| ONLINE REPUTATION | PRACTICE MANAGEMENT


Getting posts taken down It can be difficult to stay calm when you read posts that are unfair or untrue, and particularly when you know them to be fabricated or fake. Unfortunately, this practice is rampant. In fact, there is a cottage industry that has arose around extracting fees from physicians and other small businesses to get rid of negative reviews. In general, unsolicited emails and aggressive calls to your office offering this kind of service should be met with a grain of salt. Doctors are easy prey for the unscrupulous tactics of these companies who call on the pretense that they have seen negative reviews about your practice online and can help you take them down. If you do get unfair negative comments,


read the Terms of Service on the site with a fine-toothed comb. If the poster has violated the terms even slightly, you may have recourse to get the post removed. Whenever possible and appropriate, gather factual information in an effort to prove that the offending post if fake. For example, if a person posts about having an open rhinoplasty that collapsed, when you have not performed an open rhinoplasty for the past decade, you may be able to make a case that the poster is not your patient or is confused. Website hosts have some latitude to


keep or pull a thread, but they may not always be inclined to. However, there are circumstances where they are more likely to do so. If there is a clear violation of the site’s terms of service, you can often get the post removed. In some cases, you may need to enlist an attorney experienced in reputation management to handle it for you. That is the best case scenario. If the poster is ranting about you, you


can try to get it taken down if it is not merely an opinion. Your chances are better if they are stating something as fact that can be perceived as defamatory. Opinions are legal; we live in a free speech society. Defamation is the term used to describe any statement that hurts someone's reputation. Written defamation is libel; spoken defamation is slander. Libel is obviously easier to prove since it is in writing. Defamation also has to be false. Even vicious, mean comments may not be considered defamation unless they are knowingly false, and even then you would have to prove that these comments caused injury in the form of being harassed or shunned as a direct result of the comments. The method of choice to get rid of bad


reviews is to have them flagged as inappropriate and try to get them reviewed by the site. However, this takes


time and is not always


successful and the damage may already have been done long before someone even reviews your case. You need to have solid grounds or a friendlyndl website to get reviews taken down, whether you are an advertiser or not. Physicians have also tried to file lawsuits against patients or rating sites over negative reviews, but this is often a futile exercise.


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Five star ratings The best way to avoid patient complaints is to not create any reason for having them in the first place, but this is nearly impossible to do. The second best way to counter negative ratings is to make sure they are buried under a slew of positive ratings from real satisfied patients who are your advocates. Sometimes you just have to ask patients to write a review for you. It is usually easier for staff to ask than for the doctor. When a patient compliments their result or the office, the staff may say something like, ‘We would be honored if you would give us a positive review.’ Even if the patient has good intentions, they may forget or opt not to do it for reasons of confidentiality. Consider handing them a card with the most important rating sites to simplify the process for them. Post a sign at reception desk stating that you value patient feedback by any means, including in person, by phone, email, or via online forums.


n but s is to


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n the Encouraging patients to post good


reviews about your practice should be an ongoing activity. Start early in the relationship from the initial consultation when they are sitting in the waiting room. Use patient satisfaction surveys so you


THREE SUREFIRE WAYS TO MANAGE REVIEWS


1


Take good care of patients and resolve conflicts early


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Keep monitoring the web for uncomplimentary posts and mentions


And if/when they arise, work towards getting positive comments to mitigate


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show them that you value their opinion and get them to participate. If you do everything possible to


and th e


generate a positive patient experience, you may be able to avoid falling into the common rut of getting a negative critique and scra scrambling to get good reviews to counteract it. Consumers are wise to that, and this approach may be very apparent when someone searches for you online.


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Aim for transparency In general, transparency is not necessarily a bad thing. It has the potential to improve the way you


practice and may tend to keep you on your toes. If you are being honest th ourself, you might admit that the threat of negative reviews hanging over your h ttlle


p on with y


our head has made doctors, in general, a l liitte more caring and humble, as bad b


behavior can have expensive


consequences now. Everyone gets some negative reviews, some are unwarranted but some may be deserved. When it happens, first look in the mirror and ask yourself if e e may be some truth to those observations. If so, take steps to make


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your practice better and take better care of patients. If you are consistently getting three stars


or less, there may be some things that need immediate attention. Take this opportunity to turn it around. For example, apologize to patients who were kept waiting, let them know that their time is valuable too, and get the staff involved in answering questions to move patients through faster. Make an extra effort to avoid scheduling mishaps and billing disputes that are sure to cause patients to get mad at you. A big patient pet peeve is letting little details slip through the cracks—such as having the nurse call them back, contacting their insurance company, sending a receipt, and calling in a prescription. A collection of sincere and favorable


reviews by real patients will outweigh a few negative ones. Persuade patients to write good reviews about your practice by showing that it matters to you. The long- term mission is to create a large body of positive content to outweigh the occasional negative posts that may arise— and they will.


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