How to Get More 5-Star Patient Reviews (In 5 Steps)

How do you get more 5-star patient reviews? It’s a question that every dental practice needs to know the answer to. Patient reviews are a useful benchmark for how well your dental practice is performing. Equally important, they help get more patients in the door. For example, in this study from PatientPop, 75% of respondents have searched for providers online. 74% of them said that online reviews are “very” or “extremely” important.

Let’s look at three steps your practice can take to get more 5-star patient reviews.

Step 1: Follow the Golden Rule

Obviously, treatment quality is the baseline for generating 5-star patient reviews. You can’t expect patients to say nice things online if the treatment you provided didn’t fix their dental issues.

But even if you provide top-notch dentistry, you won’t get 5-star reviews unless everyone in you

r office follows the Golden Rule in their patient interactions. Put yourself in the patient’s shoes (or chair, in this case), and tr

eat them the way you would like to be treated. Patient experience is what determines your practice’s online reputation. Good patient experiences lead to happy, satisfied patients who are more likely to leave a 5-star review.

Your patients may not be able to evaluate your dentistry on its technical merits as a colleague would, but they can (and will) evaluate how you and your office make them feel while they’re being treated.

Step 2: Choose Patient-Friendly Communication Options.

Ask your patients which contact methods they prefer. If you think that snail mail and telephone calls are the best way to keep in touch, their answers may surprise you!

These days, talking on the phone is out. In fact, according to Open Market “75% of millennials would rather lose the ability to talk versus text.“

Messaging is in . . . and that goes for dentists, too. In fact, according to a study from SolutionReach, 79% of patients want to receive text messages from their healthcare providers.

So, when it comes to reducing no-shows, SMS and email reminders are quickly becoming a necessity rather than a “nice to have.” OperaDDS powered by Vyne Dental has easy SMS and email reminders proven to help reduce no-shows. Research shows that email reminders can reduce patient no-shows by up to 35%, and SMS reminders can reduce them by up to 38%.

Step 3 : Streamline Billing and Claims Processing

Everybody likes surprises…unless they are surprise bills, that is. We all know that insurance is complex and insurance companies are frustrating to deal with. But when patients receive unexpected bills in the mail, it will often affect their satisfaction with your practice.

Vyne Dental helps you process claims efficiently and get paid faster, helping reduce the likelihood of patients receiving unpleasant surprises in the mail.

Step 4 : Go Beyond the Basics

Beyond the basics of courtesy, kindness and empathy, patients are happier if their dentist’s office runs efficiently.

If your practice isn’t running smoothly, that will impact your patients, no matter how hard you try to keep the drama behind the scenes. When your team is running on empty, they have less to give to patients. And a disorganized or chaotic office inevitably leads to bottlenecks that negatively impact the patient experience…and your online reviews.

For example, in one 2014 survey, 25% of patients said they used online reviews to evaluate how long they were likely to wait for an appointment with a healthcare provider. If you keep your existing patients waiting longer than necessary, there’s a good chance you’re running off potential patients before their first phone call.

If you want to get more patient referrals and positive patient feedback, you need an organized office that runs like clockwork.

Paperless Practices Are More Efficient

Generally speaking, the less paperwork your office has to deal with, the happier your patients and your team will be. That’s why OperaDDS Solutions Powered by Vyne Dental offers paperless form solutions to streamline the process of gathering information. With OperaDDS Solutions Powered by Vyne Dental, patients can fill out forms directly from their beloved phones. You can send forms before a visit, reducing the amount of time spent on paperwork in-office. And you can collect consent digitally, too.

Reducing the amount of paper that has to be dealt with reduces the administrative burden on your team and helps security.

Step 5 : Ask For Reviews

Once you’ve perfected your chairside manner and you know your office is consistently providing an excellent patient experience, it’s time to begin asking for reviews. Patients are much more likely to leave reviews if you request that they do so. In fact, according to a recent DentistryIQ article, “Google My Business users see an average one-star increase when they ask new patients for reviews.”

Of course, finding time to ask during a visit can be challenging, and your patients may agree only to experience instant amnesia as they walk out your office doors.

That’s why automated online review requests are so powerful. However, if a patient has had a negative experience, it’s better to solicit those reviews privately, so that you can resolve negative feedback without a public airing of grievances for the whole world to see.

OperaDDS Solutions Powered by Vyne Dental’s automated review solicitations are carefully designed to encourage satisfied patients to leave public reviews on Google or Facebook, while encouraging unhappy patients to talk to you privately first.

To Get More 5-Star Patient Reviews, The Choice Is Yours

Patient reviews can make or break your practice. The choice is yours. If your team creates a positive patient experience, your practice will reap the rewards online and off.

For more information about how OperaDDS Solutions Powered by Vyne Dental can help, contact us today.

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