Taking advantage of Zocdoc reviews is vital to every healthcare provider because it can give providers a positive online reputation that can attract more people and retain loyal patients. However, online reviews also provide other benefits that help the doctor-patient relationship in the long run.
Zocdoc Reviews Attract Patients
When people need better care, they go online to find a new provider, and online reviews guide their healthcare purchase decisions. Specifically, 72 percent of patients will use online reviews as the first step to finding a new doctor.
Obviously, positive Zocdoc reviews pave the way for acquiring new patients with 59.9 percent using those positive reviews to choose their doctor, which is why it’s also important for providers to be asking for reviews on a regular basis. Not only are people looking at the content of each review; they’re also looking at when it was published. NRC Health research shows 66.1 percent of healthcare consumers consider reviews older than 18 months as “out of date.” A smaller yet significant group of consumers – 19.8 percent – consider any reviews older than six months to be irrelevant.
Doing so also potentially gives a provider a leg up on their competition. Only 45.5 percent of healthcare providers are proactively asking their patients for feedback.
As reviews come in it’s important to realize that not all of the feedback will be warm and full of praise. Sometimes, patients are not happy with the care provided, and how providers handle these negative reviews can be the difference between a thriving or failing practice.
Zocdoc Reviews Improve the Patient Experience
Survey data from Software Advice shows 72.2 percent of patients expect their reviews to be the catalyst for “broad organizational improvements,” and in some cases these catalysts come in the form of negative feedback. Instead of ignoring the criticisms and complaints from unhappy patients, providers and their staff should use them as guides to improve the experience for both future and returning patients.
By themselves, negative Zocdoc reviews can seem like an irremovable stain on any provider’s online reputation, but utilizing advanced tools like customer experience analytics allows healthcare staff to take a closer look at the review, discover pain points in the patient’s experience, and create meaningful actions that greatly contribute to a patient’s well-being during their visit.
By learning how to respond to negative reviews, providers can continue to build trust with current and future patients. In fact, 84 percent of patients with a bad experience expect a follow-up in some way. If they write a scathing review, respond with a calm, collected, and well-thought response that meets HIPAA guidelines and invites the reviewer to an offline conversation where the issue can be resolved in private.
Reaching out via review response goes a long way into winning back an unhappy patient. Research shows that 60.3 percent of the time patients are satisfied when the practice reaches out for a conversation in light of a negative review. Responses can even convince 20 percent of patients to overlook the negative comments because of a provider’s thoughtful response.
The Power of Zocdoc Reviews
A Black Book Market Research survey showed that 92 percent of healthcare consumers highlighted “improving customer experience” as the top priority for medical providers for the next 12 months. By closely monitoring and engaging with patient reviews on Zocdoc (as well as other business review sites), healthcare providers can easily gauge their current efforts in improving the patient experience.
Utilizing review management software can make the review monitoring and responding process easier for staff while also saving time and providing insights to drive tomorrow’s actions.
