How one practice makes online reviews – even the bad ones! – work for them

  Posted by: Dental Design      8th May 2019

Gentle Dental Care in Tilehurst, Berkshire offers general dentistry, alongside specialist techniques, in a modern and welcoming environment. Over the last 10 years, the practice has been able to grow and thrive because of its commitment to delivering the highest-quality treatment and patient care. Listening to what its patients are saying is very important to the team and Gentle Dental Care actively encourages online feedback. The practice uses EasyReview, a new tool that has been developed by dental marketing company Dental Design, helping them to obtain, manage and respond to online reviews promptly, whether they are good or bad.

Receptionist Rachel Clark talks about how EasyReview has impacted on services. She says:

“We have been using the system since the beginning of the year, working with Marcus at Dental Design. We have been working with Dental Design – who also built our website – for as long as I can remember. Marcus will get in contact with me when we have a bad online review, or he has seen something that needs flagging up. He’ll bring the issue to my attention, so we can discuss the next steps and decide how best to manage it. I put a response together and Marcus gives me guidance on what to say – and what notto say.

“Here at Gentle Dental Care, we look after a broad mix of patients, from young families to the older generation. They come to us for general dentistry, orthodontics and dental hygiene, and we are branching into facial aesthetic treatments, too. We’re lucky; we’re really busy and we don’t get many negative reviews. However, there has been the occasional ‘inappropriate’ review and it has been great to have help dealing with it.

“We encourage patients’ interaction with our online platforms – we have a clear, user-friendly website that has a ‘Leave us a review’ button and we use social media, too. There is also a poster in our reception area, asking people to give feedback and like our Facebook page. If a patient wants to comment on our service, especially if they weren’t fully satisfied, they often wait until they get home. Perhaps they feel embarrassed or they find it easier to write, rather than talk to me, or one of the dental team. That’s why online reviews are so important.

“EasyReview is extremely efficient. One instance where the system was invaluable was when a review was brought to our attention because it was personal – and unnecessarily unpleasant – about a staff member. It was immediately flagged up and as a result was taken down. EasyReview helped us turn this negative situation into a positive because, as a practice, we were able to support our colleague. The whole team was very appreciative.

“Some of our new patients come to us from reviews; we definitely get a lot of recommendations this way. I would certainly recommend EasyReview to other practices.”

The experience of Gentle Dental Care shows why there is no need to hide from bad reviews. Every strong and successful practice will receive negative feedback from time to time and it is far more productive to embrace it and respond appropriately than it is to turn a blind eye. There is strong evidence to reinforce the importance of replying to reviews, too.Over 50% of people who leave a poor review say they expect a response and 43% of consumers believe that if a brand replies, this shows that they care about what their customers think.[i]If an individual has taken the time to engage with your practice, it shows a poor level of patient relations to simply ignore them. In some cases, there may have been a misunderstanding that is easily rectified; in others, negative feedback may give you the opportunity to re-evaluate your processes and improve procedures.

People read and use online reviews when making all kinds of decisions – 93% of customers use them to determine if a local business is any good, according to one set of statistics. For every patient who is loyal to your practice, there will be others who will use reviews to see if they can get better treatment elsewhere. Potential new patients who are looking for the best place in town to get their dental treatment will use them too.

A tool such as EasyReview takes the stress out of reviews – it will allow you to make them work for you and turn negatives into positives. Currently available to existing customers only, EasyReview will be launched by Dental Design at the British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show (co-located with the Dental Technology Showcase) in May. If you’re going to the show, make sure to visit the Dental Design stand D4, or contact the team to find out how this tool could enhance your patient services.

To find out more about Dental Design’s services,
visit: https://dental-design-products.co.uk/
email: enquiries@dental-design.co.ukor tel: 01202 677277

[i]G2 Crowd Learning Hub, 16 May 2018. 50+ Statistics Proving the Power of Customer Relations. Link: https://learn.g2crowd.com/customer-reviews-statistics(accessed March 2019).

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