Reputation is everything—not just for individuals, but for businesses and especially physical therapists. Your online reputation plays a huge role in the success of your business and the amount of new customers you’re able to acquire. And one of the biggest factors playing into the success of your business reputation is your reviews.
Reviews are the lifeblood of successful practices and businesses, and without them, it can be difficult to gain momentum or get moving in the right direction with new customers. Having a reputation management platform for physical therapists can help you not only keep track of your reviews, but gather new ones, respond to new posts, and improve your reputation management across platforms.
Managing Your Reputation in Today’s Customer-Driven World
Back before the dawn of the internet, it was easier for salespeople and marketers to control their online reputation. They were able to talk to customers before a lot of research had been done, controlling the story of their reputation and guiding incoming customers. However, those days are long gone.
In the customer-driven market of today, potential leads and clients have already done all of their research before they ever reach out to a business. And what your business looks like online, and what people say about it, makes a big difference in the amount of new customers you can get in through the door.
Why Reviews are Important
Reviews are one of the most, if not the most, important parts of your online presence management. We implicitly trust the words of others and rely on that information in order to make our own business decisions. For example, when you want to buy a new household product or technology tool from Amazon, you don’t just pick the one with the nicest pictures. You go to the reviews and see what others have said.
If people give bad reviews, saying the product breaks easily or doesn’t perform as expected, you believe that. Rather than spending the money to see if the reviewers are wrong, you move along to something else with better reviews. Your physical therapy practice works the same way. People won’t trust you with their business and their bodies if you have a bad reputation and poor reviews.
How to Build a 5-Star Reputation
Building a 5-star reputation is all about getting a lot of high-quality reviews. The best way to do this is by asking your happy, satisfied, and returning customers to leave a review. Otherwise, you might only have unexpected reviews from unhappy customers who weren’t pleased with your services.
In addition to having plenty of reviews for leads to browse through, you also want to make sure your reviews are of a high quality. For example, the more detailed the description is, the more legitimate the review will appear to readers. If it’s a blank review with 5-stars, it looks much less real to viewers. Adding images, videos, and detailed descriptions all make reviews more legitimate and more persuasive to your potential clients.
Rules of Thumb to Follow When Responding to Reviews
Responding to reviews is another important part of building a 5-star reputation. Whether it is positive or negative, you need to say something and acknowledge the review that was left. Here are some tips on responding to reviews that are positive in nature:
- Genuinely thank the reviewer for their time and their praise
- Mention specific details of their visit but be sure to abide by HIPAA guidelines and never give out personal medical information
- Offer a discount or a surprise incentive for the review, even if one wasn’t promised
- Mention that you look forward to seeing them again
- Use the review in multiple ways, like on social media platforms, your website, or your newsletter and email communications
Unfortunately, not all reviews will be positive. Some people will be unhappy with your services or their results. And they have just as much of a right to post their opinion as someone who was happy with your work does. Here are some tips on how to professionally and proactively respond to negative reviews.
- Never delete a negative review unless it is proven spam. Instead, use it as a way of addressing negative comments and feedback in a positive way
- Don’t get defensive
- Apologize for the negative experience and offer suggestions on how to improve the experience, like a number to call for grievances or a free visit to address ongoing issues
- Take the feedback as helpful advice to improve for the future
- Be professional and kind in your interactions with the customer
- Don’t get overwhelmed or frustrated by a bad review; they happen, but they aren’t the end of the world.
How Surefire Local Can Help You Get More 5-Star Reviews
Now that you know how to start building a 5-star reputation online, let’s talk about reputation management platforms. Specifically, a platform like Surefire Local. Surefire Local was designed to help physical therapists like you improve your online reputation and get more 5-star reviews and ratings.
Connect with Review Platforms
With Surefire Local, you can integrate and connect with top review platforms like Google, Facebook, and Yelp so you can see all of your online reviews in one place as a timeline view. Rather than trying to log into each platform, you can gather all new review information in one place. Not only does this make reputation management easier, but it also helps you save time and focus on other important business aspects.
Send Review Requests
Easily send out messages to happy customers via text message or email asking for reviews. When you ask a customer to leave a review when they are at their most satisfied, it can help encourage them to take action and leave a glowing review rather than a milder one. You can include a link or even a short form in the message to make it easy for customers to make a new review.
Write and Post Responses
Whether you have a positive or a negative review, you can easily write and post your response from within the Surefire Local platform. This helps you quickly get out your messages and deliver great responses to your customers to prove you are active and responsive to feedback. That shows search algorithms that you care about your customers and are an active online force.
Send Reminders to Customers
Use email or text messages to send out periodic reminders to customers if they have received a review request but haven’t filled one out yet. This can help jumpstart their memories or gently remind them to click on a link for a review if it slipped their mind previously. By adding your happy customers into a drip campaign, you can send out personalized messages asking for reviews so that they never forget to drop a 5-star review for your business.
Eliminate Wasted Time
Going back and forth between platforms to check and see if you have a new review or respond to reviews that have been posted is a waste of time. It also might mean you miss things when they are scattered across different platforms. Surefire Local brings it all together for you so you never miss another review again. Reviews are easier to manage than ever when you use the power of Surefire Local.
Measure Brand Sentiment
Surefire Local offers a word cloud graph that shows you the most frequently used words from customers in their reviews. The graph helps you measure brand sentiment and see what words are being used, like “great results”, “customer service”, or “friendly team”.
Optimize Your Brand Presence
Surefire Local helps you showcase your brand across all review sites and on more than 80 local business directories by managing the information found about your business. That includes things like the photos displayed, any special offers you’re running, and even more from within one platform.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo
When it comes to online reputation management platforms, no one does what Surefire Local can do. We offer amazing services and tools to help connect your different channels to streamline review management and online reputation control. And Surefire Local is only a fraction of the cost of other review tools and platforms. To learn more about Surefire Local and to see if it is the right reputation management platform for physical therapists, schedule a demo with us today.