If you’re looking to score well with aesthetic consumers, the folks at PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI) have a little advice: Stop! As the Institute notes in a new report, “Scoring Healthcare: Navigating customer experience ratings,” doctors who focus on stars, letter grades and other one-dimensional ratings miss an excellent opportunity to connect with patients, [...]
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5 Reasons Why Good Reviews Are Good for Business
5 stars. 2 thumbs up. A++. When it comes to trusting information found on the Internet, there’s no escaping the fact that consumers give online reviews, well, glowing reviews. In fact, despite occasional reports of “astroturfing,” it seems they put more trust in them all the time. In fact, according to a survey conducted by [...]
The 5 Cs of Social Healthcare: Enhance Your Authenticity by Encouraging Conversations (Part II of a series)
At RealSelf, we often hear from doctors who say they have a hard time convincing patients to post reviews after their procedures. Frankly, we’re not surprised; after all, having completed their aesthetic journey, what incentive is there for a patient to take the time to write a post-procedure report? Compare that to the non-stop stream [...]
Infographic Friday: Who Ya Gonna Trust? Peer Recommendations Rule the Influence Roost
Forget banner ads, billboards and the bevy of celebrities touting brands of every type. When it comes to influence, as in who people listen to when researching products and services, they turn to one source more than any other. Their peers. Check out the “wheel of influence” in this infographic from the influence marketing company [...]
Buzz Index: A New Year, A New Body?
Maybe it’s the time of year. At a time when millions of people resolve to lose a little weight, those who have already lost a lot of it are more than happy to share their experiences. Case in point: aesthetic consumers who have had or are considering a body lift. In fact, according to the [...]
4 Things Doctors Can Learn from the Hotel Industry
Every day millions of people go online, surf from website to website and ultimately book… a hotel room. What’s that got to do with cosmetic surgery? More than you might think. In recent years, the hotel industry has come to realize that the way travelers make their buying decisions has changed. Sure, reserving a hotel [...]
Aesthetic Consumers Like Reviews, Board-certified Doctors and Enough Time to Decide
Big-screen TVs for a few hundred bucks, designer hand bags at half-price and children’s toys for cheap, cheap, cheap. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday right around the corner, it’s easy to think that shopping is always about acting fast to get the best deals. Obviously, aesthetic consumers approach their buying decisions a bit differently. [...]
User Reviews Trump Paid Ads for Patients — and Doctors
Perhaps you saw the figures released earlier this year from the number-crunchers at Nielsen. Looking at what sources of information people trusted most, the company found that less than half (47%) of the people surveyed trusted paid advertising. Depending on the outlet — TV, magazines or newspapers — that was a drop of 20–25% from [...]
The Seven Habits of Socially Savvy Doctors
In 1989, the FDA approved the use of Botox for select medical conditions; the Internet was a concept unknown outside research circles, and a first-time author named Stephen R. Covey wrote a little business/self-help book called “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” Needless to say, much has changed since then. Botox is a multi-billion-dollar [...]
A Doctor’s Reputation Is More Important than a Great (Fake) Review
If you’ve ever read an online review that seemed too good to be true, new research suggests you may be right. According to Gartner, 10-15% of social media reviews will likely be fake by 2014, planted and paid for by companies seeking favorable online buzz. If that’s the case, we can only hope that Gartner [...]
Doctors and Online Reviews: The Rest of the Story
If you’ve ever been interviewed by a newspaper reporter or broadcast journalist, you’ve probably experienced the dismay of seeing your in-depth, informative and comprehensive conversation reduced to a one-liner or 5-second sound bite. It happens to everyone, just as it happened to RealSelf CEO Tom Seery in a Reuters story last month on the evolution [...]
Patient Stories Make for Great Doctor Reviews
Here at RealSelf, we spend a lot of time talking about doctor reviews but traditional reviews actually play a very small role in our user community. Truth is, when most users write about the aesthetic procedures they’ve had, they’re not passing judgment on their providers, they’re sharing stories about their experiences. It’s a subtle but [...]
Doctor Websites Get More Traffic By Adding Patient Reviews [Reputation Management Tip]
Google a doctor, as in “Dr. Steven Teitelbaum”, and watch Google’s suggestion feature: Try this on your name, and you’ll likely see a similar format: Dr. [your name] Dr. [your name] reviews Google suggested terms represent the majority of queries on the web because it’s fast and reflects what other people like to click on [...]
Doctors and Patient Trust: Build It and They Will Come, Part I
“Trust me, I’m a doctor.” If you’ve ever seen the phrase on a t-shirt or bumper sticker, you know it’s often offered up with tongue planted firmly in cheek. But for real doctors hoping to engage with real patients, the reality is no laughing matter. Trust is everything and doctors hoping to generate new business [...]
The Reality of Online Reviews: More Positive than Many Doctors Think
No doubt you’ve heard the phrase “everyone’s a critic.” It’s concise, albeit a bit condescending and, in an era when anyone can post an online review about anything, a fact of business life. But what’s often overlooked is the fact that it doesn’t mean that everyone is critical. In fact, when it comes to online [...]
Embrace Online Feedback To Deliver Better Medical Services
A medical practice should embrace online reviews because they offer a trove of important service feedback. Ryan Miller from Etna Interactive offered this advice at the recent Vegas multispecialty conference, with specific reference to cases where doctors were able to deliver a better experience once they accepted that online review comments are helpful, rather than a hostile environment [...]
Doctors Can — and Should — Respond to Online Reviews
Patient privacy. Professional ethics. The occasional horror story about a medical professional sharing patient information online. It’s no wonder some doctors believe they can’t respond to online reviews, a belief that’s not only incorrect but bad for patients, doctors and the aesthetics industry as a whole. There’s a range of options, says Jeff Segal, CEO [...]
Should Doctors Respond to Online Reviews?
When it comes to social media, you probably already know how important it is to listen to online conversations about you and your practice. But have you given much thought to how you respond to that conversation? You should because if there’s one thing worse than ignoring what’s being said about you online, it’s responding [...]
Patient Reviews: Threat or Opportunity?
“Social media now exposes the gap between what companies promise and what they actually deliver.” Jack Mackey, VP, Service Management Group Minding the Gap Whether in retail shops or cosmetic medicine, adherence to service standards and the reality of customer experiences are not always the same. There is a “gap” between what you think you [...]
Be Relatable and Helpful: The Social Media Agenda for Plastic Surgeons and Doctors
Companies emerging as successful are often those that are the most human.–Peter Merholz A key step a doctor can take to humanize their organization –and develop a personal brand that has meaning–is to become relatable to prospective patients. To relate to others on social websites doesn’t mean friending complete strangers, clicking follow buttons or becoming overly accessible in [...]
