How often do you look up a business before you try it out? For me, it’s probably 90% of the time. Reviews for small businesses, like dental offices, can really impact the decisions of a potential new patient. These days, nothing says “credibility” like a 5-star Google review! But, you can’t leave it up to your patients to search you on Google just to leave a review, you need to actively request them from your patients. If you’re thinking, “oh, that is so awkward”, it doesn’t have to be. Here’s how you do it:
1. Create a Google My Business profile
Every office should have a Google business profile, and you should update it regularly. Why, you ask? The Google search algorithm is known to be a mystery, but it only makes sense that having a bigger presence on Google
2. Copy the Google reviews link for your business
Find this by clicking on Home in the menu, then Share Review Form under Get More Reviews on the right side of the screen. Copy the URL that pops up and hang onto that.
3. Create an email template asking for a review
How to create a template in Gmail and Office365/Outlook.
You could write something like this:
Thanks for visiting [business name]. Positive reviews from awesome customers like you help others to feel confident about choosing us too. Could you take 60 seconds to go to [Google reviews link] and share your happy experiences?
Thank you in advance for helping us out!
4. Send this email to all your patients at the end of the day
You can skip sending it to any patients that didn’t have a good appointment! To save time, you can send a single email to all your patients by entering your email in the “to” field, and the patient emails in the “Bcc” field. That way, they won’t see who else the email was sent to.
I know there are other very popular ratings websites, namely Yelp, that have been more popular than Google reviews in the past. You may have built up a nice profile with lots of reviews on there already, but I would urge you to make the switch to Google. Aside from the fact that we have been harassed by Yelp when we said “no” to paying for advertising on their service, it benefits you to build up your presence on Google because Google search is king. No one knows for certain the exact algorithm that Google uses to rank websites, but it can only help you to rank higher in their search results if you have a Google business page with a lot of current reviews and updated business information (e.g., business hours, holiday closures, photos).
Thanks for reading! For more dental practice management tips, follow me on Instagram (@practice.management)
