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Five Ways to Improve Your Online Reputation
1. 2 03.2013 | www.dentaleconomics.com
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b y L a n c e M c C o ll o u g h
Five secrets to
improve your
online reputation
W
e’ve all said it. We con-
stantly think it. Then it
happens. So, what do
you do when the “it will
never happen to me”
turns into “what do I
do now?” Eventually, reputation manage-
ment becomes an issue for every business
owner. Here are five insider secrets that
will help you avert your reputation crisis:
1. Google alerts: Signing up for Google
Alerts allows you to receive notifications
every time your predefined keywords
are mentioned on the web. Simply go to
www.google.com/alerts and input que-
ries you wish to be notified about (e.g.,
your practice name, your name, etc.),
how often you want to be notified, and
provide the email address where the
alerts should be sent.
2. Encourage feedback: Feedback
builds credibility, regardless of whether
it’s positive or negative. Positive reviews
online can help boost search engine
rankings, provide new patients with a
sense of trust, and help quiet the nega-
tivity of one unsettling review.
An exorbitant amount of negative
feedback is bad, very bad. But the occa-
sional bad review is not the end-all and
be-all of your reputation. Though unde-
sirable, responding to a negative review
in a courteous, professional manner
shows patients that you care and want
to solve the issue at hand.
An absence of online reviews is also a
red flag. Without a solid understanding
of other patient experiences, prospects
feel like a practice without reviews is
more of a gamble. Thus, they are less like-
ly to select said practice as their provider.
Don’t forget about moderating your
blog comments. Your practice blog is a
great way to educate patients and pros-
pectsaboutyourservices;however,iffor-
mer patients are leaving negative com-
ments about their experiences, you may
inadvertently be losing new patients.
Luckily, blog engines allow administra-
tors to moderate comments. Changing
your settings and requiring comments
to be approved before they are published
could prevent you from unknowingly
perpetuating negative feedback.
3. Realize it takes only one fatal
flaw: Major corporations have had
their fair share of meltdowns and know
it takes only one negative customer ex-
perience to explode online, causing sig-
nificant damage to their reputation.
When large companies experience
negative feedback that goes viral, they
promptly respond to the problem, ad-
mit they did wrong, vow it won’t hap-
pen again, and revamp their procedures.
Should you suffer the setback of viral
negativity, follow mega-corporations
and take responsibility — “right” your
“wrong” — and generate a plan to pre-
vent the situation from reoccurring.
Just as the initial negative complaint
was publicized online, publicize your
renewed customer service policy, and re-
member to always provide patients with
superior care.
4. Use available resources: There
are free online resources that can help
you build your personal online repu-
tation. Brand Yourself is a self-guided
reputation management firm that allows
users to control the spending they put
toward personal reputation manage-
ment link building. A free account with
the company enables users to influence
the Google search results for their cho-
sen name. The user can then link profiles,
add backlinks, and manipulate their
pages to help rank desired pages while
bumping less favorable pages down in
the search engine results. To start your
free account, go to https://brandyour-
self.com/.
5. Consider a reputation manage-
ment professional: A good reputa-
tion can take years to build, and you do
not want to let negative online reviews
destroy it. To prevent this, you may want
to consider hiring a company such as
Demandforce. This type of professional
reputation management improves pa-
tient satisfaction and your online repu-
tation by allowing you to personally re-
spond to unhappy patient reviews. This
service helps to deter negative public-
ity from being circulated online for pro-
spective patients to see.
Remember to continually monitor what
Internet users are saying about your brand.
With the ever-increasing popularity of on-
line review sites, it’s no longer a matter of
“if” but “when” you receive your first nega-
tive patient review. When that time comes,
you will want to respond with integrity to
keep your online reputation glowing, but
you will also want to adapt your services
and professional approach to prevent a
situation in the future.
Lance McCollough is the founder and
CEO of ProSites, a
leading website design
and Internet marketing
company for dental
professionals. ProSites
helps doctors attract
new patients and grow
their practices through innovative website
solutions, search engine optimization,
mobile websites, social media, and local
search marketing strategies. To learn
more, visit www.ProSites.com or call
(888) 332-2114.