Let’s be honest: dental practice marketing isn't getting any easier. More clinics are opening up, all targeting the same group of patients in your area. The result? Intense competition, making it harder for you to stand out.
A few years ago, spending $500 to $1,000 per month on ads might have been enough to bring in a steady flow of patients. Today? You might need to double or triple that budget just to stay visible.
So, what’s the solution if you’re not looking to burn cash on ads? The answer lies in one of the most effective and underutilized marketing tools available: Google reviews.
Why Google Reviews Matter
Have you ever bought something on Amazon? Chances are you have. Maybe it was a pair of headphones, or perhaps you were just restocking on toilet paper. Amazon makes the process easy: you visit their website, type in what you want, and you’re presented with hundreds of options to choose from.
But how do you decide what to buy? Every pair of headphones claims to offer exceptional sound quality, even the budget options. Without the ability to test them out, how do you know which ones to trust? Most people turn to the reviews. Reading what other customers have to say helps you make an informed decision without the hassle of ordering multiple products and dealing with returns.
Dentistry works the same way.
When someone Googles “dentist near me,” they’re shown a long list of local practices. Every one of them says they offer amazing care and treat patients like family. So how do people decide? They check the Google reviews.
That’s why getting more (and better) reviews is one of the most powerful dental practice marketing strategies available. It builds instant trust, improves visibility, and influences real patient decisions — all without a massive ad budget.
Which dental practice would you choose?
Two pairs of headphones may both claim exceptional sound quality, but if one has 500 reviews with a 4.9 out of 5.0 rating and the other has 25 reviews with a 4.5 out of 5.0 rating, you’re probably going to choose the first option.
The vast majority of potential patients use the same logic when selecting a dental practice. High ratings and numerous positive reviews can make all the difference in attracting new patients to your practice.
How to Get More Reviews Than Your Competitors
Most dental practices understand that Google reviews are critical. But the real question is: how do you get more reviews than your competition? Should you print out a QR code to stick on your front desk? Sign up for a review management tool like Swell or Trustpilot?
While these tools can help, they are widely used by other practices too, meaning you'll only grow your review count at the same rate as everyone else in the area.
So, what's the real secret to winning the Google review game? It’s simple:
- Ask Your Staff to Personally Request Reviews
- Hold Staff Accountable
- Incentivize Your Team
Let’s break each of these down.
1. Ask Your Staff to Personally Request Reviews
Have you ever received an event invite on Facebook or via email, something that looks like it’s being blasted out to hundreds or thousands of people? You probably have, and you’ve probably ignored it the vast majority of them. It’s not personal and often just looks and feels like spam.
However, when someone you know, like, and trust personally invites you to an event—perhaps saying, “I’m hosting X this Saturday and it would be great if you could come!”—it becomes much harder to decline.
If you agree to come, you feel a sense of obligation because you gave your word. This is why having your staff personally ask patients for a review is so powerful, as part of your dental practice marketing strategy.
When a patient is checking out at the front desk, if your staff asks, “How was your visit today? How did everything go with Dr. John?” most patients will respond positively, saying something like, “It was fantastic. Thank you so much!”
Your staff can then follow up with:
“That’s wonderful to hear. Dr. John really wants to go above and beyond for everyone, so I’m happy you had a great visit. Say, if you have a minute, would you be willing to share your feedback about our office in a Google review? It will only take a minute. I can text you a link right now that will take you to our review page. We’d love to get more wonderful patients like you, and your feedback would help us tremendously!”
This personalized approach is highly effective as part of a dental practice marketing plan. Most patients will agree and are 10-20x more likely to follow through compared to receiving an automated email or SMS from a review management tool hours or days after their appointment.
2. Hold Staff Accountable
This strategy only works if your staff agrees to it and follows through. In practice, it’s easy for receptionists to nod their heads in agreement but then revert to their usual routines, never asking patients for reviews. Sometimes they’re overwhelmed and forget, sometimes they’re resistant to change, and sometimes they feel awkward about asking and end up not doing it at all.
Accountability, or the lack thereof, is a significant issue in many dental offices, leading to missed opportunities because no one is paying attention to the day-to-day operations. Staff know it’s easy to let things slip without the dentist noticing.
So, how do you make your staff accountable for reviews? How do you ensure they follow through, have the conversation with the patient, and ask for the review? The best method we’ve found is to use a scoreboard. Introducing a competitive element within your dental team can be a powerful motivator in dental practice marketing.
Head to your local office supply store and pick up a cheap whiteboard. Place it somewhere easily visible to your receptionists, such as the staff lunchroom, behind the front desk, or in the room where you hold team meetings.
Write down the name of your dental practice, the number of Google reviews you have, and your score out of 5. Do the same for the top 5 or 10 competing dental offices in your area with the highest review counts. Update these numbers every Monday morning and make sure your staff can see them. For example, maybe on Monday you have 67 reviews. Competitor 1 has 251, Competitor 2 has 209, and so on.
At the end of the week, repeat the process and calculate how many reviews each practice has gained. Perhaps Competitor 1 gained 5 new reviews, Competitor 2 gained 7, etc. If your staff gained more reviews than the competing offices, celebrate the victory. If not, discuss how your team can improve next week. Emphasize the importance of reviews by saying:
“This shows potential patients that these other offices are better than us. I don’t think that’s true. We do a wonderful job and have many patients who love us, but I think these other offices are better at convincing their patients to leave reviews. Let’s make this a priority and show our community that we’re a great dental practice worth visiting!”
Many of our clients have followed this strategy and, within weeks or months, dominated the Google review rankings to become the highest-reviewed practice in their area, without spending hundreds of dollars per month on review management tools.
Becoming the highest reviewed practice in your area is one of the best dental practice marketing strategies you can employ and it’s all about educating your staff on why this is important, motivating them to stay engaged, and using a scoreboard to tap into everyone’s competitive spirit.
3. Incentivize Your Staff
Having the highest-reviewed dental practice in your area can do wonders for your patient flow, but when it comes to your staff, you have to ask yourself, “what’s in it for them?”
Asking patients to leave a review and sending them a link takes extra time and effort. Many receptionists already feel overwhelmed, juggling multiple tasks. How do you prevent them from feeling like this is just another item on their already overflowing to-do list?
The key is to create an incentive system so they can also share in the reward. While many clients who followed the first two strategies saw a significant increase in their review counts, we encountered offices where the staff resisted the extra effort.
They claimed they were asking patients, despite evidence to the contrary. They insisted patients didn’t like the approach, even though they hadn’t tried it. They constantly sought alternatives like QR codes or review management tools to avoid putting in extra effort. The excuses were endless.
Then one day, one of our dentists brought in a stack of $5-10 gift cards for places like Starbucks and Subway. He told his staff, “I know asking patients for a review and sending them a link takes extra work, and you’re already busy. But if you manage to get us a review, I want to show my appreciation because reviews are so important for attracting more patients.”
The stack of 75 gift cards was gone in a week! Their staff gained more reviews that week than they had in the previous year. This was not an isolated case.
In an extreme example, one of our clients became the highest-reviewed practice in a large city with nearly 1,000 competing dental offices. He proposed a challenge to his staff: “If we become the highest-reviewed practice this year, I will close the practice and take everyone on a four-day all-inclusive vacation to the Dominican Republic.”
They hit the goal in less than two months, gaining more reviews in that time than in the previous three years combined. Before you think the dentist was crazy for offering such an extravagant reward, know that in the following 12 months, his practice’s production increased by over $1.3 million—the highest growth in the ten years he had owned the practice.
Incentivizing your staff not only motivates them but can also lead to substantial growth for your dental practice. By sharing in the rewards, your team becomes more invested in the success of the practice, leading to a win-win situation for everyone.
Why This Works
Here’s the truth: getting more Google reviews isn’t about using fancy tools or automated messages. It’s about creating a system where your staff asks, engages, and is motivated to help you become the highest-reviewed practice in the area.
When your team is invested in building reviews, they become ambassadors for your practice. This leads to more trust, more patients, and more growth. In today’s competitive market, outworking your competition can be even more powerful than outspending them.
By following these strategies and focusing on personalization, accountability, and incentivization, you can dominate the Google review rankings and stand out in a crowded market.
Find Out More Strategies to Beat Your Competition Here.