If you are wondering how to get Google reviews for your healthcare business, you are not alone. The average healthcare business owner or manager regularly wonders how to get Google reviews yet few take the actions necessary to inspire such reviews. Honest write-ups about your healthcare business are an underutilized yet extremely important marketing tool for healthcare businesses. After all, 88% of consumers trust online reviews just as much as they trust personal recommendations. Reviews provide the all-important element of social proof, meaning they are one of the key principles of persuasion.
Numerous studies showcase the importance of online reviews. However, this article is not meant to show what reviews can do for your healthcare facility. Rather, the purpose of this content is to teach you how to get Google reviews and subsequently bring new leads to your website and get more patients to your facility.
Recognize the Challenge of Convincing Clients to Post Reviews
Inspiring customers to invest the time and effort necessary to write online reviews of your healthcare business can be challenging. Most customers are not enthusiastic about spending their limited time detailing the merits of a business. Some customers are hesitant to add their name to such a review.
However, making a concerted effort to get more Google reviews for your healthcare business is well worth it. After all, today’s customers take Google reviews quite seriously when selecting a healthcare services provider. Let’s take a look at how to get more Google reviews for your healthcare company.
There is No Shame in Requesting Google Reviews
Instead of Googling “how to get Google reviews” and researching the topic for hours, take decisive action by encouraging your clients to post reviews. As long as these reviews are written by clients who will sing the praises of your healthcare company’s merits, they will be a benefit to your online listing.
As soon as a satisfied client wraps up his or her treatment at your company, you have a prime opportunity to encourage him or her to post a review of your business to Google and the other online review directories. This is the best time for such a request as the client has your unique service or product squarely in mind, meaning his or her review will prove that much more positive and detailed.
It is a mistake to pressure clients into posting online reviews of your healthcare business. However, you can certainly nudge clients toward doing so. A quick and polite suggestion or request for an honest review will encourage satisfied clients to sing the praises of your company, ultimately setting the stage for your healthcare services or products to help even more people.
If you are on the fence as to whether it is worth the effort to encourage clients to write reviews of your company, consider the fact that 96% of local businesses on Google My Business are viewed at least 25 times each month. More than 85% of such businesses are visited at least 25 times per month on Google Maps. Exactly 80% of local business searches are on mobile devices. It is imperative that your healthcare organization is prominently featured on Google My Business and Google Maps.
Provide Your Healthcare Clients With Plenty of Information
The puzzle of “How to get Google reviews?” is partially solved by providing clients with ample information. Every one of your healthcare clients should go home with a discharge folder, packet or another form of information that gives plenty of information about what your company offers. This folder contains resources, tips and other information that will help keep your clients as healthy as possible.
The package should also contain a pamphlet that reminds the clients to leave a Google review. This pamphlet is for the client just as much as it is for his or her family members. Family members have just as much incentive to leave a positive review of your healthcare business as their loved one.
Think about the information you provide to your clients after treating them. This information has the potential to make the difference between satisfied clients who invest the time necessary to post a review of your company on the web and those who simply forget about your company. Even if only one family member reads the information in the package, the chances of a subsequent online review are much higher. The point is that these pamphlets will be scanned and might even motivate the client or a family member to respond with a glowing review.
The moral of this story is to continue engaging the clients even after they leave the facility. Ongoing engagement greatly enhances the chances of clients posting online reviews and converting that many more online visitors into clients.
Send Follow-Up Emails
Requesting a review is certainly important yet it is easy to forget to make such a request. Furthermore, some clients will forget about writing a review between the time when they leave your healthcare facility and the time at which they return home
Email marketing and sending follow-up emails is one of the most proven techniques to ask for Google reviews. The goal is to plant the seed in clients’ minds. Once the client returns home and settles in, send a follow-up email as a reminder of your service and the desire for an online review.
This follow-up email may not be specifically designed to motivate the client to leave a review. Rather, the follow-up message could take the form of an alumni email or follow-up appointment email that keeps the client connected with the healthcare facility and other recovery tools. However, this is a fantastic opportunity to remind the client to post a review to the web.
Quality Service Is Your Best Marketing Tool
There is nothing manipulative about encouraging clients to write a review of your healthcare business. Web marketers often rely on data, demographics and statistics to persuade prospective clients. The internet essentially becomes an extension of your healthcare company when personal interaction is provided in combination with quality service. The quality of your healthcare company’s online reviews is symbolic of your client interactions and top-notch service.
Positive reviews will lead to even more reviews. These glowing reviews set the stage for the branding your healthcare company needs to steer that many more leads to your business.
Provide exemplary services, follow up with clients soon thereafter, be patient and the reviews will come in due time.
