Healthcare online reputation management best practices for success

The healthcare industry has never been more competitive. Attracting new patients and retaining existing ones poses a significant challenge for every business. Effective healthcare online reputation management holds the key to overcoming this hurdle. 

Patients like to consider their options while choosing a provider. A recent Birdeye study shows that: 

• 47% of local business searches are for a healthcare provider
• 65% of customers rely on search engines while making a decision 
• A negative review deters 87% of consumers from working with the provider 

Which means having a solid reputation across review websites, social media, and online forums can tilt the scales in your favor. 

Building and maintaining an online reputation can be a challenging space for healthcare businesses with confidentiality, privacy, and security regulations in place. However, it is achievable with the right strategies and tools. 

This blog post helps you build and scale your online reputation to acquire more patients for your practice. 

What is healthcare reputation management?

Healthcare reputation management is a strategy that allows physicians, clinics, and hospitals to establish, monitor, and maintain a strong online reputation to boost the brand value. This includes soliciting customer reviews, managing multiple business listings, improving patient experience, and boosting your search engine presence. 

Building a healthcare reputation management strategy: A step-by-step guide 

Reputation management is not a one-and-done practice. To stay ahead, businesses need to constantly stay on their toes and employ a proactive strategy to safeguard their reputation. Here’s what a good healthcare reputation management strategy looks like: 

• Building online reputation

The first step in your strategy is to identify opportunities for building an online reputation. This includes creating online listings for your practice on Google, Bing, Apple Maps, Facebook, and other niche review sites. 

Once the listings are up and running, ensure that you post necessary information such as consultation hours, services provided, and start solicing customer reviews on these sites.  

• Monitoring the online buzz

Once the listings and customer review sites are up, it is also important to monitor what your audience is saying on these platforms. That comes with setting up alerts on Google, turning on notifications on review sites, and using review monitoring tools. 

• Maintaining the reputation

Maintaining a strong online reputation requires ongoing effort. Beyond monitoring listings, scaling your reputation demands regular updates, prompt review responses, and active social media engagement. By proactively managing your online presence, you can create a lasting, positive impression that attracts and retains customers. 

• Recovering from setbacks

Online reputation of a healthcare business depends largely on what your customers are saying about you. That makes it important for you to stay on top of negative reviews or angry comments on social media. The key is to instantly respond, tackle the issue, and ensure the customer experience changes to revise the sentiment. 

How does reputation management impact business growth?

A strong healthcare reputation management helps practices improve patient acquisition rates, retain more patients, boost brand value on social media, increase conversion rates, and reduce advertising spending. 

Some of the other benefits of online reputation management for healthcare businesses are: 

1. It instills confidence in your brand. People trust positive reviews the way they trust recommendations from friends and family. 
2. A strong reputation builds credibility and gives your clinic a competitive advantage. If your competitors aren’t showing up as positively or frequently as you are, you’ve effectively tipped the balance in your favor.
3. Having an online reputation management strategy allows you to stay on patient feedback and take corrective measures if necessary. 
4. You can boost your advertising conversion rates and reduce the overall cost by adding review ratings to your Google ads. 
5. Seeing you take your reputation seriously makes patients believe you care about feedback. 

How to manage and improve your healthcare online reputation: 5 proven methods to follow

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your online presence won’t be either. But don’t let that overwhelm you! With Birdeye, you can turn your online reputation management strategy into a well-oiled machine. Here are some tips to get you started: 

Build your web presence

An authentic and optimized web presence ensures that customers find your website before any other third-party website. This way, you can showcase your achievements, the best doctors you have, and the glowing reviews your patients have left to you. 

A strong website also ensures that:

• Listing sites can verify your information (especially NAP: Name, address, and phone number) easily. 
• You can guide your potential leads to third-party review sites and your social media accounts to know more about your brand.
• You can showcase your services and persuade patients to walk through your door.

Claim your business listings 

Third-party listing or review sites usually create profiles for successful healthcare businesses. However, they won’t help you unless you claim these profiles to control the narrative, engage your audience, and boost your visibility. 

71% of consumers reported having a negative experience because of incorrect local business information found online. Verify the accuracy of your business listings with Birdeye’s local scan tool now. 

By claiming your business listings, you can:

• Ensure all your listings have accurate business information displayed
• Respond to all customer reviews 
• Report any fake or inappropriate customer reviews 
• Update the listings whenever you launch a new service or location 

“Birdeye brings the cacophony of 50+ location directory listing and reputation management down to a harmonious blend through a single, intuitive platform. Birdeye’s solution has given me the perspective I need to effectively manage our expansive footprint. ”

Ken Norquist, Axia Women’s Health

Manage your reviews 

Customer reviews are the cornerstone of your online reputation. How you handle them makes all the difference between a lack-luster and shining online presence. It is important for your healthcare business to pay due attention to all first-party and third-party patient reviews. 

First-party vs. third-party reviews in healthcare 

First-party reviews are patient feedback on your website, social media page, or survey forms. With consent, you can share them across all customer touchpoints and marketing materials. 

Third-party reviews are testimonials patients share on review sites, business listings, or forums. You can reply to them and share them unless the forums prohibit you from doing so. 

We were looking for a system with which we could consistently generate a flow of reviews from our patients that would automatically get posted to Google or Facebook as well. Birdeye did all this and more. 

Roxana Boboescu Cenegenics Elite Health

Here’s how can you manage your reviews to boost online reputation: 

Automate review collection 

Online reviews help your practice rank higher and win more patients. Birdeye’s reputation management software automates the process of collecting reviews so you can maximize your results with minimal effort. 

Monitor and respond to reviews 

Turn on the notifications to all review sites, Google listings, Apple Maps, Bing, and social media platforms. Everytime your business gets a mention, you should know about it and be ready to take action. 

Ensure that every customer gets a response, irrespective of the sentiment in the review. Large multi-location healthcare practices can set up automated responses to scale the process and streamline operations. 

Use reviews for marketing

Turn your glowing reviews into powerful social posts. By showcasing positive testimonials across various channels, you further solidify your credibility and expand your reach to new audiences. 

Birdeye integrates with over 3000 software solutions and leading practice management systems, including Nextech, NextGen, ACOM Health, and more. And it’s fully HIPPA compliant, so you don’t have to worry about unnecessary legal headaches. 

Ticketing for negative reviews 

Happy customer reviews go into social media posts and landing pages, but it is equally important what you do with negative reviews. A strong online reputation comes from tackling them head on and turning that angry customer into a recurring name in your phone book. 

We recommend working with a ticketing system that alerts the relevant department (as per the workflow you set up) and your customer success representative. That way, you can work on the issue and keep your patients informed that you hear them and are willing to make amends. 

Integrate them into Google Seller Ratings 

Organic listings and a strong web presence get your foot in the door but if you do invest in Google ads, showcasing reviews with your business name can give you a bigger advantage. With the Google Seller Ratings program, you can display your average star rating with the advertisement, boost click-rates, and optimize ad spend.

Establish a presence on social media

Birdeye study shows that 58% of consumers would be indifferent to a business without an online presence. Additionally, your Gen Z and Millennial patients are unlikely to make a decision about choosing your practice without checking your social media pages. It is clear that a strong social media presence is a crucial piece of your online reputation and deserves attention. 

Multi-location businesses must ensure they have location-specific pages so that your target audience can find you easily. This also makes booking appointments or resolving conflicts so much easier. 

Birdeye is a built-for-local AI-driven social media management tool that simplifies location-based marketing across multiple platforms with bulk posting, personalization tokens, and a unified dashboard. Try the free demo to know more. 

Improve patient interactions and overall experience 

A great way to proactively handle your online reputation is to get ahead of the game in patient communications and experience. Superior experiences automatically translate into a more positive online reputation. 

Some of the challenges across patient communications include:

• Managing communication across multiple channels 
• Streamlining appointment scheduling process including reminders, follow-ups, and setting up recurring appointments
• Maintaining HIPAA compliance while ensuring cross-functional processes such as billing and patient relations 
• Enabling your in-clinic team to provide streamlined and quality interactions by integrating the CRM and appointment systems into their everyday practice. 

By using a A Icustomer experience solution like Birdeye, healthcare providers can:

• Manage omni channel communication with our unified inbox
• Maintain HIPAA compliance while sending bills, collecting payments, and soliciting reviews
• Automate appointment management and ensure 24×7 self-service for better experience 
• Leverage AI to audit patient interactions, summarize conversations, and analyze the sentiment across reviews and surveys 
• Quickly spot and resolve issues patients bring up across channels 

Important review sites for healthcare reputation management

Whether someone is looking for a mental health provider, an urgent care center, or a primary care provider, choosing a medical professional is a deeply personal — and sometimes nerve-wracking — decision. By showing up on relevant review platforms, you help patients feel confident and make informed decisions. In addition to heavy hitters like Facebook and Google, you should also consider industry-specific platforms like Healthgrades,  Zocdoc, and Vitals. 

FAQ: Healthcare reputation management

Birdeye: Leaders in healthcare reputation management solutions

Birdeye’s online reputation management healthcare solutions make it easy to build a stand-out digital presence. From automating review collection and response processes to maintaining a consistent presence on social media and beyond, adding Birdeye to your toolkit will help you gain a competitive edge, win patient trust, and grow your business. 

Ready to get started? Learn more here.