Perception is Reality: Owning your Online Reputation as a Doctor

Online-Reputation-Marketing


In a world of digital media, and 24/7 access, healthcare is under more scrutiny than ever.

 

Not just by regulatory authorities, and the media, but by the very people whom they serve: their own patients.

 

The choice of where and how to buy has shifted dramatically to consumers, and through social media, messaging, blogging and search engines platforms, any consumer with an internet connection can find another alternative in seconds.

 

This is equally true in healthcare as in any other industry.

 

Doctors traditionally have been sequestered behind doors, guarded by their medical assisting team.

 

So too have their reputations.


To get to know what a doctor was like required an appointment and great deal of patience. Building a relationship of trust could take years, as patients and doctors grew older and visited year in and year out.

 

With the availability of online and real time communication through telemedicine, this is changing, and fast.


Just as we don’t think twice about buying a song from iTunes, or a book from Amazon, we often don’t think twice about looking for a better way to get the healthcare treatment we need.


For doctors, this brings a new reality that they must accept and embrace in order to be relevant and in-demand.

 

Put simply, you need to understand what your patients think of you before they see you.

 

You must understand how patients perceive your practice, and alongside that, focus on managing and improving that perception over time.

 

Dr Kevin Pho, the creator of KevinMD, has this to say about the changing nature of online reputation: “Doctors have lost their voice, and therefore their authority, because they have opted to ignore rather than embrace the Internet.”

In recent years this management of reputation has become known as the Zero Moment of Truth: before deciding to visit you, people see what you are about and what others are saying, and from that perspective they decide if they will arrange a visit.

 

Often before someone has even made a decision to visit a doctor, they are checking your Yelp, MDReviews, and Healthgrades reviews.


To simply ignore these important online reputation builders is not only foolhardy, it is dangerous.

 

SEO experts Search Engine Land found in a 2014 study that 88% of consumers will trust online reviews just as much as word of mouth.


Just as any consumer with an internet connection can find an alternative health provider, they can also tarnish your reputation. Medical Marketing consultant Stewart Gandolf put it this way:  “In contemporary healthcare, passive patients have become empowered customers.”

 

The power to heal or hurt your online reputation now lies directly at the fingertips of your patients.

 

The new reality is that doctors need to have a clear understanding of what is being said about them, and cultivating their online reputation alongside their in-person reputation.

 

This can mean asking your loyal, long term patients to be your online advocates.

 

This doesn’t mean pestering every single patients to post a review, but if you have some particularly strong long term relationships with a group patients, it may be worth asking them to share their experiences online.

 

And what about those negative reviews you might already have? Generally speaking it takes 10 online reviews to negate one negative one. If you can ask your top 10 or 20 patients to post on your behalf, this will ensure you have a strong reputation behind you.


The bottom line for doctors is this: times have changed.

 

Online perception is now reality. If people see you as a respected, caring healthcare professional, they are more likely to treat you as such as refer more of their like-minded family and friends to you.