Every satisfied patient of yours should bring you more patients, right?  The ideal is for word-of-mouth to do all the work—for your happy patients to refer their friends and family to you, who in turn become patients.

But what if you’re not quite at that stage?  No internal refer system that is set up, no follow up with existing patients that get’s them to pay, stay and refer. That’s when the next-best thing needs to happen: for every happy patient to influence potential patients.

More specifically, short of having your patients actually deliver more patients to your door, the best thing is for your current patients to sway potential ones by writing great reviews of your business.

You work your tail off to do a super job.  Sure, that’s its own reward, because you get paid and your patients get what they wanted.  Everybody’s happy.  But is that the only reward you get?  Or do you also get at least a little public recognition for every great job you and your staff do?

Without online reviews, it’s harder for people to conclude that they should pick you over your competitors.  Plus without reviews you’re far less likely to outrank your competitors in Google.

The bottom line is you need to ask each and every happy patient for a online review.  But how?

This is where even the smartest business owners—the ones who know how important online reviews are to potential patients—often get stuck.  They’re not sure how to ask patients or how to show them what to do, so the reviews simply never happen.

Fortunately, you’ve got options.  13 of them.

I know of 13 ways you can get reviews—reviews that patients either write directly on your Google Places page (AKA “Google reviews”) or write through third-party sites (like Yelp and CitySearch).

It doesn’t matter how much time you have, or how many customers you have, or how computer-savvy they are.  At least some of these methods will work for you.

Here are your 13 ways to get online reviews (not ranked in any particular order):

1. Organic method—making sure your business is listed on as many third-party sites as possible, so that customers can find you if they feel like writing reviews spontaneously.
2. Links or clickable images on your site—something that patients who return to your site can click on to write you reviews.
3. Single-page handouts—a sheet of instructions you can simply hand to customers, which walks them through how to post a review.
4. Personal email—a simple email with a polite request and a link.  But for Pete’s sake, personalize it: none of that “Dear Valued Customer” garbage.  You can also do this with your email signature: instead of a bunch of fluff at the bottom of your emails, have a little link to where customers can dash off a quick review.
5. Autoresponder email—if you have your customers on an email list through a service like DemandForce or Smile Reminders, you can have an email request that goes out automatically.
6. Snail-mail request/instructions—people generally pay more attention to snail-mail, especially if it’s personalized and from a business they know and like.  This method is more work, but you’ll probably bat pretty well if you do it.
7. Video—a short walk-through, for patients who you think would just rather watch a quick video than follow other types of easy instructions.
8. Social media—in particular, Facebook.  What’s nice is customers can write CitySearch reviews using their Facebook username, which makes it that much easier for them and you.
9. QR code on a postcard—hand or send your customers a little postcard that asks them to review you by scanning a QR code with their smartphones.  The QR code would just contain a link to your Google Places page, or a link to your InsiderPages listing, etc.
10. QR code as a sticker or decal—the sticker or decal could go anywhere in your office or store, and customers could scan it with their smartphones to review you on the spot.
11. Phone call—kinda old-fashioned, but effective with the right kind of customer.
12. Part of a little gift that you send patients.  Like a free pad of paper with your logo and phone number on it, plus a request to leave you a quick review.  Or a fridge magnet.  A pen might be a little too small.  The gift has to be something people will actually use, keep on their desk or kitchen table, and see every day.  The idea is it’s a subtle but persistent reminder.
13. Asking your reviewers to write through a variety of sites.  In other words, if you know for a fact a given customer wrote you a Yelp review, ask that person to write you an InsiderPages review, too.  There are no rules against it.  In fact, the review sites themselves share reviews: I’ve seen CitySearch reviews show up on Bing, Judysbook, Kudzu, MerchantCircle, Switchboard, Yahoo, YellowBot, and YP.  Again, I suggest you only do this with really close, really loyal customers who don’t mind helping spread the good word.

These methods are NOT mutually exclusive, nor do you have to pick one or even just a few.  You can use as many of them as you’d like.  In fact, it’s best if you use a variety of them, so you get reviews on a variety of sites, and so you can determine over time what works best for you and your customers.

Please leave a comment or question below. Love to hear from you!

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Graig

While the answer may vary slightly depending on what you’re doing now and what online marketing you’ve done in the past (if at all), a Forbes study says dentists of all sizes should start with internet search. Average return per dollar spent, Dollar for dollar, Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) yields the best return on investment (ROI) for your marketing budget.

Forty-eight percent of professional marketers said that search engine optimization (SEO) was the best method for generating customers. More than one-half of marketers with budgets over $1 million agreed. If the big boys are doing it, then it’s a must for small businesses…

Dental practices are changing their spending priorities in the last six months to feature more viral video marketing, SEO, and behavioral targeting. BUT! There is one vital mistake that 99% of dental practices make when working with the internet. Is that they don’t see what they like in first few months or they get to the top of the rankings and just stop the ONGOING SEO. BIG MISTAKE! As you can see in the chart below, you will begin to dive off and lose all the momentum you created the prior months. Time and time again my best performing clients are the ones that are committed to staying visible online for the longest period of time, 12+ months.

So if you’ve been ignoring the internet or are a seasoned veteran. I suggest you don’t take the ROI of the internet lightly. Right now it’s the best bang for your marketing buck. As usual if you have any questions, need help with something or just want to leave some feedback. Please leave a comment below. I’ve also developed a neat little revenue calculator for you guys, so <<click here to get access to my calculator>>