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OPHTHALMOLOGY BUSINESS 70 February 2019 by Vanessa Caceres EyeWorld Contributing Writer particularly important to monitor reviews there, Dr. Wong advised. However, also stay aware of reviews on larger sites like Angie's List and Yelp or on your website if your site allows reviews. 2. Ask satisfied patients for reviews. Although some surgeons may feel awkward asking for online reviews, these reviews can be a great help to your online practice reputa- tion. If you as the physician don't feel comfortable asking patients for reviews, you can encourage others at the practice to ask them for it, Dr. Wong said. This is useful because technicians and other staff members often know patients as well if not better than the physicians, he add- ed. Encourage patients to leave their comments on Google reviews if they have a Gmail account. 3. Set up a Google alert to monitor your practice's online presence. These alerts can help you catch wind of positive or potentially negative new information online so you can respond accordingly. By setting up a Gmail account, you can set up a Google alert for free, which will alert you when the subject you want to monitor is mentioned online. If you are using a doctor's name or practice name, consider putting quote marks around the name so you don't get bombarded with irrelevant information. Dr. Wong gave the example of using quote marks around his name, "Randall Wong, MD," instead of just the fear of getting a negative re- view is real, Dr. Wong thinks you shouldn't overthink how that may happen. "The majority of reviews for anyone are positive. Nine times out of 10, patients love you," he said. With that in mind, show patients and potential patients you care by responding or having a point person from your practice re- spond to all positive reviews. Thank the person who left the review for taking the time to write it. "By re- sponding, you're saying, 'Thanks for engaging. I'm monitoring and this is important to me,'" Dr. Wong said. If it's an older review that you missed responding to earlier, you should still leave a thank you on- line. This still shows the reviewer— and anyone else who reads it—that you care. Reviews and better SEO can bring more patients to your practice D o you know how to man- age your practice's online reputation? Is it easy for patients to find your prac- tice online? If the answer to both of these questions is no, you might give existing and potential patients the impression that you don't care about their business. Steer your online presence on the right course this year by re- sponding to online reviews, "claim- ing" your business online, and consistently posting your contact information online, advised Randall Wong, MD, owner, Medical Market- ing Enterprises, Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Wong is also a retinal specialist in the Washington, D.C. area. Dr. Wong addressed the world of online marketing during a session at the 2018 American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting this past fall. Here are his sugges- tions to boost your practice's online presence. 1. Understand how online reviews work and respond to them appropriately. There are a plethora of places where patients can leave reviews for your practice, Dr. Wong said. These can include social media, Google, Yelp, Angie's List, Vitals, and business aggregators specific to your geographical market. Although Increasing your online presence Responding to online reviews shows patients you care about their feedback. Why respond? • Acknowledge • Engage • Transparency The act of "responding" shows that you are interested and you care. continued on page 72 As for the occasional negative review, use it to make lemonade out of lemons, Dr. Wong advised. First, wait for 24 hours before responding instead of writing something you may later regret. Your next step: "Delegate a colleague or administra- tor to craft a five-star response," Dr. Wong said. Think of how a five-star hotel may respond to a complaint. Someone at the hotel may apolo- gize and acknowledge your anger or frustration and not let it reflect back on you. Your response with a negative online review should be similar. However, don't expect to fix the situation at this point. "You can't right a wrong online. If needed, encourage the patient to call you. Don't get into a war online," Dr. Wong cautioned. Google reviews have the best reputation for being accurate, so it's Examples of places where you can claim or see your business profile online Source (all): Randall Wong, MD Off-Page • Bing Local • Best of the Web • Citysearch • DexKnows • FourSquare • Google+ • Insider Pages • Judy's Book • Kodzu • Manta • Merchant Circle Aggregators • Super Pages • Yahoo! Local • Yellow Bot • Yellowee • Yellow Pages • Yelp • Healthgrades • Vitals • Rate MDS Directories • Doctorbase • WebMD • Docshop • Local.AARP • Mapquest • Realself • LocalMed

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