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How can ophthalmology practices ensure they have a positive online presence to attract new patients?
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Take every step to improve online presence
Thankfully, I have a great team that helps guide our online presence. Michelle Nelson, who leads our marketing team, has helped lead our online presence and shine light on our strategies.
First, your website needs to be responsive and easy to navigate on desktop, tablet and mobile. Take a look at your website on Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox. Also, be sure to take a look at your website on an IOS, Android and Windows phone. Make sure you have online scheduling set up on your website. Schedule an appointment, and make sure it is easy. Make it a habit to test your online scheduling tool regularly. Additionally, check to see how long your website takes to load on a mobile phone. There are several web tools that can help you with this, such as rigor.com and pingdom.com. If you have issues, communicate those with your web designers. Try to work with your designers to reach a 3-second load time.
Next, check out your online reputation. Your online reviews are like “looking at the man in the mirror.” So, first Google your practice. Make sure you have claimed your “Google My Business” properties. Every brick and mortar location can be claimed, and every optometrist and ophthalmologist can also be claimed on sites such as Google. Flesh out your Google, Yelp and Facebook profiles with photos of your location and doctors and accurate information. Do a search for your practice on Yelp. Check your doctor and location profiles on Healthgrades. If you find negative feedback about your practice, dig in and address the issues. Every negative review and comment is an opportunity to improve. Respond to both positive and negative reviews. Make sure you have notifications turned “on” on review sites so that you are notified whenever you get a new review. Google and Facebook allow for mobile notifications. Make sure that you have a reputation management system in place. There are several available, such as BirdEye, Podium, Trustpilot, Solutionreach and Calibrater Health.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok: You do not need to be on all of them. You should have a presence wherever your prospective and current patients spend their time. Your social presence should at the very least provide easy access to your address, phone number, hours, web address, messaging, testimonials and current client interactions. Smiling pictures of your staff, doctors and patients are a bonus as well. Use 80% of your social presence to show your team’s personality. Use 20% to tell them about the great services that you offer.
William F. Wiley, MD, is the medical director of the Cleveland Eye Clinic. Disclosure: Wiley reports no relevant financial disclosures.
Online presence is vital
In this era of virtual doctors, your online presence is vital to your practice. Having a positive social media presence is a must for every business, especially medical businesses. We do not have a choice about doing this, so we might as well own it.
As of 2019, 90.4% of millennials, 77.5% of Generation X and 48.7% of baby boomers use social media. In a survey commissioned by Doctors.com of 1,700 U.S. adults, 80% of respondents have used the internet to make a health care search; furthermore, 60% will choose one provider over another because of a strong online presence.
Research has shown that even doctors who rely on referrals need to maintain a strong online presence. Not a day goes by in my office where a patient doesn’t comment on our online reviews. This was bothersome initially, but now we just own it. It is the consumerist era, so what else can we expect when literally everyone is walking around with a smartphone in their pocket?
You need to have happy patients, especially if you believe in the “30:10” rule. The 30:10 rule posits that for every happy patient you have, they will tell 10 of their friends about your practice. However, for every unhappy patient you have, they will tell 30 friends about their experience.
Furthermore, patients can also sense if your staff believes in you and is happy being a part of your practice. Teamwork is dreamwork, so good patient care from your entire team will yield positive feedback online and off.
Sharing positive moments on social media can also help draw new patients. Share why you love what you do and what makes you happy in your profession. Share learning moments and be sure to highlight the new technologies that you utilize in your practice.
Femida Kherani, MD, is an OSN Oculoplastic and Reconstructive Surgery Board Member. Disclosure: Kherani reports no relevant financial disclosures.
Positive office experience will result in positive online presence
Social media is the new form of communication or, as we say, having a digital online presence. For example, Facebook alone in 2019 has had 2.41 billion monthly active users. Although it is important to be “social” on social media accounts, it is even more important to take time to reply to comments; simply saying “thank you” to a positive review will go a long way just for acknowledgment purposes. Remember, 82% of patients check online reviews before choosing you as your doctor or practice.
Unfortunately, fewer patients think to write a positive review when good things and/or outcomes happen compared with when a bad experience occurs. On the other hand, according to the latest research, 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, and with little difference in behavior based on patient age, it is equally important to maintain a positive online presence regardless if it is a cataract, LASIK or advanced IOL type patient.
The patient’s visit starts from the practice’s website and/or social network page. At Jacksoneye, we maintain our website robustly, making it user and mobile friendly, with clear structure and landing pages for all the main search queries. At our social media sites, we are posting three to five times per week, replying to comments posted and monitoring feedback as well. When the patient is at the office, our doctors and staff are focused on optimal treatment outcomes personalized for each individual. After their exam and/or surgical procedure, it is important to have an active campaign for clients to indicate how happy they are so this encourages them to leave us a positive online review. The tool we use for this approach is a business card with a link to direct patients to leave feedback for the service they had at Jacksoneye.
When working with online reviews, it is also important to be HIPAA aware and compliant. For example, acknowledgment of a positive or negative review online or through social media can be construed as a violation of a patient’s protected health information even if the patient initiated it in the first place. To avoid HIPAA issues, we receive patient feedback in a secure manner via encrypted email or patient portal.
Ensuring a positive online presence comes down to a positive experience with the doctors, staff and practice as a whole at all stages of the interaction from the outset to the end of the patient’s care and treatment.
Mitchell A Jackson, MD, is a Healio/OSN Board Member. Disclosure: Jackson reports no relevant financial disclosures.
Reference:
Local consumer review survey: online reviews statistics & trends. www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey.