There is no doubt, reputation management for healthcare businesses is a vital element.
Online reputation management is all about staying consistent with your marketing strategies, customer engagements, online reviews monitoring, etc. And for healthcare companies and hospitals, reputation management comes under the slab of marketing services that are aimed at repairing and enhancing a professional's online presence.
There are a variety of elements that online reputation management tackles. For example, you can stay on top of the type of reviews patients, and customers leave you. You can monitor any embarrassing incidents, less than desired press coverage or justifying a malpractice lawsuit. Each one of these things can permanently damage your "reputation" and overall business success.
According to Jamanetwork.com, in 2012, up to 60% of customers in the US did online research on their doctors. Fast forward to 2016, and the percentage of people rose to 84%! And this is research they did on their first appointment. There is no question positive customer reviews are critical to driving an increase in patient appointments.
6 fundamentally vital tips on how you can manage your online reputation
- Always stay on top of your brand's SERPs
According to the latest research posted by TurnTo, it was identified that up to 90% of people state that they are majorly influenced by online reviews and other forms of user-generated content.
They say, positive reviews drove their decisions to buy products and services. So, there is no question as to why a good percentage of search results pertaining to big brands is user-generated content – which includes review sites, blogs, articles, online forums, etc.
Also, many consumers search for hospital and professional medical services online; they sift through reviews and customers testimonials. Here, you can use the power of streamlined search engine optimization to generate content and other material that link your online presence with user-generated content. Nothing is more critical for healthcare companies that brand reputation and recognition.
- Harness the power of social media – but do not let it things get out of hand
Constant online engagement and being pervasive is critical to becoming a proactive player to constantly propel your content management and conversations. It is so easy to set up notifications for your brand through Google Alerts. Google Alerts will instantly notify whenever any user posts a review about your brand anywhere on social media or the rest of the internet.
Using these notifications, you can quickly engage with the customer/patient and post a reply or a follow-up reply. Remember, negative reviews or comments can rapidly deteriorate reputation management for healthcare companies if they do not timely and adequately respond.
- Develop a nurturing relationship with your employees
One of the easiest ways you can tarnish your brand reputation is through hospital/clinic staff disputes and disharmony. The same goes for your management and administration personnel. Understand that a negative comment or review posted by an angry employee or a disgruntled staff member will hurt your online reputation. Potential customers will also be able to see those posts, which will most definitely affect your word-of-mouth recommendations.
The only way you can tackle this problem and ensure nothing of the sort happens is to drive a positive and motivated organizational structure.
- Deleting negative reviews is impossible – so bury them with positive posts
The most effective way to deal with bad comments and reviews is to cover them with good content. But how can you do that? Well, the easiest way you can do that is to publish fresh, unique, and positive content. This is one the best things about Google's algorithms. Google favors valuable posts, pushing them through poor reviews and comments on their SERPs.
However, it is critical to understand that this process doesn’t just happen overnight. But these are considered legal, white hat marketing strategies that are used by thousands of businesses, as well as reputed marketers around the world.
- Repair your online footmark
Although keeping a bird's eye view of third-party reviews is vital for your online reputation, it is equally crucial that you make necessary updates pertaining to your business. You should immediately update any new information on Google. Why? Well, this is going to massively help you optimize your search ranking. Google favors accurate listing and ranks websites based on how adequate the information is.
Moreover, vague information is just going to frustrate a potential customer, and that means he/she is going to leave you a bad comment.
- Be mindful about what your customers are saying about your brand on social media
When it comes to gathering information or sources to unedited customer reviews and opinions, social media networks are the best place for it. This is especially true for seriously unhappy customers. However, by using different social listening tools, you can effectively hunt for different types of mentions about your brand on popular social media websites.
Also, you can identify high-engagement user-generated posts, and timely and adequately address concerns or queries or reply to posts.
About the Author: Alma Causey
Alma is a Freelance writer by day and sports fan by night. She writes about Fashion and Tech. Live simply, give generously, watch football and a technology lover.
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