Managing Your Practice’s Online Reputation

We live in a digital age. It is nearly impossible for us to navigate throughout our days without technology dictating at least a segment of our waking hours. With a vast majority of individuals on the web, it is important for practices to focus on their online reputation. Managing, or mismanaging, your organization’s online reputation can make or break your business.

What is online reputation management?

Online reputation management (ORM) is the process of strategizing and enacting processes to influence the public’s perception of your practice, organization, or business through the use of the internet. ORM is typically utilized as a means to increase business, revenue, sales, or services for an organization.

Strategies

When it comes to strategizing how to manage your practice online reputation, we have a few tips…

1. Be Present – In order for your practice to manage an online presence, you have to have an online presence! This means creating and maintaining a Google My Business account with accurate business hours, phone number, and physical address. If you have the bandwidth to manage social media pages, take strides to do so. We recommend strategizing a way to be present on Facebook at a minimum.
2. Be Engaged – When people think of ORM, they often think of social media. Social media is a great way to show your audience that you are listening, active, and engaged with their thoughts, feelings, and opinions. For example, if a patient states on your Facebook page that they waited several hours to be seen for a scheduled appointment, this would be a great opportunity for someone to reach out through a direct message. The administrator for the page needs to comment on that post and state that they will be reaching out directly and apologize for their bad experience. This shows your whole audience that you are engaged with the patients who express issues, not just those who exhibit praise.
3. Be Honest – Honest online reputation management strategies are important. You will not always receive positive reviews. At times, you will have to work hard to eradicate the reviews you receive that drive down your overall score. You should always try and resolve the cause of bad reviews with a customer if they can be solved. Sometimes these bad reviews may stem from misunderstandings, support issues, or wait times. There will also be times where the reviews you receive will be completely subjective and unfairly biased. Prepare your team for negative reviews and expect to experience some that are out of your control.

Quick Tips for Online Reputation Management

• Take a step back… where do you currently search for information on brands or businesses? Potential patients to your practice are likely to search for your organization the same way.
• Utilize a blog, if you have not done so yet, to build credibility in the market and move yourself up in SEO rankings.
• Keep track of what people are saying about the providers at your practice outside of your organization’s social media pages and web page.
• Not all negative reviews are the end of the world! Use these remarks to grow your business and make improvements where improvements need made.
  • Then, find ways to flood feeds with positive content about all of the great things your practice does for your patients and the community.
• Investing time and money into an SEO strategy helps increase your efforts if you are taking the time to aggressively build out an online reputation management plan.

At the end of the day, your practice’s online reputation matters. As most consumers continue to find their content digitally and base their decisions off of online reviews, your practice needs to be visible in a positive light. You can take steps towards managing your online reputation today.

Are you looking to outsource your online reputation management needs? MicroMD solutions partner, Demandforce can help. Visit MicroMD.com/Marketplace today for more information or call us at 800.624.8832.