{"id":15204,"date":"2017-09-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/about\/?p=15204"},"modified":"2023-10-30T14:12:47","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T19:12:47","slug":"how-patients-use-online-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/resources\/blog\/article\/how-patients-use-online-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"How Patients Use Online Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not often that patients jump at an opportunity to pay for a doctor out of pocket. But according to a survey conducted by the Software Advice consulting firm, 47 percent<\/a> of respondents would do just that, visiting a doctor out-of-network even if an in-network doctor were more affordable and convenient.<\/p>\n

Why? Because that doctor has a better online review profile.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s search engine-controlled information world, patient reviews are among the very first things prospective patients will see when crawling the web for information. In fact, they\u2019re likely to be exposed to reviews even if they\u2019re not looking for them. \u201cReviews find them more than they find reviews,\u201d says Pascal Bensoussan, Chief Product Officer at Reputation.com, a portal that manages provider profiles online.<\/p>\n

Not that patients aren\u2019t looking themselves. An estimated 77 percent will read online reviews before deciding to book an appointment with a provider. But which reviews are important? Does the number of reviews matter? Can negative reviews actually be good for providers? (Spoiler: believe it or not, they can.) Here\u2019s how patients are finding, reading, and digesting these paragraph-sized evaluations of health care services.<\/b><\/p>\n

Why (and how) they search<\/h2>\n

The open-sourced nature of the internet has made online reviews for a variety of services indispensable. When we want to book a hotel room, we check Travelocity to make sure it doesn\u2019t have bed bugs; when we need a plumber to replace a water heater, we make sure the repair shingle hasn\u2019t flooded anyone\u2019s basement. And when patients need a doctor, they want to be told they\u2019re making the right choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing people do when they get referred to someone is check Google,\u201d says Mary Hall, CEO of IHealthSpot.com<\/a>, a physician consulting firm. \u201cThey want to check qualifications and get insight into the personality of the practice. They want to tell themselves, \u2018This doctor will be nice to me. This staff will be nice to me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Reviews from Google, Zocdoc, Facebook, and other sites will grab a search engine\u2019s attention with a high volume of reviews. It\u2019s not necessary to type \u201cJohn Smith M.D. reviews\u201d to be exposed to patient experiences\u2014site algorithms take care of that for web browsers. And once they begin reading reviews, according to Bensoussan, the more sites they\u2019ll visit. \u201cWe have evidence that patients look at multiple review sites,\u201d he says, which means having a good profile on one site may not necessarily outdo a negative or mixed reaction on another.<\/p>\n

How patients review the reviews<\/h2>\n

Once a prospective patient is reading reviews, they have a number of places on a page to focus on. According to Bensoussan, they\u2019re usually attracted to an overall star rating\u2014the aggregate of user opinions. \u201cIt\u2019s a graphical representation,\u201d he says. According to Hall, three stars and above is good enough to confirm a referral choice.<\/p>\n

Next, they may try to locate the most recent reviews. \u201cThe age of the review matters,\u201d Bensoussan says. \u201cSomething that\u2019s a year old, 18 months old, that isn\u2019t as valued as a review from the last three months. People know things change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patients also prioritize review volume, finding a physician with only a handful of online reviews insufficient to judge. They\u2019ll also tend to gravitate toward negative reviews, since those impact the reassurance they\u2019re seeking. But according to Hall, only certain kinds of negative reviews make an impression. \u201cUsually, reviews talking about parking, having to walk, billing, things like that are not going to matter much,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

More important is bedside manner and comments about how both the physician and staff treat patients. \u201c\u2019Bedside manner\u2019 is a highly-referenced topic,\u201d Bensoussan says. \u201cPeople care about staff professionalism and wait times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keywords that don\u2019t please prospective patients? Lack of communication and rude staff.<\/p>\n

What the perfect review page looks like<\/h2>\n

Believe it or not, the ideal of flawless five-star ratings may not be the best thing for your practice, especially if there are only a handful. \u201cA doctor with eight five-star reviews might not be taken as seriously as a doctor with 26 reviews and three of them negative,\u201d Bensoussan says. That volume lends credence to the idea that the reviews aren\u2019t coming from family or friends; the \u201cflaw\u201d of a negative review further humanizes the office. \u201cPeople actually get confused when there are no negative reviews. Those tend to lend credibility to the positive ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopefully, words like \u201ccompassionate\u201d and \u201ccommunicates\u201d will be peppered in the review text. (\u201cCaring,\u201d \u201cknowledgeable,\u201d and \u201cwonderful\u201d can also catch the reader\u2019s eye.) And when there is a negative comment, a prospective patient will be soothed somewhat if the office has made an attempt to respond to the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt minimizes the impact of the review,\u201d Bensoussan says. \u201cIt becomes a proof point, that there\u2019s a human on the other end who cares about the patient.\u201d<\/p>\n

In summary: patients like positive reviews\u2014but not uniformly positive\u2014with a substantial volume of comments.<\/b> They want to know your staff is professional, caring, and won\u2019t make them wait too long for an appointment. If there is a negative comment, having the office follow up with an invitation to discuss the issue privately can help mitigate the damage. Monitored properly, those bad reviews even have the potential to help patient attrition. \u201cWe know patients are more likely to return to a practice if a bad experience was handled properly,\u201d Bensoussan says.<\/p>\n

Review sites are here to stay. But with a little effort, they\u2019ll attract\u2014and keep\u2014far more patients than they could ever push away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not often that patients jump at an opportunity to pay for a doctor out of pocket. But according to a survey conducted by the Software Advice consulting firm, 47 percent of respondents would do just that, visiting a doctor out-of-network even if an in-network doctor were more affordable and convenient. Why? Because that doctor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[95,46,51,60,62],"class_list":["post-15204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patient-experience","tag-booking-behavior","tag-marketing","tag-online-reputation","tag-patient-reviews","tag-patient-trends"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Patients Use Online Reviews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"New patients get their first impression of a provider\u2019s office from other patients. 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