One of the most important strategies My Social Practice has worked to develop and perfect is how to get more dental reviews for our clients. Why, because the practices that have the most reviews get the most new patient phone calls. It’s that simple folks.

Having a strong online reputation makes your practice stand out from the competition. So, how do you get more dental reviews? Check out this blog to find out.

Independent studies as well as our own research, show that reviews have a larger impact than ever on dental practice growth than ever. Your potential patients will make a decision on whether to visit your practice or not based on your online reputation.

Not only do reviews make a great first impression with your future patients, but online dental patient reviews will also help you rank in local search results.

BrightLocal’s recent study sheds more light on how online reviews significantly influence the growth of small businesses. Every year, there is a dramatic rise on the impact online reviews have on a business’s reputation and visibility. Not only do dental practices need reviews to be found in search results but they also need them to validate their services and professionalism to current patients.

There are a few new statistics in the study that we think are especially interesting for dental practices.

• 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses
• 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
• Nearly 7 out of 10 consumers will write a review of a local business if asked

This study also found that for dental practice specifically, 86% of dental patients look at online reviews before making a decision, and 85% of people think online reviews are the most valuable source of social proof  on the internet.

The answer is to have as many positive online dental patient reviews as you can.

1. Before we dive into how to get more dental reviews, take a moment to assess your current online reviews presence.
2. Do you have Google and Facebook business profiles?
3. When was your latest positive review posted?
4. Have you had a team discussion about how to get Google reviews for your dental office?
5. Are you setting goals to ask patients to share their experiences?
6. Do you use software to make getting more dental patient reviews easy for both your team and patients?

Whether you have a steady stream of reviews, or you are just getting started, these tips will show you how to get more dental reviews. If your practice doesn’t have many online reviews, don’t worry! It’s never too late to start.

BrightLocal’s survey found that people researching local businesses are likely to use more than one online reviews service in their decision-making process.

Start by creating profiles on the three most prominent online reviews services: Google My Business, Facebook and HealthGrades. Add your profile picture, address, hours, and other information that will make it easy for a patient to find you and leave a review, or for a potential patient to learn more and contact you.

One of the quickest ways to burn out in your reviews effort is to tell your team “OK everyone, we need to get out there today and ask for lots of reviews!”

Instead, set your team up for success by pulling up the day’s schedule and reviewing who is coming in. Identify one or two of your patients who love your practice and you suspect would be happy to leave you a review. Make specific assignments on which team member will ask them for a review and have them report back on how it went.

You know how crucial honest feedback and reviews are for building your practice. Let patients know how much you rely on reviews to improve your service and find more great patients like them.

Remember, if you’re not asking for reviews, chances are you’ll only get one when a patient is unhappy! Dental practice who wonder how to get more dental reviews miss the opportunity to ask patients face-to-face.

These guidelines are the perfect plan to start building your review strategy. As more patients turn to online reviews when deciding between local businesses (over 90 percent according to the survey!), you need a practice reviews plan that is easy to stick to.

Using a reviews software simplifies things by allowing you to send review requests right to your patients phone with the correct Google link. If you’re wondering how to get more dental reviews a large part is to make it easy.

Make it easy for your team to send a review request to your patient before the leave the chair or, automate the process.

My Social Practice can help your practice obtain more reviews. MSP Reviews makes it simple to get reviews from patients while they are still in your practice. Learn more by downloading our free reviews ebook below, and contact us for a free demo of MSP Reviews today!