How can I check what people are saying about my dental practice on the web? (phase 1 – monitoring)

Your first port-of-call should be the Google search engine. This is for two main reasons – 1) Google is “all-seeing” and tends to capture pretty much everything 2) most people search on Google first, so if there is bad news about you, then they will likely spot it there first – and so will you.

However, there are a few tools which you can use to alert you to news about your business – good or bad – which can be very useful:

  • Google Alerts – whilst arguably not quite as good as it used to be, this tool will send you an alert email when someone mentions your brand on the web. You can also set up similar in Yahoo.
  • Social Mention – this tool trawls the main social media channels to pull back mentions of your brand; similar to Google Alerts but for social media
  • Social Listening – this is a bespoke service provided by Dental Media whereby we proactively monitor the main social platforms for mentions of your brand and report this to you on a daily basis. This allows you to engage with users seeking services as well as allowing timely intervention for negative comments.

Although tools are available to notify you automatically, we still recommend a weekly check in Google to make sure that you have not been compromised. We also offer this service as part of our monthly marketing packages.

Building on your brand on-line – (phase 2 – buffering and prevention)

Where a dentist already has a positive on-line reputation, backed-up by good patient reviews and a broad, high-quality web footprint, the effect of a poor review is immediately diluted amidst all of the positive messages.

Hence it is very worthwhile to spend time establishing your brand to buffer against anything adverse which could arise. This does mean being proactive and using tools like blogging and social media to help build up a community of proponents around your brand and services. In turn this will help to stimulate those all-important positive patient reviews.

Please also check out this earlier blog article covering “internal marketing” for other ways to help get the referrals and positive reviews rolling.

Addressing negative comments and reviews – (phase 3 – rectifying)

So what do you do if your monitoring process uncovers a prominent negative review about you on-line? Unfortunately there is no instant fix for this and some work will be required to dilute any damage:

  • “bury” the negative review with positive ones. This is not simple and quick but can be done and will eventually push the negative comment into a less prominent position.
  • if the comment is untruthful, contact the person who placed it and ask them to remove it – consider appropriate legal action depending on the circumstance.
    In some cases you can also contact the owner of the site on which the comment appears and insist on its removal; however you will need to prove your case and with some sites, e.g. Google, this will not work in most cases. However, if it is against Google’s publishing guidelines, you can request that it is de-indexed. We have had some success with this on client’s behalf.
  • address the negative comment with an appropriate reply. Most review sites, including Google, now give the business owner the opportunity to address comments. Be careful how you do this as you do not wish it to degenerate into a slanging match which will be publically visible.
  • Hire an ‘ORM’ specialist – you may need assistance with handling widespread negative reviews – we can help with this.

Summary

As we’ve seen, on-line reputation management can be split into three main elements – monitoring, buffering/prevention and rectification. However, it is very important to avoid reaching the rectification stage as clean-up can be tricky, time-consuming and hence costly. Consequently it’s much more effective to set up a proactive system to build your on-line brand reputation carefully and sustainably to help buffer against anything adverse that may arise down the track.

If you need assistance with ORM or any aspect of marketing your dental pratice online, please call the Dental Media team for friendly guidance on 01332 672548.