BUSINESS

  social media

Increasing Online Reviews

Two ways to drive positive reviews to dramatic new levels

JUSTIN BAZAN, O.D.

There is no debate about it; patient reviews matter. Both the quantity, which serves as social proof, and the content, which serves as digital word-of-mouth marketing, are important.

So, how does a business generate more of them? Here are two helpful tips.

1 Ask

Ask your patients to review your practice by sending them an email with a hyperlink that takes them directly to your practice’s Facebook review page, Yelp page, etc. In addition to making the process easy, you can encourage patients to leave reviews by offering them a chance to win something. In my practice, we let our patients know they could win a pair of sunglasses if they left a Google review that was “unbiased,” “honest,” “accurate,” “trustworthy” and “real.”

It’s debatable that offering a chance to win a gift corrupts the ethics of user reviewing when done in such a benevolent, unrestrictive and unbiased way. In fact, offering an incentive to leave a review, while a highly popular and successful promotion, is currently in violation of Google’s policies. The company actively looks for these violations and will often take action, which typically is the removal of the review. However, many businesses still have many reviews derived in this nature. Regardless, proceed with caution, and stay abreast of the policies of online review platforms to ensure compliance.

Keep in mind that you can garner more Facebook reviews with a simple post. This post should be “pinned,” which means it stays at the top of your page despite new posts, for maximum efficacy. Also, consider increasing your reach by paying to boost the post and/or creating a Facebook ad.

2 Promote in-store

Yelp, an extremely popular user review site, discourages businesses from soliciting its customers’ reviews. In addition, Yelp has a reviewer hierarchy, making reviews from frequent users (“Yelpers”) more prominent on a business’ page and often times filters out reviews from infrequent users from the business’ public review time line.

So, how do you nab more Yelp reviews? Encourage your patients to become credible “Yelpers” — and also attract more “Yelpers” to your business.

There are many ways to achieve this, but two effective strategies are to (1) promote Yelp and (2) your association with it. A few easy options: Display Yelp logos on your door, and utilize counter top signs/cards throughout the office; add the Yelp logo to your email signature and a Yelp badge on your websites; and ask patients to “check in” to your location via the Yelp app on their smartphone. For more information and free tools, visit www.yelp.com/brand.

Spread the word

Reviews will build faster once you get the word out that you are looking for them. Just be sure to keep the ethics, policies and guidelines of the platforms you utilize in mind. OM

DR. BAZAN IS THE FOUNDER OF PARK SLOPE EYE, IN BROOKLYN, N.Y. HE IS A MEMBER OF THE AOA, NYSOA AND THE AAOMC. IN 2014 HE RECEIVED FINANCIAL COMPENSATION FOR SERVICES FROM ALLERGAN, BAUSCH + LOMB, VISION SERVICE PLAN, LUXOTTICA, THE VISION COUNCIL AND FOSTER GRANT. VISIT TINYURL.COM/OMCOMMENT TO COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE.