I want to bring up the topic of negative reviews on Facebook, and how you should handle them. Let's face it, if you put yourself out there, you will eventually get a negative review. The thing is, the online world is a spectator's sport. People are not only interacting with you, but they are watching how you interact with your customers. Get it right, and a negative review can flip to a positive for the person leaving the review, and for your practice.
There are a lot of questions about if you should respond to a negative review. Well, no response is a response. It says that you don't care. You never want to be known for that. Others ask if you should delete the comment? Uh, hell no! That will irritate the reviewer even more. (By the way Facebook does not allow FB reviews to be deleted. Comments to posts can be deleted or hidden, but again, unless they are spammy, you should never do that.)
If you get a negative review, always respond immediately letting them know that you appreciate their feedback and that you will contact them and will ensure that they are happy. This needs to be written as a response to the review. If the person responds again that they are not pleased, then write again that you are committed to ensuring that all patients have a great experience. If they come back a third time, then you do not have to respond. You have already responded positively, and the online spectators will see that you are a company that cares.
Never, ever discuss the details of the appointment or what happened during their visit online.
This is the first negative review that we have had on Facebook in years. We recently had a Facebook cleaning promotion, and one of our new patients who came in left this review. We contacted the patient immediately and got her back in.
We discussed her review in the morning huddle and I explained if you over deliver many times the person leaving the review will go back and leave a positive review. That is exactly what happened.
Dr. Anissa Holmes, a Global leader in Social Media Marketing, and owner of Jamaica Cosmetic Dental Services, helps dentists learn advanced social media strategies to grow their brands.
Dr. Holmes, through her podcast, The Delivering WOW Dental Podcast and her website Delivering WOW, shares tips for designing a unique business culture to deliver a "Wow" experience every time, strategies to triple leads and new customers as well as strategies to build an amazing team. If you are a dentist who is an ACTION-taker who wants results, join the Delivering WOW Hangout, my free Facebook group.