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The New Force in Dental Marketing by Bruce Wiseman

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Header: The New Force in Dental Marketing
by Bruce Wiseman

Abstract
It is 3:49 a.m. and I am sitting in front of my MacBook Pro, bleary-eyed and jet-lagged, having just returned from a lengthy business trip to the U.K. I am catching up on backlogged email traffic.

The faux-friendly android that is the digital spokesperson for my anti-virus program issues an emotionless warning that my operating system is not up to date—there are program updates that need to be installed.

I have the fleeting thought that he may issue me some kind of citation from which there is no appeal.

It passes.

I log into the Apple iTunes application store. Apple has released a new operating system for the MacBooks, something the company does every year or so. The upgrades used to have big-cat names like Cheetah, Panther and Snow Leopard. Apple is now into California landmarks. Currently it is Yosemite. The new one is called El Capitan, the magnificent rock formation in Yosemite National Park.

I click on the El Capitan icon. As I do so, I glance at the reviews next to the download icon. There are 2,404 reviews of El Capitan, and a shocking 1053 of them are one-star reviews, the lowest possible rating. I am stunned.

This is Apple—arguably the most powerful brand on the planet. Apple, who just released its quarterly financial results showing mind-numbing profits and $206 billion in the bank. Almost a quarter of a trillion dollars in cash!

Yet its new operating system has thousands of reviews, almost half of which are one star. Is there a mistake? I scroll through the reviews, reading about the problems people are having. It's not pretty.

And for the first time ever, I decide not to download the new system.

I am not writing this to bash Apple. It is a wonderful company. I have filed adoption papers for my iPhone 6+. And I'm sure Apple will find out what is causing these problems and fix it.

No, my purpose here is to point out the dramatically increasing impact online reviews have on consumers' purchasing decisions.

This is not just for consumer electronics, of course. Health-care professionals—dentists in particular—are screened on a growing number of online rating sites.

The devil in the details


Dentists don't need a Harvard MBA to know that word-of-mouth referrals have always been the primary source of new patients. For decades those referral sources have primarily been from friends and families of patients.

Maryanne calls her sister, Meridith. "Mer, what's the name of that dentist that you took Jamie to?"

"Johnston. Dr. Johnston. He's wonderful with kids. His office is over on South Fairfax." "Thanks, Hon. See you next week."

There is however, a powerful new source of patient referrals—online ratings sites—and, love them or hate them, dentists ignore them at their risk.

Why?

Because a 2014 survey conducted by BrightLocal regarding consumer attitudes about online reviews found that an eye-popping 88 percent of 2,100 survey respondents said they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Note the rapidly descending "no" response on the graph. It declines from 33 percent in 2011 to 13 percent in 2014 (Fig. 1).1

Fig. 1

Need I say more?

Don't answer that, because here are a couple of other stats in which you might be interested.
  • A survey conducted by the e-tailing group found that 92 percent of Internet users read product reviews, and 89 percent of people say that online reviews influence their purchasing decisions.2
  • A Zendesk survey of 1046 respondents found that 86 percent of them said online reviews influenced their buying decisions.3
  • Another Zendesk research project found that 74 percent of consumers would most likely refuse to do business with a company if they found negative information about it online.4
These stats are for online consumers in general. What about dentists?

A 2013 survey by Futuredontics found that 70 percent of dental patients said online reviews and ratings influence their decision to choose a dentist.5

Seventy percent! And this figure is very likely to have increased several percentage points over the last three years.

The company also conducted a survey in November of 2014 of more than 1,000 dental office managers—you know, the master sergeants that run the dental practices across America.

It found the area that has grown the most in perceived importance since 2013 is online reviews.

It is a positive development that online reviews are being recognized as critical to dental marketing, but many dental offices are not acting on this awareness.

Case in point: That same survey found that a startling 49 percent of dental practices do not interact with Yelp, "…nor do they plan to do so in the future."6

Holy Internet, Batman!

You need some Yelp
Yelp is arguably the best-known rating brand in the world. And, along with Google, it is the best place for dental-practice reviews. Indeed, research by Software Advice, practice-management software specialists, found that Yelp is the most trusted brand for online reviews.7 While there are other health-care rating sites (Healthgrades, Vitals, ZocDoc, WebMD and more), Google+ Local rivals Yelp as the most ubiquitous. Ratings on Yelp and Google + Local also drive your site up the organic search ladder when someone enters "dentist, your town."

A note of professional advice, if I may: public relations should be at the forefront of any marketing campaign. Online reviews are third-party endorsement, and third-party endorsement is at the heart of online PR.

Here is a quote from an article by Al Ries, the co-author of what Advertising Age (the advertising-industry bible) has named the best marketing book of all time: Positioning: The Battle for your Mind.

"The general rule is: publicity first, advertising second. (PR plants the seed. Advertising harvests the crop.)

"The truth is, advertising cannot start a fire. It can only fan a fire after it has been started. To get something going from nothing, you need the validity that third-party endorsements bring. The first stage of any new campaign ought to be public relations."

In today's world of dental marketing, online reviews have become the primary source of third-party endorsement.

If you have negative reviews, the answer is not difficult. One simply drives them to the bottom of the pond with a tsunami of four- and five-star reviews, something that the top online reputation management companies can do for dental practices without great difficulty. Modesty aside, I speak from experience.

Perhaps it is a cliché to say that it is a new world for dental marketing, but you can engage professional help and soar to the top of the rating sites and outshine the competition with relative ease.

References
  1. "88% Of Consumers Trust Online Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations." Search Engine Land. 2014. http://searchengineland.com/88-consumers-trust-online-reviews-much-personal-recommendations-195803.
  2. https://www.reviewpro.com/blog/reputation-research-statistics/
  3. https://www.zendesk.com/resources/customer-service-and-lifetime-customer-value/
  4. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/survey-reveals-americans-want-more-control-over-their-digital-persona-111846694.html
  5. http://www.dds1800.com/whitepapers/What_Dental_Patients_Want/ , http://www.futuredontics.com/BestOf2013
  6. http://www.dentistryiq.com/articles/2015/02/new-futuredontics-report-examines-the-changing-role-of-dental-office-managers.html
  7. http://www.softwareadvice.com/legal/industryview/how-clients-use-legal-reviews-2014/
  8. https://books.google.com/books?id=V8ob5wPVNmIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=ries&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjT1cr4y-jKAhUG_mMKHQgcB7kQ6AEIOjAF#v=onepage&q=ries&f=false

Bruce Wiseman
Bruce Wiseman is the CEO of The Reputation Pros (Thereputationpros.com). Using cutting-edge software, The Reputation Pros professionally populates the key dental rating sites with four- and five-star reviews. Wiseman has been consulting private-practice health-care professionals for 25 years.



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