How to turn a negative review site to your advantage and use it to actually grow your clinic.

I mentioned in the last blog that a technique that is commonly used to remove negative online reviews is to build mini-sites, optimizing them where they begin to rank high on Google and consequently, knocking down the negative review site so that they drop further and further in Google’s ranking so no one will find them.

Although this can be an effective technique, the problem lies in the fact that Google gives such authority to these sites and ranks them so high that it’s very hard to drop their ranking.  As such, it can take a very VERY long time to see results

Actual Post of a Chiropractor on RateMDs

In fact, by the time you’re able to bury these sites, it may be too late and you’ll have been forced to close down your clinic.

So action needs to be swift and effective and since the majority of your potential patients are going to see these reviews before coming to see you, you have turn these sites into your favor.

More important than being swift and effective, is that every step of your efforts have to be done correctly right from the start.

Actual Post of a Chiropractor on RateMDs

As mentioned in my last blog, having your patients respond to these negative comments with positive comments is a very powerful way.  However, since writing the last blog, I had a number of docs emailing me stating that instead of having their patients write a positive review, they did it themselves.  That is to say, the docs wrote fake reviews.

The result… they were called out on it!  Meaning, people posted on the thread that the doc wrote comments themselves and that they were completely fictional, therefore further destroying their credibility.  And overcoming this is unbelievably hard.  Sadly, even legitimate comments can be detrimental to you as they too can also be mistakenly called out as fake

But there is a better way and like I just mentioned, it’s by turning these harmful review site(s) into practice building and reputation building engines!

How do you do that?

Before I answer that, let me state this… in order to have skeptical people listen to you, you have talk to them where they are most at ease, most comfortable and more importantly, where they are most receptive and open to your message.

And where is that? 

At their home!

Now you’re probably saying “Why would anyone let me into their house to allow me to explain myself?”

Well, I’m not asking you to do that, but…

If you were to do that and they did let you in, you’d know for certain that they’re interested in hearing what you had to say, that they’d give you a chance to explain and that they’d probably be more willing to come to your office as a new patients after they heard your side of the story. Right? Right.

Well, fortunately with the technology of today, you can reach these people at their homes without even stepping inside.  And it comes in the way of “WEBINARS”.  That is, live online seminars that you can perform in front of your webcam that people can watch on their computers from the comfort of their home.

So going back to my last point, if people were to let you in their homes (by watching you live on their computer) aren’t they giving you a chance to explain yourself?  Wouldn’t they be more receptive to your message?  And wouldn’t they be more likely to give you a chance and book a consultation with you? 

Answer… Ya, they would be!

So here’s the simple and highly effective method to turn these negative online review sites to your benefit and build up your practice once again.

Simply write a post on the site, of course within the thread where all negative comments are, and say something to the effect…

“Hello All, This is Dr. X and I was told of these comments from a patient of mine who saw them.  Needless to say, I am shocked and saddened by these comments as we at {clinic name} have always made it our mission to provide the best care possible to our patients in a warm and loving environment.

Although, it’s impossible to help everyone, we do everything we can for all of our patients.  But there are some patients that have not been satisfied and have decided to post on this site. 

We would like to set the record straight and we invite everyone to watch and talk to us live online, from the comfort of your home, in an open Q&A format where I will answer all you questions and show you what our clinic is really like.

Please give us a chance to explain and join us on every {Date & Time} by going to {webinar domain} and just for taking the time to listen to us, we would also like to give you a special gift..
Yours,
Dr. X”

Before I get more into webinars, let me address the above invitation.

Again, these review sites are going to be ranked high on Google for a long, long time and you have to address these comments right away and show the readers that you have nothing to hide and that you want to re-establish your good name.

Write in an informal and humble manner so that you appear like real down to earth person and not some stuck up doctor.
Having positive comments is one thing, but allowing people to actually see you, relate to you and be able to have their concerns answered, is priceless and so much more powerful in re-establishing yourself.

Now, there are going to essentially be two types of people that are going to make a point of watching you. People who are wanting to hear you out and give you a chance to explain yourself and people that are curious to see the doc that everyone is bashing.

Either way, these are all potential new patients.  NOT ONLY THAT, but when these people get to know the real you and realize how caring you are and how you have been misrepresented, not only will they come in as potential patients, but they will spread the word about you AND may even write a positive post on the review site.

So over time, not only will you save your clinic from shutting down, but you’ll gain new patients and more importantly, the negative comments on the review site will simply be disregarded by visitors.
To be maximally effective, I recommend that you hold a live webinar every week for about 30 mins in order to reach as many people as you can.

Side Note:  Once you see how powerful webinars are, you will most likely continue to do them for all your Health Care Talks, Lunch & Learns, Health Care Booths etc. because you’ll not only will you be able to reach the people right in front of you,  but you’ll always be able to reach the 100’s if not 1000’s of people online.  Imagine how many new patients you can now potentially get!!

Where can you go to find a webinar service?

Well, there are several that you can find online.  One of the best is Gotomeeting, but for the most part, they are all quite good.  But there are a few drawbacks with these services.

1.    Cost: - Because you shave to pay every time you use their service, pay for the length of your webinar, the number of attendees and up-sell features (e.g. webinar host/co-ordinator) it can get quite expensive.

2.    Different Access Code - every time you hold a webinar, you’ll be given a different access code to give to your attendees. So instead of posting just one time for all your upcoming webinars, you’ll have to make several posts.  Problem with this is that review sites will most likely block your posts as they will be deemed similar.  As such, your future webinars won’t have attendees
.
3.    Webinar is not linked to your website – webinar services are not attachable or embeddable into your website.  This is a major downfall because viewer of your webinar may want to get more information about your clinic so having the webinar embedded into your website makes your information easily accessible to your visitors and increases the likelihood of them booking an appointment.  People are fundamentally lazy and the more steps it takes to get something, the less likely people will take action. So without having your webinar embedded, you will lose potential patients.

4.    No downloadable options – skeptical people generally will not make quick decisions nor making financial commitments.  So during  your webinar, viewers should have the option of downloading a Gift Certificate with some sort of promotional  offer (e.g. FREE examination and Initial treatment)

But there is a better way. A better webinar option and it successfully addresses all of the above issues and allows you to maximize your viewer-to-new patient conversion.

In addition, you can now hold as many webinars as you want and at any length of time as you want. 
And the best part… the cost is pennies!

Promodocs chiropractic website developers have created built-in website webinar feature (exclusive to Promodocs chiropractic websites) that allows you to direct viewers to your website to watch your live webinars without the need for access codes and continuous posts.    Thus making your posts much more effective in being able to reach a larger audience.

In addition, Promodocs chiropractic website designs have also incorporated into their websites Event Calendars where you can post upcoming webinars and events (e.g. Health Care Talks, Lunch & Learns, Trade show Booths etc.) that your online visitors can make note of and attend.

Lastly and more importantly, after performing your compelling webinar, your online viewers can take immediate action by utilizing your Promodocs Fillable Online Intake form and Online Patient Scheduler so that they can quickly and easily schedule an appointment with your office.

Thus having an all incompassing website webinar feature is so vitally important in getting new patients because you want to make everything easily accessible for your online visitors to book a consult after you have them pumped up about you and your clinic. 

Of course the decision is up to you.  So whether you use a Promodocs site or a webinar service, it is imperative that you take action immediately, allow visitors of the negative review sites to get to know the real you and to build back up your clinic.