Patients are more likely to choose your organization when they see positive experiences from others like them. That’s where social proof — content like patient reviews, testimonials, and success stories — becomes invaluable.
A well-executed strategy for gathering and sharing patient feedback not only enhances your organization’s reputation but also helps improve search visibility and patient engagement. However, asking for patient reviews and stories can be a tricky endeavor in the healthcare space, where patient privacy is paramount.
Here are some best practices to help your marketing team collect and publish social proof responsibly and effectively.
1. Make it easy for patients to leave reviews
Patients are more likely to leave a review if the process is quick and straightforward. Streamlining the process increases participation and helps you capture more positive feedback.
You can remove the roadblocks standing between your patients and them leaving a positive review in several ways, such as:
- Including direct links to review platforms or a patient survey in post-visit emails, newsletters, or text messages
- Keeping request forms short and straightforward
- Adding QR codes to signage in waiting rooms or on patient forms encouraging patients to share their experiences online
2. Focus on timing
The best time to request a review or story is shortly after a positive interaction when the experience is still fresh in the patient’s mind.
If you plan on sending review or feedback requests, try to do so within 24 to 48 hours of an appointment or discharge. If a patient talks about a positive experience or expresses their satisfaction in person, encourage staff members to direct them to where they can leave a review or share a story online.
If a patient is enrolled in a treatment program or undergoing treatment for an ongoing condition, such as physical therapy, consider requesting their feedback after their treatment is complete so they aren’t inundated with review requests after each appointment.
3. Personalize the request
Patients are likely to ignore a generic review or survey request. Personalizing the requests you send makes patients feel valued by your organization and increases the chances that they’ll respond.
You can personalize these requests with the patient’s first name, as well as references to their specific treatment, location, or care team.
4. Keep the tone friendly and light
Another way to increase the likelihood that patients will share their feedback is to keep your communications conversational and friendly.
This tip goes hand in hand with personalization — if a patient feels like they’re receiving a message directly from their care staff asking them for their thoughts, they’re more likely to share their experience than if they receive a generic “tell us how we did” email.
5. Share patient stories
While reviews are helpful, detailed patient stories can be even more powerful.
This method requires a bit more work from your marketing team, but is worth it in the long run.
Get providers involved in identifying patients who had positive outcomes or a great experience with their care team, and ask them if they’d be willing to share their stories. You can offer multiple ways to share, from a written testimonial to a video interview, depending on their comfort level.
On the marketing end, be sure to receive consent before publishing the story online. Once you have that consent, you can share these stories across your website, social media, and marketing materials.
For fantastic examples of this, check out the patient-generated story hubs we helped create for Bronson Healthcare and St. Bernards Healthcare.
6. Respond to reviews — even negative ones
While you’ll obviously want to focus on soliciting stories and reviews from patients who had a great experience at your organization, not every patient will have a positive story to share.
But even these less-than-desirable reviews are important to your brand and how prospective patients view your organization. Because of that, it’s essential to respond to all of the reviews you get online — even those that aren’t so positive.
Check out our blog post on why responding to negative reviews is so important — and the best way to do so.
Looking for support on your social proof journey?
Patient reviews and stories are more than just marketing tools — they build trust, strengthen your reputation, and influence prospective patients. However, for marketing teams dealing with limited staffing resources and budgets, gathering and showcasing social proof can be easier said than done.
That’s where Geonetric can help! Our team of content marketing pros understand the best way to gather, publish, and promote patient reviews and stories. From building a dedicated testimonial hub to sharing tips on how to request reviews, we’re ready to help your organization tap into its most valuable marketing asset of all — its patients.
Contact us today to get started!
