Do You Know How To Respond To Negative Reviews Online?

I know you are worried about receiving any negative reviews, but I promise that having a bad review will not devastate your practice. Two major strategies for dealing with a negative review are 1. Respond, Privately & Publicly 2. Bury It.

When privately responding:

1. Breathe
2. Be introspective
3. Offer a gracious, unqualified apology
4. Try to make it right Publicly
5. Post a public response and ‘boast’ about your customer service

A lot of times when you privately respond to a negative review using the steps I have suggested above the patient will go and change their online review to something positive and state that even though they had an issue with your practice you were more than happy to work with them to make it right. If they do not correct it you can still respond.

Some other tips on responding to negative reviews will be to give a timely response if you want it to be effective. Make specific reference to their review and apologize (which is important to do, even when you think you’ve done everything right), defend your practice without sounding defensive, and then ask for suggestions on how you can improve. Keep your reply short, sweet, and to the point. Also, when ending include your name, title, and contact information.

If you need help with your reputation management consider hiring an agency like Talk Out Loud to help you.