What’s the relevance of Google reviews?
A lot of people are thinking that everybody’s saying home. So, let’s talk about COVID, and let’s get to the elephant in the middle of the room and discuss it. And so, people think, “Why do I care about Google reviews? Everybody’s staying home – it doesn’t matter.” But it’s more relevant than ever – because people are staying home.
With doctors, healthcare providers, physicians, dentists, and other people with practices, people are going to go to Google first. They’re going to look for certain things right now. Are patients playing it safe there? Is there social distancing? And people will believe those reviews. So, yes, it’s important to have something to be able to post on your social media, but also, it’s that word of mouth. People go to Google first because they’re not finding what they need from the doctors themselves – because it’s not being posted on social. It actually works hand in hand. But they’re going to go to Google – because Google’s always last stop before the phone call.
If we’re thinking about what a customer or potential customer is doing. First, they go to social, and then they might ask their friends and family for recommendations. Finally, they’re going to Google and check that business out – especially now when we’re all home.
Do you think enough practices have maximized their Google reviews? How many Google reviews should someone be aiming for?
No, as a matter of fact, it’s an interesting dichotomy. A lot of doctors want to go to HealthGrades and promote themselves there. The problem with that is if they move practices, they need the actual address to come up. People are going to look at local before they know a doctor’s name.
Are you like me and hit Google before you hit just about anywhere else? It’s the way of the world – and it’s exactly why Google reviews are essential.
Part of getting reviews has to be organic. You don’t want people to ask patients to leave a Google review while they’re sitting in your office. Google will actually ding you because you don’t want the review coming from the same IP address that the website is on. Wait until they get home. Send them a follow-up email, and then ask them to leave that review. You should be aiming for three to four organic ones a month – and know that you actually have to ask a lot of patients in order to get three or four.
People are busy. So, it’s seeing the sign, or the doctor or the front desk asking and giving them a card that leaves with them. Then follow up with an email with the actual link in it. And here’s the thing about it, doctors sometimes don’t like to get reviews because they feel like they’re going to be negative. And that’s true because doctors don’t ask for them.
When a patient is happy, and you solved their problems, and they’re feeling better – that’s the time to have the doctor ask, give them the card, and follow up with the email. And what I suggest is going to a landing page – not directly to your review site. Because if there is an issue, they can choose whether or not they’re happy. If they’re not happy, they can then email instead of going to that review site. But if they’re happy – share all of the links to your review sites.
Not sending people to review sites is a great idea! You can send them to a landing page, and if they have a positive review to send, it takes them to the review page. If they have a negative review, it takes them to a form or an option to send an email so that you can help resolve their problem. And this can be for any business!
What do you see as some mistakes to avoid?
Don’t send everybody to the same review site.
On your landing page, you want to have Facebook, and you want to have Google. I don’t really recommend Yelp anymore. If you’re a doctor, you want to have Healthgrades. And you do this because you want to give people options. You want people to feel comfortable with the platform and where they’re sharing a review. You want to ask them for connections if they want a leave a LinkedIn recommendation. Because if you just send it to one, and they’re not on it, or they don’t know how to use it, you’ve lost that review. So, that’s one of the biggest mistakes.
The other thing is not utilizing those great reviews on your social media. Make sure you repurpose that content to tell a story. It can be a very, very general story, such as what it’s like to come into your practice.
Storytelling is so important when it comes to social media and marketing nowadays. You can use reviews as part of your storytelling.
3 Action Steps
- Send clients to a landing page where they can be directed to contact you if they are unhappy with the service or can continue to the review site(s) if they are happy.
- Give people options of where they can write a review.
- Repurpose your reviews on your social media as a means to tell a story.
Connect with Wendy Manganaro at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/socialabundancemarketing/ or https://wendymanganaro.as.me/claritycall
Please comment below. I would love to hear from you.
-Nettie
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