The Perfect Patient Review Workflow

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Welcome back to podiatry marketing. I'm Tyson Franklin, and with me as usual every week, my cohost, big Jim Mac. How are you doing today, Jim?

Tyson, I'm doing well. Just getting back from a kid's three and a half, four hour concert. I'm a little I don't know. We'll see how I hang on to this episode, but it's been a long night.

Kids concerts. I do remember going to them, and some like I I mentioned to you off air, my daughter's dancing concerts, I used to absolutely love them because I could because it might be a two hour concert, but she would be involved in concert for probably 80% of it, so you get to see her performing. But there were some other things that you had to attend where she'd be out there for, like, ninety seconds. You had to sit there for two hours. You go, oh, boy.

This shows the love you have for your child when you

do that

sort of thing.

It it's definitely a test. It's definitely a test. I think I passed tonight, but I definitely feel you there.

Okay. What are we talking about today?

So today, we're gonna talk about the perfect review patient review workflow. I think, you know, we've talked about kind of generalities about, you know, why some patient reviews are important, you know, what it can do for your practice. But we're really gonna get into specifics today and kinda jump into how to make it happen. I think there's a lot of different ways that people can do it. You know, there's different workflows.

There's automated versus, you know, asking for a review. There's a lot of different ways of doing it, but I'm gonna run through what I think is the best way for people to pursue those patient reviews because they're hugely important if you want local visibility in your area.

Yeah. And I think there's a lot of confusion around reviews for people as well. So I think this is a great topic, a timely topic.

Well, I think it's super super important. Number one, because when I talk to other kind of local SEO experts and I was on a I spoke at a conference last week online with a lot of them. And what what they really say is that reviews are are kind of a huge, you know, for your Google business profile, for your local visibility because it shows that, you know, people are interacting with Google. Right? You know, if you're just people are just looking around on Google, maybe clicking on some links, that's one thing.

But when people are actually leaving reviews and sometimes even if they leave photos, they're talking about some business. I'm not sure you're gonna get many of your patients to leave, you know, pictures of their feet, you know, on on on some permanent channel like Google reviews. But, you know, there's a huge signal when there's a well written review or if people do use photos in different businesses that Google really, really likes that and is gonna surface you more often when you have those written reviews. So that's why, you know, number one why it's hugely important that you're you're kind of doing this. If you're a little on the fence like, well, I'm not sure.

I wanna do reviews. What's is that really that important? But when you have recent reviews, you know, if you have reviews from six months ago or a year ago, doesn't really matter. But the more recent your reviews are, the better you're gonna rank in that map pack and sometimes even in organic rankings.

Yeah. But my wife and I, we talk about this all the time. It doesn't matter what we're doing, whether it's a service, a product we're buying. If we're look looking at it and we're investigating a bit deeper, one of the things we look at is the reviews and also the recency of the reviews. But if there's a business that's got two reviews and another one's got 200, it's it's sort of you get steered very easily to the one that's got the most reviews.

And especially if there was any review last week, you go, okay. The at least that's what's happening right now.

No. Absolutely. I think you're right. Think somewhere somewhere between 80 to 90% of people before they make a buying decision or looking for a dentist or looking for, you know, for somewhere to eat, they're gonna do some online research. Right?

So, you know, they're gonna read reviews. They're gonna see, you know, what's happening. They're gonna compare, you know, is that, like you said, five star to 10 star or is there a 100 star or a thousand star business? You know, so it's it's a real kind of a relativity thing. You know, if you're in a small area where maybe the clinics only have 15 or 20 reviews, you can really stand out by being, you know, double or triple that.

So it's a real relative game you have. And if you're in a big urban area, maybe someone has a thousand reviews, and how can you get to the point where you're competitive with them? So I think it's a it's a really important component of it. And like you talked about, it's it's not just obviously, podiatry, but we do that same thing for other businesses. And this becomes a a way of kind of showing trust in in in the businesses you're you're interested in.

Right? You know, by people providing that review for you and kind of utilizing that digital word-of-mouth, they're kind of extending their trust into the community that you are reputable. You're the professional. You're the person to see.

I like what you said too about a lot of times people aren't gonna take a photo of their feet while they're at the podiatry clinic. But there could be times when you're using a piece of equipment, and if a patient actually says to you, wow. That's really interesting. I haven't seen that before. How does that work?

And you're explaining it to them, You could quite easily say to the patient, hey. You can take a photo of that if you want and post it on social media. Have you done a review before? No. That'd be a perfect photo to go with a Google review.

And I think a lot of patients who like you, they actually want to help you. They'll do whatever they can.

Yeah. If you're providing great care, they're gonna sing your name from the rooftops. And like we talked about previously, when other people talk to you about you and the great care you provide, that's much more valuable than, you know, where you went to residency or some crazy long bio that no one's gonna read on your website?

Well, we've had a few businesses, especially when we're in America. Not as much in Australia. When we're in America at different restaurants and we've had a great meal and I go, oh, how was your meal? We go, oh, that was absolutely fantastic. And they always say to us, saw you taking some photos before the meal.

If you're gonna do a a review, by all means, feel free to post those photos. Okay. So we do it while we're sitting there at the table waiting for dessert. We'll we'll post the photos. So it's sometimes, just that a little bit of encouragement is fantastic.

No. Just yeah. Giving them that option or opportunity to do that, it it can go a long way.

Okay. So there are any, like, stats or anything about all this?

Yeah. Like, talked about it. It's kinda like when people are making buying decisions, whether it'd be, you know, looking for maybe where they're get their oil change or if they wanna see a dentist. You know? It's somewhere in the ballpark of 89 80 to 90% of people will look at online reviews before making that decision.

So definitely something worth considering. Also, I'd say there's some common mistakes people will make whenever they you know, when they're kind of getting this kind of workflow into you know, or not if they don't have workflow, you know, what are they missing out on? And I would say that, you know, when you wait too long to ask for a review, you're already out of mind with the patient. Right? So, you know, their people are busy.

So if you're not asking, you know, either at the time of service or, you know, that same day, you're gonna be losing out on not only the potential to get that review, but also a well written review. Because if you ask days later or a week later, they're gonna kinda forget those details. And you really want them to be kind of fresh out of the clinic and ready to, you know, having had a great experience. And that's kind of that prime time to ask for the review. Also, you'll find that people are asking either inconsistently or, you know, when they're doing it kind of in a one off manual style, you know, it's just kind of like not really sure when they're asking, is it after the patient visit?

But I really recommend people are, you know, looking more when someone has that wow experience or they're better from a surgery or some type of procedure you did some type of modality, that's the right time to ask. And if you're just asking every once in a while when you feel like it or you don't have a kind of a workflow in place, it it's a recipe for disaster because you're gonna miss out on so many good reviews that could potentially help really boost you up into that kind of trusted provider area in in the in the Google review section.

Yeah. When I was asked before about the stats, I did recall seeing a business once. I think it was a restaurant or it was a cafe, and up it had a sign up there, and it said, here's the statistic. People that leave reviews get more sex. It was something along those lines that if you leave a review, statistically proven you get more sex when you get home.

What do you got to lose? You might as well do every goo.

Yeah. I'm not sure that's gonna work for podiatry clinics, but you never know. So

But you could do but you could do a twist on it. You not you might not wanna do it exactly like that, but you could do a twist on it that, do you know that people that leave reviews look sexier, walk taller, been proven that their feet feel better after they leave a review. We don't know how it works. It just works.

There you go.

People who listen to this guy, No. Okay. But anyway, if anyone decides to open up a side business, you could use that one.

No. For sure. I'll definitely take that down and consider that for me for podiatry growth. A good way to get some some some of my marketing service reviews.

Well, that's what and I'm I'm telling everyone right now. If you're enjoying the podcast and you haven't left us a review yet, if you leave a review for this podcast, guaranteed, you will get more sex when you get home.

That's quite the guarantee. So

Is that a carrot or what?

Alright. So Sorry. No. It's all good. Like, I got some crazy stuff going upstairs as well.

So but yeah. So the other mistake I see is that people are not knowing kind of, you know, where where they where they needed most as far as the reviews. Like, sometimes people kinda scattershot them around. You know, there's RadeMDs. There's Vitals.

There's a bunch of different places where you can leave reviews. But at least for right now, the best place to leave them is Google. You know, like, the reason why we do that is because that's where most people are searching for these types of services, you know, for your foot and ankle care. You know, maybe they might end up on RadeMDs or vitals or something. But right now, your best bang for your buck is to be on Google.

And then it's also people failing to respond or engage with the views afterwards, either positive or negative. It's crazy that, you know, you're not responding to any negatives, but I think it does make make a lot of sense to respond to the positive ones, you know, reiterate the positive comments they had about your clinic. You know, obviously not sharing any health information about, you know, why they were there, but it shows, you know, it shows that you care. I think it's also something where you should do it in a way that's not just like an automated response. Because if it's something shows up, you know, two minutes after they left a review, it's a bit of a like it it doesn't feel as genuine.

Mhmm. So you may not have to write them all, but if there's a way you can kinda batch them, you know, at the end of the day or once every other day, it's okay to let it hang out for a day or two. That isn't that's not necessarily a bad thing for a positive review. If it's a negative review, definitely wanna wanna get into it as soon as possible and either address it offline and see if that person's willing to change their review. If not, you just need to address it so it's just not kinda hanging out there, kinda collecting dust and making people think that, you know, you don't really care about your patients or the people you take care of in your clinic.

Yeah. And most people, if they've set it up properly, they will get a email from Google to say a review has been left. So there's your reminder. So just be aware in your clinic who is actually getting those emails, how have you got it set up, and where are those emails going? Because if it's going to a computer that you have nothing to do with and the team look or team member looking after that doesn't know they're supposed to be responding, then it could just be sitting there.

So you've gotta come up with a some form of workflow to make sure that's happening. I know even with YouTube when people leave a comment about one of the videos there straight away, I get an email, and I'm onto it pretty much that same day.

Yeah. Having someone responsible for either the if you're doing it through automated means or either you're doing something like using that software like GatherUp to kind of do it, you know, when the doctor asks after having seen a patient who's very happy with the result. You just need to have a a feedback loop and a loop there to make sure that those either positive or negative reviews aren't just sitting going to somewhere that no one's looking at for sure.

Okay. What's next? So next is, okay, what

is the kinda like so you talk I've been talking about a workflow, but what is that kind of workflow and kinda what what is the way that you ask, you know, how can you guide these reviews and how can you amplify them? It's kind of a three stage workflow that can really help people, you know, kind of kind of figure out this this way to ask for the reviews and kinda get those reviews you wanna have in your clinic. So like I said, number one is ask. You gotta find a way to build it into the visit. You know, where does it fit best kinda in that patient visit?

Generally, it's gonna be near the tail end of that in clinic, you know, in that clinic room encounter. You know, I think a lot of doctors these days understand the importance of reviews and aren't shy to ask for them. But you can ask for them in a in a way that, you know, gives the patient the opportunity to say no, but also let letting them know that, you know, if if you've received great care here and you're very happy with the care you received, it'd be great if you could share it online because then a lot of other people in the community can receive this care as well. So, you you can ask, you as the provider can ask, maybe you prefer having your medical assistant ask, you know, someone at your front desk could kinda follow-up with it. There's different types of systems that kinda get into the ask, but someone, either you, your medical assistant, or your front desk staff should be kind of the one asking for it.

I think it is important to ask whether you're doing automated or non automated, because patients then will kind of understand that there's kind of not an expectation, but it feels more human to ask for it, they're probably more likely to respond with a good response as opposed to kinda like a great clinic or three stars or four stars and something that's not really helpful to your practice.

Yeah. Well, most of the reviews I've ever left, I'd say 50% of them I've been prompted by the person we've interacted with at the business, where they've actually said, oh, you've enjoyed this or you had a good time. If you'd like to leave us a review, that'd be great, and we'll do that. Other times, it's because I've taken photos, and when I'm looking at photos later, it's prompted me to actually do it. But I've said it numerous times.

I think the more reviews you leave for people, the more reviews you get because it's then top of mind. Then when when you're with your patients, you're more inclined to mention it. My personal belief, the podiatrist should be asking for it.

Yeah. That I think that's you know, you're gonna get better reviews. You're gonna get more reviews that way, I think, when the podiatrist asks for it. So, yeah, I definitely think that that that's where it should start.

Okay. So what's after ask?

So after you ask your basically, the the term you can think about is guide. So we wanna be guiding these people. We don't wanna say, hey. Go to Google and leave a review for us. Right?

Like, I've seen that happen.

I like that part. Hey. Hey. You. Boy.

Go to Google. Leave that review.

Well, you're asking for a review. You need to give them kind of a path to walk down. Right? So, obviously, that's most likely gonna go to Google. But are you, you know, sending them an email?

Are you just sending them a text message? You There's different software, I use Gather Up with the clinics that I work with, and I find that it's very helpful because all the front desk staff has to do is basically after they've said yes to you, you can make a little mark in your either on your EMR, your electronic medical record, or maybe a piece of paper you can send to your front staff front desk staff, and they'll kind of reiterate that, hey, missus Smith, we're gonna send you a review. Then you can kinda they can get it in whatever form that is most helpful, makes it easier for them fill out the review, and then you can send it to them. But if you're just kinda leaving it, there's different ways as well. Some people like to use QR codes.

Yeah.

And sometimes you see those QR codes at the desk, which like

Little stands.

Yeah. I'm not usually a big fan of the stands, or there's sometimes ones that actually can have like a chip in them where you can actually, it'll kinda pop up and give them an opportunity to make a review there. But generally, I prefer people to be outside the clinic when making their reviews. You know, if you're handing someone a tablet, hey, give me a review, or you're making them kind of stand around longer in the clinic filling out a They're gonna basic form, fill out like a really short text review maybe, maybe just a star review, and that's not ideal. You want someone to have a little bit of time to put some thought into it and to write a couple paragraphs that are really gonna help you stand out.

So when you guide them, just be aware of, you know, what system you're using. If you're using QR codes there, if you're using QR codes on a business card, you know, what are the kind of ways that someone won't follow through? And I find that something like Gather Up is is a little bit more bulletproof than just like, here's my card of the QR code or there's the QR code there on the desk or just like, hey. You should you know, you said you leave a review. Just go to Google.

You're gonna get only angry patients going to Google most likely. I get a lot of one stars that way because, yeah, like, no one's really gonna, yeah, do that, I think.

Well, I also think it's one of those things too. If you're asking people for reviews and you're not getting them, sometimes you could think of it. Is the service that you're providing average? Are you only just meeting their expectations and then going, well, I'll give you a review, but you just did your job. And if if that happens a lot, then I think you gotta look and go, okay.

What do we what can we do to exceed everyone's expectations? Therefore, we'll get more reviews.

No. Absolutely. I think it's a great feedback loop. Right? If you're either not getting reviews or getting ones that are very lukewarm, you know, maybe since you asked for them, they're gonna feel a little bit like they're not gonna slam you, but, like, it's it's a four star.

Or it's, like, kind of it's a little wishy washy.

Jim was good. Exactly.

So I think it's important, like you said, if you take that as, you know, like, if you're if you're getting a low in reviews, like, why has there been why has it been two weeks or three weeks since you got that last review? It's it could be a sign that maybe there's some things you need to work on in some of your processes. So definitely, I'm glad you brought that up.

Well, I've had people say that to me that, oh, we're not getting any reviews. I'm go, maybe you don't deserve them. True. I'm thinking that they go, oh, okay. Maybe.

So what's next? Yep.

So last in this kind of a ask guide, and then the last one is Amplify. So, you know, when you get these reviews, the nice thing about it is different software tools can sometimes change these five star well written reviews to things that you can embed embed on your website. It's something you can make social media posts about. Basically, you can use you know, it can utilize it kinda on your local SEO. So in The US, least with permission, you can utilize since they've given you the view on this Google site.

You're able to sometimes repurpose that into ways that will help build trust in these different digital platforms. So amplifying the great things that people are saying about you, I know it's not possible in all kinda corners of the world. But in The US at least, in North America, you can utilize those that you use to show people that you are trusted by others and it's a great way to market your practice.

Yeah. Well, I know in The UK, they can use reviews and testimonials. Australia, not so much. Little bit little bit tighter on on how how you use them, but I've seen people use the reviews in marketing in Australia, and no one's complained. So I don't know.

Okay. So what what comes next?

So next is, like like I talked about a little bit with Ask Guide and Amplify is like, so what kind of tools are you gonna be using here? Right? If you're just kinda asking like, hey. Go leave me a review on Google. Not gonna happen.

But, you know, sometimes people will start off with these QR codes. I don't think there's anything wrong with them, but there are different levels. So after the QR code, my next step would be utilizing something like Gatherup. We can get these reviews through either sending out a text message or an email. You know, people can utilize sometimes these automated request review requests.

I just think you should have kind of a low expectation about the quality of reviews you're gonna get if you get those. And sometimes you're gonna send an automated review to someone that's not really happy with the service that they provided you provided. So be aware of that. You're gonna maybe have to be a little bit more on top of the reviews when they come in to make sure there is a one or a two star that that is responded to more quickly.

Yeah.

So I think it is important that, you know, you're utilizing tools to make it easier because, you know, whether it's the marketing agency you're working with or a consultant like myself or someone on your staff, you wanna have something that's really user friendly, but you need to have a tool to make it happen. Like I said, there's there's different things you can do with QR codes and kinda leave them around the practice. But if you really wanna take your review game up to the next level, make sure you're getting a lot of recent reviews. And that recency is super important to help you rank and to make sure you're, you know, visually better than the other you know, visually with more reviews than other people in your local area. I definitely highly recommend some tooling to of to ask, you know, to help ask for them, to guide the patient, to lead them, and then to amplify what you're doing there.

And like I said, it's something that, you you can kind of, you wanna start off by, you know, getting those reviews for your clinic. Sometimes it's helpful to kind of send those to some of the the providers in your practice. But and foremost, you wanna get those utilize a tool that's gonna help you get the maximum amount of positive reviews for your clinic.

And I think it comes back to something you said earlier on too about who's actually asking for the review. I think if you personally are doing it, you're probably gonna get more reviews about yourself, which is I think it's great. If you got your receptionist or somebody else doing it, then you're probably gonna get more reviews of the overall clinic depending on the the process that you're actually using.

Yeah. Absolutely. I think it starts with the clinic, but there there's definitely it can be kind of a, you know, a umbrella factor kind of a know, by kinda being associated with the clinic that you're gonna get more positive reviews with the individual provider Google Business Profile. So hugely important. Like I said, you know, these reviews are kind of a a flywheel for your kind of your practice growth.

You When you show consistent reviews, it's gonna build that online trust and really help build reputation. Because if you have 500 reviews and the next clinic in your area has 50, it's a clear signal to patients that are looking for foot and ankle care about who the best person to go to is. You know, I think that sweet spot somewhere between four point seven and four point nine, as long as you're in that area with a lot of reviews, I think you're gonna be really successful. And I really encourage people listening to podcasts to track your progress. Right?

You know, how many reviews are you getting per week? What's the average rating? You know you know, what is you know, if we kinda implemented a workflow, you know, is it, you know are you kind of improving on it? You know, just making sure that you're aware of, you know, what you're doing and the kind of analytics and some of the the data behind it so you can make sure that you are growing your practice through all these online reviews.

Yeah. And what I really love about reviews, but compared these days compared to years ago before we had all the whole review process, when it used to be, people go to Yellow Pages, and whoever had the biggest ad won. So it's whoever had the most money to put the ad in there would win that battle in the yellow pages. What I like about reviews is an even playing ground for everybody. And and it's up to each individual individual business to put the time and effort in to work through this whole process that you've been talking about to actually get the result they want.

They wanna just sit on the bum and do nothing. I'm gonna worry about reviews. The person that does worry about it and who's listening to this and actually taking notes and going back to the team and say, hey. We need to have a team meeting about this. They're gonna do well.

They're gonna do better than the person who just thinks just spending money in other areas is going to actually win this race.

No. I mean, if you're being passive, you're just gonna get left behind, to be honest. Like you said, you're gonna get those maybe you're gonna occasionally get a five star, someone who's a really, you know, a raving fan like we talked about in previous podcasts that really wants you to succeed. But the majority of reviews you're gonna get kinda passively are gonna be people that are angry with their copay or angry with their deductible or something that doesn't necessarily have to do with you. Like, it's not even in the care you provided.

Something kinda in that experience that they had either with front desk staff about, oh, they said I had to pay $50 for copay. It's you know, so you're gonna get those one star reviews there. But the the other thing is, you know, like like you said, it's a person that's taking action and making it a priority that's gonna, it's a wide open thing. You have a great opportunity to build that online reputation and trust in the great care you provide, but you have to take the step. It's not just gonna happen automatically.

Even the best podiatrist out there, the the best surgeon, the best clinicians, you know, they have to ask for reviews in order for people to see you. And it's one of those things that's, you know, it's digital. It's kinda online word-of-mouth that you have to help facilitate. And once you give them that platform, then they'll they'll sing your praises. You'll get a lot of reviews.

You'll get growth from it. You'll be happy. But if you just kinda sit back and just hope they flood in, you're gonna be you're gonna be sad. You're not gonna be happy because it's not gonna happen.

Yeah. You don't wanna be sad. So anything else before we wrap up?

Nothing. That's a good spot to wrap up. I just like I said, I encourage people to take action with this. Feel free to reach out to Tyson and myself about reviews. I think they're hugely important for clinics these days.

Like I said, when it comes to Google rankings, you know, review recency is huge these days. So don't sleep on reviews. You really need to have a workflow in place to rank high in your local area.

Yeah. And I think what I said before is taking notes from this episode, getting together with your team, going through what you learned on this episode, and ask your team, have you left reviews anywhere else? Why did you leave your review? What type of review did you leave? And and really create like a think tank on how you can actually implement this in your business and just just make it better.

Absolutely. Okay, Big Jim. I look forward to talking to you next week.

Sounds great, Tyson.

Oh, it's your birthday next week too.

Oh.

Just so you know.

Lucky me.

Okay. Talk to you later. Bye. Bye, Tyson.

Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDonnell. Subscribe and learn more at podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.