Why Great Reviews Deserve More Than Just a Thank You

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

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome back to this week's episode of podiatry marketing. With me as usual as usual is big Jim Mac. How are doing today, Jim?

Tyson, I'm good. I'm happy to be back in my regular podcast video podcast studio and chat with you today. So

Yeah. It's it's weird, isn't it? When you travel or you're away and you're still doing a podcast, then it's no it's never quite the same. It's when when you're in back in your own environment, it's just I don't know. Everything everything just seems normal.

No. For sure. It's just nice to kinda be back, and, yeah, it just feels like things are in place. You know, them starting to kinda get unpacked and, you know, get things set up in a way. So, yeah, hopefully, everything is good with the new setup.

Well, not the new old setup, I guess, but back to my desktop computer and, you know, a light and all kinds of stuff. So it's, yeah, it's always interesting to get back into the flow of things.

Okay. Well, you're looking fantastic.

Well, thanks.

Okay. So what are we what are we talking about today?

Yeah. So today is we're gonna jump into a little bit about reviews. I think, you know, in the past, we've talked a lot about, you know, different workflows, how to gather them up, you know, what makes for a good review, what makes for a good reply. But, you know, once you get those positive reviews, you know, there's something that could be done about them. So we're gonna die dive a little more deeply into you know, once you get these positive reviews and you reply to them, are there other ways you can help kind of amplify or get these reviews more visibility, especially the, obviously, the really, really positive ones?

Yeah. No. The I think it's great topic because and everybody wants more reviews. And I think if you're going to get them, you you wanna leverage them as much as you can.

Absolutely. I think it's not too dissimilar from, you know, when we make this podcast, we need to turn it into, like, you know, snippet content. There's all kinds of things we can turn it into to make sure that people are aware of our podcast. Same thing goes for when you have great reviews. You know, it's gonna help amplify your trust.

Like we've talked in the past, you know, people aren't going to websites to look at which residency you went to, which school you went to. Yeah. You know, they really wanna hear from other people about the way you took care of them. So, you know, ninety percent of patients, you know, read online reviews, you know, before choosing a health care provider, you get those positive reviews. You really wanna make sure that you're kinda making that local SEO impact because, you know, a strong volume of positive reviews really can help your clinic, you know you know, be more visible in that map pack and Google show up better, you know, as these AI chatbots and other things are kind of, you know, moving in that direction.

But, you know, it's a really, really important thing that, you know, along with, you know, showing up in local SEO and and ranking well that you kinda have that emotional connection. Right? When people take the time to write a, you know, a paragraph about how great you are, if there's some ways that you can reuse that, it's gonna be much better than you just talking about yourself. It's that kind of word that kind of digital word-of-mouth like we've talked about in the past where, you know, patients are gonna trust other patients much more than you just kind of either advertising or, you know, boasting about how how you're the greatest things in sliced bread when it comes to foot and ankle stuff.

And if people don't believe this, if they're like, you know, sitting on the fence, don't know whether reviews are as important or what Jim's talking about. Just think of the last time you stayed at a hotel or you went to a restaurant. Did you look at the reviews to decide where you're going to go? And if there were two restaurants serving the same had the same menu and one had 55 star reviews and the other one had no reviews, I know straight away which one most people would choose. You wouldn't risk it, but you wouldn't risk going to the other one when you've got all this positive information on the other side.

So I think it works for podiatry exactly the same way.

No. It's a huge trust builder. Right? You know, like you talked about it, there's a a large number of views. You know, like and we talked about it.

If it's somewhere in the 4.7 or higher range. You know? If it's five point o, maybe people are gonna be a little suspect. But in that 4.7 to 4.9, I'd say kinda like Goldilocks region. I think that's that's super important.

And like you said, the number of reviews is really gonna and not just like great doc or five star and no no review. You know, it's like that written review is is golden, and you can kinda utilize those written views in some ways to to really kinda highlight it to your local community.

Yeah. And I've seen people use good reviews in their marketing. When they get a good review, they they put it on Facebook. They put it on LinkedIn. They put it on the different social platforms.

They add it to their website. And I've seen some of them even use it in, like, print advertising. You gone to magazine, they go, here's a review that someone wrote, and you read through it, and it's it's a real person, and it sounds real. And it just and that builds credibility and trust.

No. Absolutely. That that kinda jumps into the first part is like, you know, where where can you showcase them? And the first most important part is on your website. Right?

So not just on I mean, definitely starting by putting it on your homepage. If it's not above the full one that your website loads, maybe it's kinda in that middle section of your homepage. But, you know, also if you're running ads or if you're trying to get people to come to very specific pages on your website, having, you know, either, like, a really long review from a patient. Obviously, you've had you've had their permission or they left it on Google. But there's different kind of widgets you can put onto your website that look very professional.

You know, you can kind of you know, depending on the the volume of of reviews you're getting and the types of reviews you're getting, sometimes you can even narrow down to keywords. So let's say you have an ingrown toenail page and you have enough people mentioning in reviews that this doctor did a great job with my ingrown toenail, you could actually kind of, you know, filter it down so you're just kinda showing those specific types of reviews. So the more relevant and more specific the reviews you can show on your website, the more it's gonna kinda build trust. You know, I think the easiest platform to kinda display is usually from Google. They're gonna tie into a lot of these widgets pretty easily.

You know, some of the other smaller health care websites might be a little tougher, but I think it is really, really important that, like you said, there if you can get these kind of service specific reviews on those service specific pages, it it can have a really, really big impact.

That is a great point. And I think it's something people don't realize. If somebody does say, oh, I got nail surgery done at this clinic, and it was absolutely fantastic, highly recommended, then that needs to be on your page where you're grown toenails. Because I have seen some reviews where the most recent ones would just say, oh, the the receptionist was really friendly, and the clinic was welcoming. You know, they're they're good.

They're still good reviews. They keep your number up there, but if they're not talking about the podiatrist or a service, I think sometimes you gotta try and encourage those.

No. I think that's the it's kinda how you're asking for the review in the first place. Right? You know, if you had a great result from this procedure, it'd be great if you wouldn't mind writing about it in a Google review. And if they say no, fine fantastic.

But if they are willing to, you've kinda led them down the path as far as what the expectation or what they can write about. Right? You've helped them out in a way that will actually help you out down the road as well. Because like you said, you know, when you have those very specific reviews with with the words in them, and you put them on those service specific webs web pages, you know, when people go look at your website for those types of services and they see someone that's had the exact same thing as they need to have done. They've had a great result at your clinic.

The conversion rates for those people is gonna be much much higher than like you said, if, you know, Sally at the front desk was amazing and you put that on the ingrown toenail page or the foot surgery page. Like that's it's a nice thing. It's a nice to have, but it doesn't really kinda seal the deal in a way that a really service specific review can do that. So, you know, the more kinda social proof you can put onto your website, it's gonna really help patients make these kind of booking decisions and see you as that expert that they wanna book with.

So should a clinic if they wanna promote a particular service, and they're they're doing that with certain patients and they're getting good results, they should then it might be for that week or that month, put some focus into that particular service and just make sure anyone that's using it, that's your that's your focus this month. We need to make sure patients are talking about this particular service, not just overall.

Yeah. Like I said, like, when you ask for the review, there's ways to kinda, like, facilitate. Like, you know, if you had a great procedure, it'd be great if you wouldn't mind sharing that. And then, like I said, there's some software that you can utilize that kinda, like, filters out. So let's say I wanna have ingrown toenail stuff.

Right? There's there's certain widgets if you say like, if ingrown is is mentioned or or toenail is mentioned, you know, in any review, please display those. Right? If any four star or above or five star and above that use the word ingrown toenail, they can kinda filter that out and then show those, you know, maybe it's bunion surgery or bunion. So, you know, there's ways of I think you can do it with every patient.

You don't actually need to, like, change your focus each week to, like, let's try to get as many as possible. I think it is gonna be helpful if you have a large number of views already. You know, someone that's just starting out in practice and has seven or eight reviews, it might take you a little while to to build out that. But if you're a clinic that's been diligent about building and it's it's never too early to start getting those more specific reviews. But the the more the longer you've been asking in the right way, the more you're gonna have these really service specific reviews that you'll be able to utilize in a much more effective way in your marketing.

Yeah. And I think it's just it's habit forming. The more often you I know some people will go, oh, I don't like asking for reviews. I feel uncomfortable. I think but if someone's just said, hey, Jim, you're awesome.

They've just told you they think you're awesome. Perfect time to ask for that review. But I also think the more reviews you write yourself, the more reviews you will get. Because you'll just you'll just be in that frame of mind of of asking. And you know how good it feels when you write a review.

So, you know, try and make your patients feel good by helping them to write one.

Like we talked about, when someone lands on your homepage, they they may not know who you are. They don't know you from another clinic down the road, but what are ways you can build trust with that potential patient? And, obviously, showing your credentials a little bit about the state association or the surgical association you're part of, but then it becomes like they wanna hear from other people about you. So if you can put that more front and center either on your landing pages, on your home pages in a way that connects those people, you're much more likely to build that trust. And then they'll go ahead and make an appointment with you.

Okay. What's next? What else do they need to do?

Yeah. So what else is next is that we've talked about in the past that obviously your your website's still kind of your home on the Internet, but Google also has your Google Business profile. And a lot of people look at your Google Business profile and maybe the number of reviews, and they can click to make an appointment either, you know, click a link to to make one on a website, or they can call directly from Google Business profile. So it's really, really important that you're you're highlighting and utilize what is called Google Business Posts. So, you know, it's a form of kinda like I wouldn't call it social media, but it's a way of kind of you know, you can put there's different tools you're able to use.

I use something called Gather Up to take a five star review and make it into a very interesting image. You know, something that has the stars on it, has the review, you know, talks about how, you know, it it will kinda show in a graphically in a graphic and kinda visually pleasing way that you are that local expert that people have had a great experience with you. So you can make these kind of you know, you can export them as images or you can know, if you some of the platforms allow you to post it directly to to Google posts, also sometimes to your face your clinic's Facebook page. Maybe if you're if you're on LinkedIn and doing it, you can do that as well. But these kind of social media snippets or these kind of images can be created to look very professional.

And this is kind of, you know, when you're trying to do things organically. But then also potentially boost things up as well. You could use some paid ads, know, with these kind of graphics that you create or the marketing provider that you're working with creates to really kinda get more visibility for the great carrier providing because we've talked about in the past, social media organically, unless you have, you know, two or 3,000 people that like your clinic already, it's very, very hard to get visibility. You're get talking about one or 2% of your followers that are gonna maybe maybe see that. So sometimes boosting with some ads or some some ad spend dollars behind it can be a good way to get more visibility locally, but just remember that, you know, reviews aren't just for Google necessarily.

You know, Google business profile, you know, your other social channels can really benefit from content that's about the great care you provide.

So that pro that app you said you were using, you said Gather Up. Is it just spelled Gather Up or is it got some fancy funny spelling?

Yeah. So so it's gatherup.com. It's it's what I utilize to kind of collect reviews.

Yeah.

The clinics I work with is a software that used to collect the reviews and then respond to reviews. And then also, like I said, there's a section within that software where you can take, like, oh, I wanna make a social post from this, and it does all the kinda heavy lifting for you. It's got your logo in there, your brand colors, and all that kinda stuff. And it'll spit out either an image file for you or sometimes it can, if you've connected it to Facebook or to Instagram or other places, and go ahead and just do that for you through that software.

Yeah. And I think once you get these reviews too is, like you said, using them in your in your advertising, whether you're using it organically or or paying for it. And even if you only have 20, you can still you can you don't have to just post it once. You can do it time and time again, especially if it's a fantastic review.

Yeah. Absolutely.

I do it.

For sure.

Okay. So what's what's next on your list?

Yeah. So we talked about the website. We talked about social and, you know, Google Business profile. The next spot to use them is within some other kind of patient communication. Right?

So, you know, if you have a monthly or quarterly patient newsletter, know, you including one of these, you know, reviews in there could be really, really helpful, whether that's, like I said, something that was created in a software like GatherUp. Maybe you're at the point now where you're collecting kind of patient testimonials from a video standpoint. Something you're adding to your webs to your new patient newsletter can be very impactful just to remind, you know, patients who you are, what types of care you provide, and hear it not just from you, but also from patients can be pretty powerful thing.

Yeah. And that will encourage patients If they read somebody else's review and say, oh, I had I had a very similar experience, then that may encourage them to do a review as well.

No. Absolutely. I think one of the things too where, you know, maybe you have a reactivation campaign as well. You know, maybe it's for orthotics or something like that saying, you know, on you know, you can you can provide some reviews about how, you know, someone really was impressed by the reconditioning or refabrication of an orthotic. You know, didn't realize that after three years how much I'd worn out my orthotics, but then, you know, doc got me a new pair.

And that's something maybe you can utilize in, a reactivation campaign that's a little bit more targeted. If you have that permission from the patient to receive those kinds of emails as well, it can be really, really helpful.

One of the best reviews I got was just before I sold my clinic, and it's from a patient that I had been seeing twenty years. Met him at a a networking event. I might have mentioned him on one of our previous episodes. And he just wrote this great review. He hadn't been in for a number of years.

He came in to review his orthotics because he heard that I was selling the clinic, so he wanted to see me one more last time before he left. Anyway, did the review, looked at his orthotics were fine. He'd had a couple of pairs, so the ones that he brought in said, these are perfectly fine. I checked everything out. I would just keep using them.

He wrote this glaring review that, hey. Don't think that all health professionals are out there just to rip you off. He said, I hadn't seen these guys for a couple of years, went in with my orthotics. They reviewed them, looked at them, and said I didn't need to replace them. And it was good to review the exercises that I went over.

And so he's pretty much telling everybody, hey. You can see these guys, and just because you see them doesn't mean they're gonna go and charge you another couple $100. That they are actually an honest clinic to go to. And that is the type of one that you would use if you were doing recall letters, is putting that in your recalls and reactivations. So when people read that, they go, oh, so I'm not going to get new orthotics unless I need them.

No. Exactly. You're gonna take the time. You need to make sure they actually need them. So I think that's a that's a huge trust building piece like it is.

That's a great example of a review that is gonna build trust with those patients. It's not something you can actually if you if it's coming from you, yeah, it's it's gonna be a little bit different, hurt a little bit differently.

Oh, yeah. Same. If I told someone Jim's a great guy, they'll go, oh, yeah. Okay. If you tell them Jim's a great guy, they're gonna go, well, Jim, you're not gonna say you're not, are you?

Yeah. Yeah. Just in case anyone's wondering, Jim's a great guy. Just in case you're wondering.

For sure.

Before so you don't have to say

it yourself. Okay. So much for the kind words, Tyson. Nope. We'll jump into the next part.

I think that can be really helpful. And I I'm actually hearing this more and more from people I work with is that people are looking into getting digital displays either in their waiting room or sometimes in their their clinic clinic rooms. And you know, maybe it's a a written review, maybe it's a video testimonial, but I think priming people to show, like, how much they they how much they've enjoyed your care or, you know, like, the the great results they receive from you is a great way to kinda put patients in the right mindset. So whether it's digital screens, maybe it's, you know, putting reviews onto a poster or, you know, or there's some kind of way that you're, you know, linking these things out. I think it can be a great way to display, you know, those reviews that you received.

Like I said, maybe some of them led to testimonials that you can kind of put in more of a video context. But I think, you know, if there would be a video or written, in clinic displays is another way to help kinda hammer home to the patient either in a waiting room or even sometimes in your treatment rooms that you do provide great care and kinda show them that social proof even outside of the Internet, even in a physical location can be a powerful thing.

Yeah. I like video reviews because especially if somebody if they've done the video review very, you know, soon after actually having the treatment that and just just video reviews in general, I think they come across as a bit more real because you actually you see the person, you see the expression on the face. Unless you're holding a gun to the head, that doesn't never looks good.

No. Absolutely not.

Okay. What's next?

Yeah. I would just say, and, like, kind of the key takeaway there is that, you know, keep these reviews visible in physical locations as well. We talk a lot about, you know, the newsletters is great. You know, sometimes the reactivation emails can be helpful, but, you know, keeping them, you know, visible on those channels, but also physical places is something that you really need to take into consideration. Because like I said, you spend all this time and effort, maybe you're having some software do it.

You're working hard to get these reviews, so, you know, don't take them for granted.

And it's it's multiple things too. Like you said, you can have a review in the newsletter. It could also be written somewhere else. It could be in your clinic displayed whether it's on electronic board. So I think the more people see the different reviews, one, reminds you it builds a trust, but also, like I said before, reminds them that they can actually do a review themselves.

No. Exact exactly. And I think this kinda leads into the the next kind of final point of of today's talk is like more about, you know, when you do have either milestones or you can create these shareable moments, you know, when you get that, like, long positive review, it's a great opportunity to, you know, reach out to that patient potentially and just, you know that's maybe a great patient to like, talked about turn that in to more like a video testimonial. They're kinda putting their hand up and saying that I had a great experience with you. So, you know, when when patients do that, that's a great sign that maybe having them come back into the clinic or at some point, maybe their next visit, setting up aside some time.

Would you mind doing a video testimonial as well? You could also publicize things like, you know, once you hit like 500 reviews or a thousand reviews and you have a a decent star rating to kinda highlight that. Right? You know, if you're, you know, a thousand reviews and it's 2.3, maybe we don't do that. But No.

You know, it's it's okay to celebrate a little bit on, you know, social post or maybe put out a press release in a way that maybe gathers a little bit of information or a little bit of notoriety about the great care you're providing. Like, talked about turning kinda patient reviews into testimonials or success stories that you can share on your website. You can share through different types of advertising means. You know, those things can be really, really helpful. And, you know, when you make reviews kinda part of your kind of clinics kind of story and kind of the the story of your brand, it's not just like some static thing that's living on Google.

Like you talked about, people are gonna be more receptive to when people are talking about it. They see a human sitting there talking about how great you are, whether that's a video, maybe it's audio, if you're still into radio or some audio channels. But I think there's a lot of things that can be utilized for reviews that, you know, it's great that you got it and it's living there on Google, you know, working with someone that can help you take that next step to really, you know, get that visibility for your clinic because, you know, these patient reviews and the words they speak about how great you provide care is is golden, and you shouldn't let those great opportunities to to be visible to these to your local area and to patients that wanna come into your clinic. You gotta take advantage of these things.

Yeah. Well, I think promoting the milestones. I love the thousand reviews. There'd be a lot of people listening to this going, yeah. Well, when I hit our first thousand reviews

We're working there. There's a couple of clinics that aren't too far away that I work with.

So I I've seen a few that have got a couple of thousand reviews, and and they're, like, sitting at 4.9, and whatever system they're using is obviously working. But I I love the idea of celebrating those mile milestones. And, you know, they're important because even with Google and and on YouTube, when my YouTube channel hits a certain amount of subscribers, they send me something and go, hey, you should celebrate this. So, yeah, I think you should be proud if you're getting a certain number. It's be proud and actually display that.

Absolutely. You know, just taking time to to celebrate it. So celebrate the clinic, you know, celebrate kind of the great care that not only you, but your staff is providing, and letting people know about it and letting it be visible to the public is is super important because, you know, we know what happens inside our clinics. You know, we see those things every day. We know all the care we provide, but we need to make sure that that word and the visibility is getting out to the the general public and the people that could be your potential patients.

And, you know, by kind of shining a light on the positive reason you're receiving in some different ways, you're able to do that. Really, when you shine the light, it gives people an opportunity to connect with you and potentially make an appointment to come see you in clinic.

Yeah. I do recall, that was a while ago, somebody a podiatrist was talking to you, and they said they had a patient come in. I had to find out about us. And they said, well, actually, I had an appointment at a different podiatry clinic. They said, but I was scrolling they were on Facebook or something like that, and they must have had a paid ad because they saw one of their reviews pop up.

And they read it, and what they read was what they wanted help with. They then went to the other person's website to try to see if there were any reviews, and they couldn't find any reviews based on it. So they canceled that appointment and went with the person who was using that review as part of their marketing. Wow. So people, it works.

Absolutely.

So how are we gonna wrap this episode up?

No. I mean, if people have questions, obviously, know, Tyson and I are available. If you go to podiatry.marketing, there's an area there. You can send us a message. What do you need help with?

Anything else you want us to, you know, help you out in these these reviews? Any ideas that you have? Maybe it's something that's working in your practice you wanna share with our our massive audience of listeners. Yep. We're definitely always open to that.

So

And if you write a review for us if you write a positive review for us, five star review for us, it's been scientifically proven that when you write one for us, for some reason, the review gods, you'll get three back from patients around the I don't know how it works that way, but just test it out and and prove me wrong.

Absolutely.

Okay, big Jim. Anything else you wanna say before we finish up?

No. I think we're good, Tyson.

Okay. So everyone get out there, write reviews, you'll get more reviews. Okay. I'll talk to you next week, Jim.

Alright. Bye now.

Okay. Bye.

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