Reputation management can be easy, inexpensive

Issue: February/March 2013

If there is anything more dreaded in an optometrist’s office than an unhappy patient, it is a bad review posted online for everyone to see.

You can do a number of things to avoid a bad review; one thing we do in our office when something goes wrong is to send a card with a message saying, “Sorry we dropped the ball,” signed by all staff members.

However, a card is not always enough, and a bad review may get posted on the Internet. Then it is a major concern.

Agustin L. Gonzalez

Negative reviews should be handled in a timely manner. A prompt response will show you care about the review and will send a message of concern to prospective patients.

I suggest you ponder the complaint and try to understand the patient’s frustration. I would acknowledge there was a problem and provide a positive solution or steps that are taking place to reassure that this will not occur again.

Google Alerts are an effective and inexpensive way to monitor your reputation. Here’s how it works: an email will simply alert you in the event that something is published about you, your practice or even members of your office staff.

This Google monitoring service will track blogs, articles, web pages, press releases and even comments for a determined individual, group of subjects or search criteria you define. What this means is that anytime your name or subject comes online as some form of content you will receive an email notification.

Keep in mind that this will not prevent bad reviews from showing up, but it will quickly alert you to any comments made about you, your practice or your staff.

Setting up the alerts is easy. Go to the Google website, set up an account, then follow the directions for setting up alerts. Remember that quoting text will only show alerts on that exact word or phrase.

For an example, “dry eye” will only show results for the words “dry” and “eye” together. Similarly, using the words without quotes will show anything and everything relevant to dry and also to eye.

With time, you will be able to follow conversations about a specific company, news story topics of interest, yourself or your competitors.

Google Alerts can help you see what people are saying about you on the Internet.

For more information:

Agustin L. Gonzalez, OD, is in private practice in Dallas, serves as adjunct faculty at InterAmerican University and is a member of the Primary Care Optometry News Editorial Board. He can be reached at AG@TXEyeDr.com.