Attention Dentists: 3 Reasons Why Embracing Online Patient Reviews Will Boost Your Practice

Aside from a great website, patient-friendly content, and informative blogs, one of the best ways to create a virtual foundation for your dental practice is through online customer reviews. Apart from giving you a well-deserved confidence boost (after all, who doesn't like something good said about them) they have many other benefits. And they will grow your practice by funneling new patients on a weekly basis!

Let's take a closer look...

1. Positive reviews build trust.

Perhaps one of the most difficult factors that dental practices must deal with is one of trust. Let's face it, for many patients, a trip to the dentist probably isn't one they're likely to relish. Instead, some people (as many as one in three, if sources are to be believed) suffer from some degree of anxiety leading up to an appointment. Therefore, when a person visits your site, and they see or hear examples of REAL patients talking about REAL dental experiences positively, it creates an air of trust between the dentist and patient and is something that will in turn resonate with them. 

While dental reviews are a powerful way to bridge that all-important trust gap, they can also present you as the experienced 'go to' dentist in your area. When you look at it from this perspective, it's easy to see how, when done correctly, patient reviews are one of the best weapons you can have in your marketing arsenal.

No doubt you’re already aware of the #1 most looked at review source online – Google! Second up, is Yelp, of course.

If you’re not consistently working to grow your practice’s positive reviews on both of those platforms, your competitors are outmaneuvering you. In fact, have you noticed one of your competitors skyrocketed on Yelp recently? Did that unexpected jump cost you some worthy patients? It’s highly likely that the competitor in question is using our legal and ethical Yelp Boosting Service.

2. Positive reviews are great for the team.

It's fair to say that the success of any dental practice is only as good as the team within. However, being a customer-facing business it's inevitable that you're going to come across patients who are let's just say.... out to make life a little more challenging. This can in some instances lower the overall morale of the team and make your job that much harder.

Conversely, patient reviews have the opposite effect. Because the patient has cared enough about your service to feel compelled to write and tell you, it makes you feel worthwhile. Also, it offers a psychological boost for you and your team.

What's more, positive reviews can often be traced back to a particular person or service that they gave, so you could offer a small prize or bonus to that person for doing a great job or going above and beyond the call of duty.

Aside from making your employees feeling valued, it also makes your practice a fun place to work, and who doesn't want that?

3. Reviews help with SEO.