A large number of online reviews will help your practice rank better in search results. But it’s the quality of the reviews that will convince patients to choose you over your competitor. It is important to know how to use feedback to improve customer service for dentists. We’ll explain how to interpret feedback from customers and how to use customer feedback to improve performance:

  • Be specific
  • Find the easiest way
  • Ask about the good and the bad
  • Keep an eye on competitors
  • Respond to reviews

How to use feedback to improve customer service:

Request reviews from all your patients

According to a patient experience survey, 71% of patients use online reviews as a first step in finding a new doctor.

You should always request feedback from all your patients, irrespective of how satisfied or unsatisfied they seem. When patients look up online reviews, they expect to see some criticism.  This can prove that the reviews are fair and honest.

By getting feedback from every single one of your patients, you ensure that your online reputation grows. Feedback is based on real experiences by real patients, rather than fake reviews. Do make it a point to respond to the negative online reviews. Acknowledge valid concerns, and correct the reviewer if they happen to be incorrect with factual information.

Be specific for more detailed reviews

In most cases, patients write short reviews or just give a star rating, without going into a lot of detail. Most of the time, this is simply because they don’t know what they should write.  Send emails and text messages to your patients asking them to review your practice.

Make sure that you also suggest questions that they can potentially answer in their online review. For dental practices, this means asking them about details. This might include the treatment, the appointment booking process,  and waiting time. Rather than just a star rating, you’ll get more specific and detailed reviews.

Find the easiest way for your patients to provide feedback

Not many patients are willing to sign-up on a platform that they are not familiar with. A great way to get quality online reviews is to ask your patients to use an online review platform. This can be a user-friendly approach as it allows patients to easily write a review.

This bypasses patients having to create a new account. Making things easy will mean that patients can be finished writing their reviews within minutes of receiving your request via email.

Ask about the good and the bad in their experience

You should not shy away from requesting details about areas they feel need improvement. A detailed review that focuses on both the good and the bad, will give you valuable insight into how your practice is received by potential new patients. An honest and in-depth review will also help you get much-needed feedback directly from your current patients, which you can use to improve your services for them in the future.  

Keep an eye on your dental practice competitors

As well as going through all the feedback you have received from your patients, you should also focus on what patients are saying about your competitors. This will help you identify the areas where you perform better than them. You can use the details from your patient’s reviews to get an idea of what your strengths are, compared to your competition. It will also help you identify problem areas that you can improve, in order to outmatch your competitor.

Consider reading How to get more dental reviews & top 6 dentist review sites.

Respond to your patients’ reviews

Once your patient has taken the time to write a review of your dental practice, you should make sure that you send them a response in a timely fashion. Especially if it includes both positive and negative points, as detailed reviews will provide you with the most useful insights and things to discuss with the patient.

Responding to comments will not just show that you care about improving your practice and ensuring all your patients are happy, it also shows that you are open to receiving feedback, and are proactive in making necessary changes to improve your practice.

Responding to online reviews also increases the perceived quality of the existing review, as it will now have your informative response attached as well. When you get to know how to use feedback to improve customer service, it translates into improving your reputation as well.