“Reputation management” is a term we’re all familiar with in health care. It’s just our online reviews, right? Actually, in 2022, it’s not.

Reputation management is much more than static reviews left by patients on sites like Google, Healthgrades and Vitals. In a world where people can be skeptical of advertising, marketing or professionally curated websites, healthcare consumers turn to the source they trust most in researching a procedure or evaluating a practice’s reputation online: other consumers. This, of course, includes online reviews, but another key source is the community of advocates (or lack thereof) who validate our brand on social media.

Without question, the virtual voice of our patients is the most powerful seal of approval for our practice. In traditional form, this can take the form of an online “review.” But beyond this, it’s about having a thriving online social presence. Patients who engage with our social media accounts through patient-generated content or even simple comments on our posts advocate for the real-life impact we’ve made and represent our authenticity.

You may be thinking, “If managing and growing positive online reviews wasn’t enough, now we have to build an entire community on social media?” Take heart: It’s not as intimidating as it sounds! In fact, this concept is nothing new to a practice that is already well loved by its patients and enjoys a positive word-of-mouth reputation. It’s simply a new virtual format of expression with a much larger reach.

If our practice strives to deliver excellent procedure outcomes and an exceptional patient experience (Let’s say that’s a given!), then we’re already off to a fantastic start. Now, we simply must be open to a massive perspective shift. Here’s how to achieve that.

REVIEWS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Our online reviews and social media profiles are more important than our website. Hear us out: a compelling website is vital to our success, but what if our prospective patient is turned off before they make it our website?

Consider the patient’s point of view. Take a moment to reset, remove our “doctor/practice owner hat” and remember we’re a consumer just like them.

Today’s consumers are savvy to the digital world of simulated content created to impress from selfie filters, photoshopped models and “what I ordered vs. what I got” exposures on social media. We crave authenticity and rely on real people to recommend products and services more than advertisements.

Our target patient knows that our website is created to represent what we want people to think of us. They also know that we can’t edit reviews or fake a thriving social media community, so this is where they turn to authenticate our brand.

WHERE TO FOCUS OUR EFFORTS FOR REVIEWS

Google is the No. 1 review site used by healthcare consumers — more popular than healthcare review sites. Higher reputation scores on Google result in 838% more clicks.¹

When a friend recommends a restaurant or business, do you type in www.BusinessName.com? Of course not — you Google it. What comes up is a list of links to the left, and pulling your attention to the right: the Google My Business profile with photos, hours and … reviews. Based on these statistics, we can conclude that most people will start (and stop!) at our Google My Business profile. If they don’t like what they see, they won’t even make it to our website.

What does the consumer care about?

• Star average
• Review volume
• Recent reviews
• Review length/content (not just stars)
• Review responses

Even more than procedure outcome, how the physician and staff made a patient feel was the leading cause of both good and negative reviews.¹

HOW TO INCREASE POSITIVE ONLINE REVIEWS

As always, investing in our team’s expertise in patient experience offers one of the highest returns on investment that we can find. We cannot expect our team to deliver exceptional experiences without prioritizing ongoing training in soft skills and customer service. Assuming our real-life experiences are outstanding, how do we replicate this online?

Create a process or protocol for cultivating positive online reviews:

• Make it a team sport. If the practice down the street has a higher Google star rating than ours, you bet everyone on our team is aware and won’t rest until we reach and exceed that goal.
• Ask in person. Approach patients during moments of heightened happiness.
• Make it easy. Consider providing a QR code that links directly to Google reviews.
• Tell patients why it matters. Explain that their experience will motivate other patients to move forward with a life-changing procedure like they did or that it will impact your performance review in the practice.
• Follow up. An automated survey and review prompt service can help make it even easier if they receive a text message after their appointment.

HANDLING NEGATIVE REVIEWS

We know that we can’t make everyone happy no matter how hard we try. It’s extremely important to respond to all reviews — especially the negative ones.

Many patients report that the responses to online reviews impacted their perception of the practice even more than the review itself. Be sure to have a HIPAA-compliant response protocol in place and avoid generic copy-and-paste responses. Include a desire to learn more and a direct name and contact to reach. There is almost always a valuable take-away and room to improve from any feedback, so we must be sure to investigate each patient’s experience to glean any constructive perspective shift we can from every patient viewpoint.

WHERE SOCIAL MEDIA FITS IN

Here’s where things get interesting. Today’s consumer turns to social media vs our website as the living, breathing version of our brand. What are they looking for?

• Our human side. A big part of our reputation is who we are, and there’s no better or more authentic place to showcase this than our social media. Consumers are looking at a brand’s personality and perspective.
• Community involvement and social responsibility. To build a reputation that is trustworthy, consumers see your actions first: 71% of consumers say it’s important for brands to raise awareness and take a stand on social issues.² Giving back and finding deeper meaning are important themes in social media efforts in 2022 and can include spotlighting community nonprofits or philanthropic efforts in our industry.
• User-generated content (UGC). An overwhelming majority of consumers (92%) trust UGC more than any other form of content.³ This earns us a more trusted reputation than any type of content we can produce. Also, 72% of consumers say real customer photos and videos are the content they most want to see.³ It’s what resonates most with the lifestyles of real people.
• A community of advocates. Employees and patients who interact, comment and share our content on social media show our viewers that we don’t need them to take us at our own word — we have real people backing up our reputation of excellence. Team members who love our practice and interact with our content on social media amplify our story and impact our online reputation.
• Reviews, of course. On social media sites, like Facebook, our audience is obviously also paying attention to the same points we previously listed.

Social listening is another valuable aspect of social media reputation for our practice. Our target audience is talking on social media, so we need to be aware of the conversation! We set up three streams of listening in our social media management tool (Hootsuite or other) for:

• Our brand mentions, branded hashtags, doctors
• Our competitors’ brand mentions, branded hashtags, doctors
• Procedure keywords and hashtags

CONCLUSION

Our online reputation is crucial to our success and sustainable growth, especially if we are elective-driven. We cannot become passive or ignore this vital aspect of our brand. Today’s consumer encounters us online first and judges us off of this virtual reputation before taking action. Successful practices understand this and make online reputation an ongoing priority.

How do we ensure a thriving online reputation? It may sound obvious, but we cannot fake online what we lack in real life. It all starts with a healthy internal culture:

• Is our leadership committed to empowering our team?
• Do we invest in each role within our practice to provide the tools, training and soft skills necessary to provide exceptional patient experiences and outcomes?
• Are we accountable to our team and patients to provide an environment of safety and support?
• Do we consistently seek out ways to improve the processes, procedures and resources available?

If this is the kind of practice we embody in real life, then we have the opportunity to reflect this online! Intentional processes to engage patients in reviews and user-generated content are essential and involve our entire team’s commitment to the process. A motivating patient review program along with authentic, engaging social media content is a must and can only be consistently implemented by a social media coordinator on staff.

When we put all of this together we are able to bring our special practice to life in a thriving online reputation. Beautiful, isn’t it? OM

REFERENCES

1. Reputation. The 2022 Healthcare Reputation Report. https://bit.ly/3Nt0XOU . Accessed November 1, 2022.
2. SproutSocial. Social Trends 2022 & Beyond, 2022 Index Project. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/index/ . Accessed October 17, 2022.
3. Nosto. Post-Pandemic Shifts in Consumer Shopping Habits: Authenticity, Personalization and the Power of UGC. https://www.nosto.com/blog/report-post-pandemic-shifts-in-consumer-shopping-habits-authenticity-personalization-and-the-power-of-ugc/ . Accessed October 17, 2022.

Christine Scarlett and Lauren Weaver are co-founders of Proven Healthcare Consultants (www.ProvenHealthcareConsultants.com ). They earned the handle of “The Patient Whisperers” by building one of the busiest and most successful refractive surgery practices in the United States during the past 8 years (www.ThePatientWhisperers.com ). They bring a combined 12 years of practice management and an energetic, outside-the-box, results-driven approach to their coaching programs and virtual courses.