As the owner of a medical practice, you should know how important testimonials are. These special reviews from your patients form the backbone of your marketing strategy. This special form of word of mouth is essential to the good reputation you enjoy. Thanks to modern tech, there’s a whole new way to maximize this good will.
If you type in a search for “Raleigh heart specialists”, you’re bound to come up with a listing of practices in that area. Next to each of these listings will be their contact info and a star rating. The stars come from reviews that people have left in various places, chiefly review sites like Google My Business.
As you can easily guess, the more positive reviews you receive, the higher your rating will be. You can be sure that this will have a direct effect on how many clicks you get to your website. This is the kind of service that Google can provide in order to help you maximize your exposure and profits in your local area.
In order to get these positive reviews, you will first need to set up your Google account. This is easy enough to do. Once you have done so, your next step will be to enable your practice to receive Google reviews from anyone who cares to write one. The way to do so is to establish a listing on Google My Business.
This is a site where business and medical practice owners can advertise their services to a local audience. After you have made your Google My Business account, simply click on to your local area. It will be easy enough to list your practice. You will want to include your contact info, a capsule description, and a few handy photos or videos.
Once you have set up your account, you will need to verify it. This is the final step of the process. Google will provide you with easy to follow instructions. All you need to do is take the steps provided to you. Once you have done so, you will have a fully active and verified Google My Business account that can easily receive reviews.
Now that your Google account is up and running, you need to do all in your power to get your patients to leave positive reviews. You can do this by sending an email to your patient asking them to rate their general opinions of your services. A positive patient testimonial will go a long way toward helping to establish your credibility.
There is no need to hit them right away with a request for a review. Wait a few days, then send them an email or a postcard in the mail. They are going to need to contact you again in order to arrange for a follow up visit to make sure all is well. This is the perfect time to gently ask for a positive review on Google.
Of course, there is also a potential flipside to this situation. Your patient may end up leaving you a negative review on Google. While this is bound to happen, there are ways to minimize the effects. For example, you can flag a bad review to bring its credibility into question.
Google may get back to you in order to find out why you received such a bad review. If this occurs, you need to be sure to give them all of the info you can. You also need to lay out your case as clearly and specifically as possible. This is your best shot at getting Google to remove or obscure the review from easy access.
If Google doesn’t contact you, you can still respond personally to the review. This is your best chance to convince readers not to heed a single bad review.
When it comes to maintaining a solidly positive reputation, you need to work at it. This is one aspect of your outreach that isn’t going to maintain itself. You need to encourage patients to leave excellent reviews on your website, social media pages, and various Google listings. The more of these you receive, the better.
If your practice is located in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, or Durham, we can help. Best Edge Medical Marketing is committed to giving you the best professional SEO service in the North Carolina area. Get in touch with us today to learn more about what we can do on behalf of your medical practice.
Best Edge Medical Marketing is a medical marketing agency that provides marketing, SEO, design, and development services to businesses in the medical industry.
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