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Several of our clients have approached us recently to add “review widgets” to their practice websites.<\/p>\nSeveral of our clients have approached us recently to add “review widgets” to their practice websites.<\/p>\n
These are supplied by companies who claim to offer full management of the review process, for example those placed by patients on Google and Facebook. To the layperson, this sounds absolutely excellent and seemingly the universal solution to the important but logistically difficult issue of managing patient reviews.<\/p>\n
But all is not quite what it seems, particularly when it comes to the all-important and fundamental aspect of how those reviews actually get on to Google and Facebook in the first place. In this blog we look at how managed review services actually work and what they can and can’t do for you. This way you can make an informed decision before subscribing to their services.<\/p>\n
A quick recap on Google reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n There is increasing awareness about just how powerful Google reviews are, not just for providing independent validation of your services but also for helping your website rank<\/a> in the three local search results which appear on page one of Google. This latter aspect is particularly important and a great way to help acquire new patients.<\/p>\n However, it is very important to understand that you simply can’t place your own reviews on Google or even place bona fide patient reviews from the same PC at the practice. Your IP address and location is known to Google and they simply filter out multiple reviews placed from the same location. In fact they are particularly rigorous about this and you can be penalised irretrievably if they suspect you are trying to game their systems.<\/p>\n The cons<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The only way to gain reviews which will be acknowledged by Google is if patients post them from their own devices and from locations which seem credible to Google. So paying a company to place reviews for you just isn’t going to work. It’s this aspect which confuses lots of potential clients of the review services and it really is important to understand. When they explain that the patient can place their review on an IPad in reception, it isn’t going on to Google (or Facebook) – it’s simply going on to the review company’s own platform. Of course this makes absolutely no difference to your Google local ranking – the review isn’t actually on Google!<\/p>\n What the services do offer is a reminder email to the client which asks them to place their review on Google or Facebook – but unfortunately the large majority don’t. This is where you need some personal encouragement from the practice team themselves to encourage willing patients to help. A simple email from your review service may help a little, but frankly not much. So in reality, the really critical bit i.e. the patient placing the review on his\/her own device, is not really being managed at all.<\/p>\n The pros<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s not all bad news. The review companies can actually aggregate any existing reviews you have on Google and Facebook alongside those from their own platform and display these on your website via the “widget” mentioned earlier. This is useful to demonstrate the “social proof” discussed elsewhere in this blog. However, there are other ways to do it and without paying monthly subscriptions.<\/p>\n Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n Dental review management is a growing business but it’s not quite all it may seem on face value. You need to understand the pros and cons and particularly that the review companies cannot place your reviews for you or on your patients’ behalf; all they are actually doing is aggregating what is already there and allowing you to display it via a widget on your website. You may consider that this is worthwhile or you may wish to do-it-yourself and really encourage your patients to help you by leaving reviews directly on Google and Facebook i.e. where it really counts.<\/p>\n It also worth pointing out that one of the major dental management software companies is pushing their version of a review management system which is actually a “white label” version of one of the main systems which is already out there. So please keep that in mind when the software representative comes knocking.<\/p>\n If you need to know more about the importance of patient reviews and the best ways to manage them, please call Dental Media<\/a> on 01332 672548<\/strong> for a no-obligation discussion and advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Understanding what managed review services offer – and what they don’t…. Several of our clients have approached us recently to add “review widgets” to their practice websites. These are supplied by companies who claim to offer full management of the …<\/p>\n