How to Handle a Bad Review on Google, Other Websites, and Directories

Practice Tips:

As a healthcare provider, our reviews are crucial to attracting new patients and retaining them. Not to mention as a business owner, you invest a lot of your time and money to ensure you have an accurate representation of who you are and the services you provide represented across your digital footprint. This describes anything online about you and your business, including your website, social media, in the news, on third-party websites, and your reviews. This is a lot to manage and also presents a number of places where a negative comment or review might occur, which (I hate to say it), is inevitable.

Most sites tie reviews to a profile of an actual valid user. For example, when you post a review on Google, your Google account and avatar are connected to that review. Or when you’re on Facebook and you see reviews on a business, it is always tied to the personal profile of that person posting. This ensures that people stay honest and don’t just spew bad stuff while also proving that there are real people behind these comments, which “verifies” that these reviews are real and valid to the end reader. However, there are times when people aren’t afraid to post a bad review. In fact, they might feel it’s their duty to warn other people about a bad experience they had. Or people create fake profiles just to interfere.

This happens a lot. When it happens to you, know that there are steps that you can take to address a bad (real) review, to update inaccurate information, and to remove fake reviews.

You might also find this hard to believe, but research demonstrates that bad reviews can actually boost your leads and revenue when addressed properly.

How do reviews help your business?

Reviews are like an extension of a personal recommendation. People tend to trust other people who have tried your product or service. Reviews strengthen your credibility because they are perceived as unsolicited and that someone was compelled to take the extra step to share how good (or bad) you were. Reviews have the power to gain a potential patient’s trust without you having to do anything or proving anything, and they encourage people to engage with you and seek your services out.

According to BrightLocal, in 2020, 93% of U.S. consumers searched online for a local business. From these, 34% searched every day, while 73% searched weekly (up from 70% the year before). The industries in which consumers are most likely to have read reviews which shaped their decisions whether to engage with a company were 1) Restaurants, 2) Hotels, 3) Medical, 4) Automotive, and 5) Clothing stores. Only 48% of consumers would consider using a business with less than four stars. Two-thirds of consumers say they wouldn’t use a business if reviews said it didn’t have COVID-19 health and safety measures in place. In 2016, Fan & Fuel reported that 92% of consumers hesitated to make a purchase if there were no customer reviews, and a full 97% say customer reviews factor into their buying decisions. Back in 2013 only 25% found a doctor through online reviews compared to 2020, when 90% used reviews to find and evaluate a medical provider.

The data speaks for itself. Reviews are a necessary part of your patient acquisition process. You must be consistent in asking for reviews and you must be diligent about responding to reviews, positive or negative. Also, when you have a high number of reviews, your page becomes more visible on search engine results pages.

We’ve found that spending as little as 10 minutes a week cultivating your online presence and addressing feedback publicly reduces the impact of negative reviews by up to 70%.

What is the best way to generate reviews?

The majority of patients use Google, Facebook, and Yelp to post and read reviews about healthcare providers. However, many patients are leaving reviews on healthcare-specific sites such as Healthgrades and RateMDs, so it is very important that you claim your listing on those sites and monitor all profiles where people can leave a review.

The best way to generate reviews is right after the patient is complete with their service at checkout. Train your front desk to close with power and to encourage a review. This guarantees that the patient will remember the experience and will provide specific details that will create solid reviews. We train our clients to have their top three review sites up and ready on an iPad or kiosk for the patient to select their preference and make the review natively on the desired website.

The next best thing to asking for a review right after the appointment is complete is by sending an email as a follow up to the patient. Most patient communication platforms have a built-in function allowing you to send an email automatically. Again, you would include your top three review sites as options for them to click on from the email linking directly to your business profiles (Google, Yelp, Healthgrades, etc.). Be cautious NOT to over request for a review. This can turn into a negative perspective from the patient.

There are also marketing tools specifically designed for healthcare providers to acquire reviews very easily. Some of these systems are set up to deliver this communication automatically based on actions a patient does or does not do and sends out an email asking patients to leave a review on popular sites after they come in for an appointment. From our experience, if you use a third-party platform like this, you do not own your reviews after you discontinue the service. So, buyer beware. It’s best to set up a post-visit process both at the desk and via email, to ensure you capture this and you have it for as long as you’re in business.

The best way to generate reviews is right after the patient is complete with their service at checkout. Train your front desk to close with power and to encourage a review by having your top three review sites up and ready on an iPad or kiosk for the patient to complete before they leave.

How To Handle A Bad Review

Understand that this isn’t personal.

It’s actually an opportunity to take stock of the situation and learn. You may be able to correct an issue that had gone unnoticed, which usually means a refinement in your business, resulting in a better you.

Do not respond quickly and abruptly.

Instead take a minute to understand why the bad review occurred and assess all departments and processes that could have encouraged the bad review. Once you are clear on what happened and how you will correct this issue so it never happens again, then respond to the review.

When you respond

When you respond, thank the reviewer for bringing this to your attention and show appreciation for their honest feedback. Acknowledge the reviewer’s concerns. If the review is entirely unreasonable or untrue, don’t spend the whole response refuting or debunking their complaints; instead, pay attention to what caused the patient to have the negative experience, acknowledge it, and offer a solution if possible.

Never offer discounts as a way to resolve the issue in a review.

Doing so in a public response could encourage other reviewers to leave negative reviews in an effort to get a similar outcome.

Do not violate HIPAA laws.

HIPAA laws make it tricky to respond to negative reviews in the healthcare industry because sometimes you can’t actually confirm whether the reviewer visited your practice or was mistreated by your team. This can be difficult because some people have ambiguous usernames that don’t relate to them personally. Do your research and establish your guidelines before responding to any reviews to avoid costly HIPAA violations.

Don’t feel like you have to respond to every negative review publicly.

Message patients privately if the case is extreme, resolve things offline, and then respond to the public review after you have established a positive connection with the patient.

When providing patients with a way to share their feedback, you step ahead as a facility that is open and transparent. While positive reviews will make you shine, you can take control of any negative feedback and turn it around by responding publicly. This demonstrates your dedication to ensuring complete customer satisfaction.

About 40% of patients disregard a review if a provider has responded in a thoughtful manner. When a provider responds to a negative patient review, the rate of satisfied patients doubles.

What do you do if your Google review is inappropriate?

Thankfully Google has posting guidelines that they will enforce when posts have inappropriate content:

Hate speech, threats, violence, or profanity: Sometimes a patient’s anger gets the best of them, so if they cross the line and post inappropriate content, you can flag it and bring it to Google’s attention.
Spam or other advertising: You can’t advertise or post special offers or deals in reviews, so if a patient mentions a better doctor or deal, you can flag it for removal.
Irrelevant: If the review is irrelevant or otherwise off-topic, such as a patient complaining that the supplements they ordered through your third party didn’t arrive on time, this is something out of your control and you can flag it for removal.

What do you do if your Google review is fake or fraudulent?

Publicly apologize for their dissatisfaction and any inconvenience this may have caused.
Clearly state you have no record of their visit nor any record of them in your system.
Genuinely offer to fix their problem.
Report their review as fraudulent and flag for removal by following these steps:
1. Search for your business in Google Maps.
2. Click to view your reviews and find the one you wish to flag.
3. Click on the three dots in the top right corner of the review.
4. Select “Flag as inappropriate” and click on it.

For false or slanderous reviews you have the added option of filling out a Google form for a legal removal request. You may find it is well worth the time and energy to rectify matters this way, should you find yourself in this unfortunate situation.

You may wish to follow up on your flagged review status by getting in touch with Google. You will find Google Support listed at the bottom of the menu on your Google My Business home page.

Make sure you check back to ensure your fraudulent review was flagged and removed.

Although negative reviews are inevitable, they are opportunities to demonstrate your dedication to ensuring complete customer satisfaction. As long as you ask and give your patients the opportunity to review, 72% will respond with positive reviews, which is key to helping new patients find you.

If you need help with a review strategy to amplify your online presence or to rectify bad reviews, we’re here to lend a hand.

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