Should Dentists Buy Google Reviews?

My Name Is Dr. No…I’m A Dentist & I Buy Fake Google Reviews

 

Dentists Can’t Buy Google Reviews…

Actually that is totally incorrect; you can buy Google reviews for your dental practice. But should you?

We’re actually running a special on online dentist reviews this week, Buy 3 Get 3 Free!

What our revolutionary program does is take a couple few hundred dollars of your money, and then contract some child labor overseas to post reviews (not in their native language of course) to Google for a dollar or five…

Sounds like a great revenue model, no?

Don’t Be THAT Dentist!

The Local Google landscape has undergone many changes in recent months, from the Google gods doing away with the Zagat scoring system to more recently devaluing your local Google presence in favor of showcasing more reviews, but how is the average dentist supposed to keep up with the Jonses?

Not by purchasing reviews, that’s for sure.

Dentists Buying (Fake) Google Reviews

 

Sure, your dental practice probably gets inundated with sales calls every day from opportunistic if not entirely altruistic marketers looking to take advantage of your ignorance by mentioning marketing buzzwords (reputation management, online reviews, Google plus local, yelp…etc.) combined with misleading false (did we mention fraudulent) proclamations to get your practice more online reviews.

What’s worse is the course of action these unscrupulous marketers take to seemingly garner more Google reviews for your dental practice when you do elect to take a shortcut to amplifying your digital word of mouth.

But why wouldn’t due diligence win out over impulse buying borderline bribery?

Case in point; check out the digital dental conversation going on around this dentist…and his FAKE Google reviews.

Yes, people can pay other people five bucks on sites like Fiverr to leave fake reviews for your dental practice. Then those same people can charge your dental practice exorbitant amounts of money to “monitor your reputation” and “get you more Google reviews.”

 

Are Dentists That Buy Fake Google Reviews Cluelessy Victimized or Clued In Cohorts?

 

Probably more of the former than the latter, but that doesn’t change the negative repercussions that could trickle down your dental practice way – not the slimy marketer’s way, like any thief they’re already on to their next grift by the time you realize what’s transpired.

People (customers, patients) are savvy these days, and an inauthentic review sticks out like a sore thumb to those potential patients that care enough to do a little digging. Furthermore, by purchasing reviews you could actually be entering the realm of legality – or illegality.

I’m certainly no attorney, so I’ll stop there. But depending on the state, if a dentist starts paying for Google reviews, they are essentially bribing people to say good things about their dental practice.

Isn’t that a big legal no-no?

 

Dentists Should Sow Google Reviews (and more) Organically

 

Eliciting online reviews for your dental practice is not rocket science, and it’s not expensive. But it does take a little effort combined with, most importantly, genuinely caring about what your patients have to say.

Dentists should already be taking a proactive approach to amplify your digital dental word of mouth by running surveys to your patients asking them about their visits to your office – aside from the obvious of actually engaging patients in conversation…and not the dental small talk when you have your hands in their mouths!

But, if you don’t currently run surveys or send emails following appointments to select patients, then try this KISS approach to gaining more Google reviews for your dental practice:

– Survey your patients face to face and ask them if they would consider leaving you a review, then send them the email immediately following their appointment

– Use your email newsletter as the vehicle to transmit the message

– Devote a regular section of your newsletter to asking for reviews on MORE sites than just your Google listing (Think Healthgrades, Angieslist, MerchantCircle…etc.)

– Use images to link to a few of your favorite (or your patients’ favorite) review sites

– Have a page on your website devoted to testimonials (TIP: You should tag this page with corresponding schema markup)

– Send THANK YOUs for EVERY patient that leaves a review – a simple email, or better yet an actual reply to the review itself on your Google listing is easy and goes a long way.

 

Keep Your Google Reviews from Disappearing or Getting Flagged as Spam

 

The front desk should be able to incorporate this type of strategy as a normal part of patient communications, but dentists could also consider using something like an actual physical Google reviews handout as another tool in capturing the practice building digital word of mouth.

Nowadays practice software does the job too, but where this automated review collection falls short is by directing reviews onto their software platform, not your dental practice website.

Patients probably walk out of your office with a bag full of toothpaste, toothbrush, and floss anyway, right?

Toss in a handout card or even just a one-page outline, along with some social media stickers and you’re closing the DIY dental practice review generation loop!

Whatever tactics you employ to build Google reviews for your dentist office, just don’t think buying reviews is the way to go – while it may benefit you in the short term, it will only come back to bite you in the @$$  long term…because the person you’re buying them from is gaming the system and they will eventually get punished…or exposed as a fraud.

And that’s not something your dental practice needs to be associated with.

Do you currently ask patients to leave reviews on Google? How?

 

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