Zoe Close talks to business coach, Chris Barrow about the importance of Google reviews and gets some tips on how to encourage patients to write them.
ZC: You spoke about Google reviews in a webinar we did together recently, Chris, and you were urging practices to make more of an effort to get them. Why should practices worry about Google reviews?
CB: In the war between Google reviews and Facebook reviews, Google has won. Facebook reviews are the modern-day equivalent of the Betamax video, they’ve just lost. So, Google reviews are in the ascendent, and the collection of Google reviews has become a mission critical marketing activity.
There is a benchmark for Google reviews. You need at least 100 Google reviews for Google’s algorithms to even notice you. I am still astonished though, when I go on workshops and webinars and I go around the room and ask: ‘how many reviews have you got?’ And the answers I get are five, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 when it should be 100, 200, 300, 400, 500.
Why? Because number one: that will improve your search engine optimisation without having to pay an agency to do it. Number two: because Google loves those reviews – it sees you as being an influencer. Number three: most importantly of all, patients read them. So, you need to be on a massive mission to get those Google reviews.
ZC: We have a lot of conversations around why people don’t ask for a review. It’s almost like some people are really uncomfortable with the idea. Is it just a question of getting into the habit of asking?
CB: It’s about making it part of business as usual. I use a little card to collect Google reviews at my own workshops. It says, ‘have we had a positive experience today?’ This goes out at the end of every workshop. And on the back of it is a QR code. And if you scan your phone on that QR code, you can go straight to write me a Google review. So, I get 500 of those for £50 and they go everywhere I go. My clients are having similar ones printed and they’re giving them to every patient that comes in the door. It’s easy. And you’ve got to get on this because the more reviews you’ve got, the more people will read them, and the more likely you are to have people coming in through the door.
If I was an associate or a therapist or a hygienist or a TCO, I would say at the end of an appointment: ‘Do you mind if I ask you a quick favour before we finish today? We are very keen to collect reviews because we know that our patients read them, and we also know that potential new patients read them as well. And what I’ve got here is a card we’ve had done here at the practice, and there’s a QR code on it. If you scan that QR code with your phone it’ll take you straight to the place where you can write a Google review for us. Would it be okay to ask you to write a review sometime later on today, please?’
As I’ve said, I do that at my workshops. I’ll have 50 people in a workshop room, and I get a 20% total response. And I’m happy with that. Because 80% of them walk out of the room, they forget, or they get distracted. Either way around, 20% is better than none. And if you’re doing it day after day after day, for every 1,000 patients you’ve got registered at your practice, you could pick up 200 reviews. And if you ended up with 5,000 patients leaving you a thousand reviews, when you get that one-star review, people are going to put it in perspective with the 999 positive reviews that you’ve got. Whereas if you’ve got five reviews and one of them is a one star, the one star might be right. So, you’ve got to go for volume to boost the credibility of your reviews.
About Chris
Chris has been a trainer, consultant, coach and mentor to the UK dental profession for over 25 years. He combines a wealth of knowledge with the originality and independence needed to resolve the thorniest of problems.
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