Managing Negative Reviews

Getting your first negative review can be a very daunting experience! What do you do about it? Well, first things first, take a deep breath and don’t PANIC! The review is gonna be there, whether you like it, or not but what you can do is, handle the negative review professionally.

There are two types of negative reviews. One is the fake negative review, that could have actually come from one of your competitors. Who knows, right? Here’s how to handle a potentially fake negative review, first thank the reviewer and respond by saying, that you understand and take their online review very seriously. Unfortunately, you cannot actually find their name in your patient database, then ask them, if they’ve actually got the right practice?In doing this, you cast a shadow of a doubt on the credibility of the review.

Now, the second type of negative review is the real deal, where a patient has actually had a negative experience at your practice. View this as a good opportunity to learn from this experience and improve your practice, whether you communicate that with your internal team or, review what you need to change from a customer service point of view. A lot of the time, negative reviews stem from miscommunications, rather than the service being “bad”. Your patient may have spent too long in the waiting area or there may have been a miscommunication in the pricing of the services. So how do you go about tackling this situation?

Once again, remember to thank them for their review, then reach out to them off-line via phone call or email and rectify the situation. Do not ever start an argument session with the reviewer online. By taking the situation offline, you are able to connect with your patient, understand their views and allows you to continue servicing them in the future. Your professionalism will say more about you, as a practice owner, than any other positive reviews out there!