Reviews play a major role in determining consumers’ decisions about products – but they may play an even larger role in determining patients’ decisions about care, like dental care. Data shows only 16% of consumers say that retail reviews are “very important,” compared to a massive 53% who think healthcare reviews are “very important.”
If you’re a dentist or manage a dental facility, you need to pay special attention to your online reviews – not only to learn what your patients are saying but also so that you can respond and engage.
Responding to online reviews provides numerous benefits to your dental business, such as boosting your local search ranking and helping you reach more potential customers. It also enables you to address each patient’s concerns, provide a more positive experience for future patients, get more reviews and build trust with consumers researching dental care options.
This guide to creating dental review responses will teach you how to respond to negative reviews, positive reviews, and mixed reviews of your dentistry business.
It will also provide you with review response templates for all types of patient ratings and comments, from a few negative reviews to five star reviews.
Check out this Google reviews for doctors guide as well.
There are numerous reasons why a patient might leave a negative review of your dental practice. Some common reasons for a negative review include:
Fortunately, there are also plenty of reasons to leave a great review. Satisfied patients might feel inspired to write a glowing review thanks to experiences like:
Let’s look at some real-life examples of good and bad reviews – and how to reply.
Here are a few examples that showcase how to respond to negative reviews.
Customizable review response template: “We’re sorry to hear about your [recent experience, negative experience] at our dental office, [Reviewer Name]. We appreciate you taking the time to [provide us with your feedback, share your comments, leave a review]. We will look into your experience with [describe issue here] and hope to have an opportunity to serve you better in the future. If you have questions or would like to share additional details, please [feel free to, don’t hesitate to] contact us at [email address] or [phone number].”
Customizable review response template: “Thank you for your feedback, [Reviewer Name]. We never want our patients to feel uncomfortable and are truly sorry to [hear, learn] about the negative aspects of your [visit, experience, appointment]. Your feedback led to a meeting with our whole team to prevent similar issues from occurring again. Thank you again for your review, and we hope we will have the chance to provide the outstanding care our team is known for!”
Now, let’s review some examples of how to respond to a positive or mixed review.
Customizable review response template: “Thanks for your kind words, [Reviewer Name]! We’re [thrilled, delighted, happy] to hear that you enjoyed such a positive experience [at our dental office, at our dental practice, during your visit]. On behalf of [Business Name], we look forward to seeing you again soon!”
Customizable review response template: “Thank you for your feedback, [Reviewer Name]! We sincerely appreciate you taking the time to [share your comments, leave us a comment, provide us with your detailed review]. Above all, we value your personal recommendations to friends and family, which is the highest [compliment, praise] we could receive! Thanks again for choosing [Business Name], and we look forward to your next visit!”
Customizable review response template: “Hi [Reviewer Name], thank you for taking the time to [share your comments, provide us with feedback, review our dental practice]. We’re sorry to hear that not all of your [visits, experiences] have been equally satisfactory. At [Business Name], [we strive to, our goal is to, our mission is to] provide the highest quality dental care at the best value for our patients. We encourage you to contact us at [email address] or [phone number] so that we can discuss your concerns in greater detail. We look forward to hearing from you soon!”
Whether you’re responding to a negative review or a positive review, here are five best practices to follow when crafting the optimal reply.
Always maintain professionalism when responding to positive or negative reviews. While it’s fine to use exclamation points or casual language – for example, “Thanks for your awesome review!” – it’s still important to avoid typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors.
Avoid using a generic response when replying to an online dental review. Here are a few ways you can personalize each reply:
Always try to respond to reviews as quickly as possible, especially when:
Aim to respond within 24 hours at most – if possible, within a few hours of receiving the review.
Express gratitude to the reviewer, no matter what rating or comment they leave. To help prevent your responses from becoming repetitive, you can thank the reviewer for different reasons, like in the following examples:
As a healthcare provider, you must be HIPAA compliant to protect patient privacy. However, while you should never share private information in a public response, you should let the reviewer know what specific steps you’re taking to address their concerns.
For example, you can say something like, “We’ve reviewed your feedback about our mobile app with our entire team so that we can provide a better sign-up experience to our patients in the future,” or, “We would be happy to answer your insurance questions in detail over the phone at (###) ###-####!”
Here are six of the top platforms to monitor for online reviews of your practice:
Tracking these platforms and ensuring your business is listed will allow you to exert greater control over your online reputation.
Google is the number one most trusted and widely-used resource for reviews of products and services. According to Brightlocal, 87% of consumers – nearly nine out of 10 – used Google to research local businesses in 2022.
Get started by creating your business profile on Google.
Yelp is one of the biggest and most important review platforms to monitor, eclipsed in popularity only by Google. According to data from Brightlocal, 48% of consumers used Yelp to research and compare local businesses during 2022.
New to the platform? Learn how to create a Yelp page for your new dental business.
Many consumers use social media like Facebook for general information about dental health, as well as a tool for finding dentistry services, checking dental industry reviews, and communicating with other patients.
In fact, Facebook ranks as the third most-used review site behind only Google and Yelp, with 46% of consumers checking Facebook reviews during 2022.
If your practice doesn’t already have a Facebook page, prioritize creating one as soon as possible. Start by learning how to create a business page on Facebook, then browse Facebook’s tips to ensure your page is fully optimized.
1-800-DENTIST helps visitors find local dentists fast, serving consumers as “the nation's most trusted provider of free dentist referrals.” It isn't specifically a review site, but encourages consumers to review the dentists they find through the service.
Here’s how the site answers the question, “Can I leave feedback or reviews about the dentists I find through 1-800-DENTIST?”:
“Of course, most dentists can [be] found on your favorite review sites – Yelp, Google and Facebook.”
Dentistry.com is part of the same network as 1-800-DENTIST. Like its counterpart, Dentistry.com allows visitors to browse dentists by zip code and category.
Dentists can submit a contact form via Futuredontics, part of Dentistry.com, to list a dental practice and ensure more potential patients can find you.
RateMDs bills itself as “the original doctor ratings site with over 2 million reviews and ratings.” Site visitors can search by zip code and various medical specialties, including dentists, cosmetic surgeons, and more.
Dental practices on RateMDs also can tag themselves as “accepting new patients,” making it easier to acquire new patients.
Without the right tools, responding to multiple reviews is an inefficient process. It requires you to monitor dozens of different review platforms for new ratings and reviews, then create and publish your own responses – or, where appropriate, flag the review for violating guidelines.
AI response generators, such as MARA Solutions, can accelerate the process of responding to patients and customers online. However, there’s still a drawback: many AI tools require users to manually copy and paste each review into the tool to generate a response.
In addition, the user is still responsible for manually publishing the response, which can be a time-consuming task.
ResponseScribe solves this problem by providing a start-to-finish service that eliminates the need to monitor review sites, write your own review responses, or publish responses on separate platforms. Here’s how it works:
Responding to reviews is more than just a strategy for managing your online reputation, gathering patient feedback, or boosting your SEO. When you reply to their feedback, it shows both the patient and potential patients that your dental practice is committed to providing excellent care and high satisfaction.
By taking the time to respond to reviews and deal with negative feedback, your dental business can attract more patients, generate more referrals, and reduce patient churn by getting complaints resolved.
ResponseScribe makes it fast and easy to respond to negative reviews, positive reviews, or mixed reviews of your dental business. Get started for free today.
Done-for-you review response service for local businesses.
Part of the Shout About Us family.
