This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Physicians must take action to claim, improve their online reputation
ORLANDO — With a few simple actions, physicians can reclaim their online reputation and drive practice success, according to an expert presenting during the 30th Annual Practice Management Course held before the World Congress of Gastroenterology at ACG 2017.
“Your reputation in itself is just word of mouth. ... This is an electronic version of that,” Kenneth Brown, MD, of Digestive Health Associates of Texas in Plano, TX, said during his presentation. “You’re going to be talked about whether you like or not, so if you’re ignoring this, ... you’re a sitting duck.”
Cleaning up
Brown explained that while many physicians would like to write off bad online reviews as “crazy people,” some of the most educated people utilize online reviews to make decisions about their health care. Additionally, GI disorders comprise the top five health terms searched on Google, making that quick summary of each physician that populates on the right-hand side — Google’s “knowledge panel” — that much more valuable.
“The most reviewed things on the internet are doctors and restaurants,” he said. “The people who pay attention to the reviews are the most highly educated and the highest income earners.”
On that knowledge panel, Google incorporates reviews from throughout the web, so the easy step necessary for cleaning up one’s online reputation is to claim the top review pages. The first to consider are Healthgrades, Vitals and RateMDs because they have more than 26 million visits per month. Those three combined with Angie’s List, WebMD, Yelp and Google make up 90% of the information that will be found about each physician, Brown said. Even private payers are utilizing review sites like Healthgrades within their patient portals, he added, pulling himself up on the United Healthcare site and showing how the insurer has integrated.
“Your Google homepage is more important than your own website homepage. They don’t get to the website homepage until they get through this,” he said, pointing out that most online consumers make decisions in 3 to 5 seconds. “This page is the most important marketing that you can do and it’s not anything you can actually buy.”
The first step to make in this marketing attempt is providing consistent information — name, website, phone number, address — to each page. The more consistent the information, the more Google can validate and include that information in its algorithm, Brown said.
Soliciting the good, preventing the bad
After cleaning up what’s out there, Brown suggested the best way to avoid new negative reviews is to preempt them by requesting to be reviewed. He sends an email after each visit confirming the patient’s experience and linking them to the top review sites if they had a positive experience. In the case the patient was dissatisfied, there is another link for them to utilize and that goes back to Brown and his team. These patients are offered another visit at no cost to rectify the situation.
“Most importantly, I leave a nice, big unsatisfied button. ... What that allows me to do is to get that unhappy person to come back to me first before they go and blast on the internet,” he said. “We do not live in a five-star world. No matter what you do, you may end up with an unhappy customer. And that unhappy customer can leave long-lasting damage.”
If there are reviews, Brown said physicians need to know what they say, good or bad. He chooses to acknowledge bad reviews and has made changes within the practice due to criticisms received online.
“The bad reviews are golden opportunities,” but the good reviews are also an opportunity to reward staff named for their hard work, he said.
“Educate your office. Explain to them that they’re part of the whole process,” he added. “We are in the customer service industry now. Customer service is the new marketing. ... And the customer service experience starts at Google. Before they ever come to the office.” – by Katrina Altersitz
Kenneth Brown, MD, is a practicing gastroenterologist in Plano, TX, and the inventor of Atrantil. He can be reached at atinfo@kennethbrownmd.com or https://kennethbrownmd.com.
Reference: Brown K. 30th Annual Practice Management Course. Presented at: World Congress of Gastroenterology at American College of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting; Oct. 13-18, 2017; Orlando, FL.
Disclosures: Brown reports no relevant financial disclosures.