How to Get Optometry Patient Reviews

Are you ready to take your optometry practice to the next level by freshening up your marketing strategy? We’ll let you in on a surefire way to attract new patients and boost the retention of your current ones. Keep reading to find out what’s one of the most overlooked marketing strategies for optometrists. Hint: it actually involves your patients.

If you guessed patient reviews, you’re correct! Reviews are immensely important, especially for medical practices. When it comes to health, people aren’t willing to take risks, so showing that you’re capable of taking excellent care of your patients can go a long way.

Online patient reviews can have a significant impact on the reputation of your optometry practice. Almost everyone relies on reviews when choosing a service provider. This means that online reviews, and the way you collect, manage, and respond to them, can have a huge impact on your business’ success.

But first, how do you get patient reviews?

No matter how happy patients are with the service they received at your clinic, they aren’t likely to leave a review if it’s difficult for them to do. Developing a marketing strategy that includes requesting or even incentivizing reviews will greatly increase the number of reviews you get. You can send emails to customers with direct links to leave reviews.

Reviews are a unique medium to work with, so if you want to incorporate them strategically, it’s important to hire an agency that specializes in optometry marketing. They’ll know how to cultivate good reviews and help you figure out how to best use them in marketing efforts.

To use your reviews effectively to improve your reputation, consider set out below recommendations.

Reply to reviews, and don’t ignore the negative

When you start to get patient reviews, it's important that you carefully monitor them. This will help you stay in control of your reputation. It's critical that you respond to all of your reviews, both positive and negative. Thank patients for their kind words and address any concerns raised in negative reviews. This shows that you value feedback and are committed to improving your practice and patient experience. You could even reply to negative reviews after resolving an issue they brought up (long check in process, confusing location) and explain the steps you took to resolve the issue. This can bring back an unsatisfied customer or swing their opinion to neutral.

Share your positive reviews

Positive reviews can be a powerful marketing tool for your optometry practice. They help you to build a strong reputation and let potential patients know that they can trust you to provide them with the highest level of service.

Why wouldn’t you use positive reviews to show off your skills? They’re a low-cost and effective way to demonstrate why new patients should choose your clinic. You can use positive reviews in multiple marketing streams to boost your practice’s visibility and reputation.

Focus on what makes you special

Share positive reviews on your website to showcase the quality of care you provide. This can help build trust with potential patients and differentiate your practice from competitors.

Be sure to highlight the unique qualities that set you apart from your competitors. Are you always using the latest technology? Do you offer a relaxing atmosphere? By highlighting reviews about these benefits, you’ll help patients understand what they can expect from your optometry practice and what makes you special. This will help them feel like they know your practice, making them more comfortable booking an appointment.

Utilize social media

Social media is another useful platform to show off your positive reviews and even customer testimonials. Social media makes it easy for people to share posts and images, and hashtags and advertising settings can ensure your posts are seen by a wide audience.

Because optometry marketing agencies know how to use reviews effectively, you’ll be rewarded for the hard work you put in with your patients each day. Patients will feel valued and know that they can trust you with your health. You could even ask satisfied customers for video testimonials.

Turn reviews into taglines

Incorporate positive reviews into your advertising strategy as well. Quotes from happy customers make convincing taglines. Positive reviews often do an excellent job at summarizing what it is that makes your practice great and are a persuasive advertising tool.

Create patient success stories

You could also use reviews to create patient success stories. Every positive review is proof that you’ve provided excellent service and resolved a medical issue for your patients. Use this to create a compelling narrative.

For example, if you have a client whose dry eye problems were resolved by a procedure at your clinic, turn it into a shareable success story. It will demonstrate both your skill and passion as a healthcare professional.

Don’t forget about SEO

Reviews make exceptional content for people to see and share, but they also play a valuable role in SEO. Reviews create unique, user-generated content. This will help your optometry practice to rank higher in search engines, which love fresh content, especially if it’s been generated by real patients. Effective use of reivews can generate more organic traffic for your website.

As you work to increase your patient base and optometry practice brand awareness, it’s vital to have a strategy to manage your reviews. By using them to your advantage, reviews can have a compelling effect on your audience. Reviews bolster other content creation and improve SEO. They add legitimacy to your practice and instill a sense of trust in potential patients.

Develop a strong review strategy that empowers existing customers to become your brand's advocates. Give customers a reason to recommend you. Even bad reviews give you an opportunity to learn and improve, so you want your clients to have the confidence to talk about their experiences with you. Remember that any written review, even if it’s bad, is still better than a great review that doesn’t exist.

If you’re looking for a better way to use reviews, consider partnering with a dedicated optometric marketing agency. They’ll help you collect positive reviews and put them to use in powerful marketing strategies to successfully promote your practice.