Demand Force Works Wonders
August 22, 2012
Four to five years ago, I became very actively involved with my clients in helping them to develop and design websites. It was at that time that I began to recognize the power of the Internet and the magic of search engine optimization to direct potential patients to a dental practice. It was about two years later that I began recommending Demand Force to my clients as an alternative to telephone confirmation of scheduled appointments, because e-mail confirmation or texting to a cell phone seemed like such an innovative idea, and a great time saver for front desk staff.
I am writing today, however, to report on a benefit that I never originally thought about or realized – and that is the amazing power of Demand Force patient reviews to improve Google rankings. I have referred over 40 clients to Demand Force, and without exception, every single one of them – after having Demand Force in operation for six months – is in the top three positions on the local Google business map for their geographical area. This has happened in small towns and large cities.
I believe these exceptional results happen because of the special relationship that Demand Force has forged with Google. Google has always been synonymous with relevance, and what could be more relevant than patient reviews that come from actual customers. It is probably not coincidental that both companies are located in Silicon Valley. I also think that Demand Force does an impressive job of syndicating these patient reviews to about 145 popular and visited sites on the Internet that are also referenced by Google.
Demand Force patient reviews can be continuously streamed to your website and to your Facebook page. Your webmaster can easily set this up for you.
In this “wild wild west” of the Internet–where your online reputation is always potentially fragile and at risk–it is something of a comfort that Demand Force gives business owners the ability to read and respond to all customer reviews from one dashboard before they are published.
There are many companies that can do automated confirmation emails and texting. They can also help with re-activation and do email blasts and customized newsletters. But none of them, in my opinion, can hold a candle to Demand Force when it comes to utilizing positive patient reviews to create high positioning on local search engines. Do yourself a favor and discover this fabulous resource.
Why Yelp?
August 15, 2012
After spending countless hours over the past six weeks speaking with dentists around the country, it is quite apparent to me that dental practices–based on their experiences–either love or hate Yelp. But since Yelp–as this Forbes article points out–is going to be the preferred provider for Apple Maps and the website to power Siri’s search results, you can no longer ignore it.
Yelp started in San Francisco in 2004 as a local search business. This is probably why dentists perceive it as a “West Coast thing”. But since going public in 2005, it has grown incrementally city by city and in the second Quarter of 2012 reported an average of 78 million monthly unique visitors, and 6.3 million of those visitors use a Yelp mobile app. Two of my three kids live in the Boston area and they tell me they search on Yelp all the time. The demographics of Yelp are hard to ignore. According to Quantcast, 64% of Yelp users are relatively affluent, educated adults with an annual income of 100K or higher.
Dentists report frustration with Yelp because the review process is more difficult than with Google. With Google, the reviews that are posted stay visible and are rarely filtered. There also seems to be a direct positive SEO factor: the more quality reviews posted facilitates higher positioning on their map. With Yelp and their aggressive filtering mechanism, a lot of legitimate positive patient reviews are going to disappear because they are perceived as “one time” reviews. They are not in the spirit of the Yelp mentality which is to try to get reviewers to weigh in and review lots of local businesses. Yelp admits their system is not perfect, but they feel it has proven to be the most effective way to provide useful content for consumers–and to have those consumers continue to use Yelp in very very large numbers.
So unquestionably, because of the filter, you’re going to have to work harder in order to keep your reviews appearing on Yelp. Don’t get frustrated. Your practice must strive to provide exquisite customer service and quality dentistry each and every day. Anything less is unacceptable in today’s competitive market place. Yelpers seem to be more discerning, so if you and your practice are not first rate, you run the risk of a negative consumer review. My good friend Bill Rossi from Advanced Practice Management recently published a great article about what drives patients to write a negative review. The article is called Unhappy Patients Point of View: Consumer Research.
I would encourage you to view the Yelp site for Dr. Robert Fields in Van Nuys, California. This practice seems to have figured out how Yelp works to its advantage. They consistently come up in first or second position. They do NOT advertise, but because they have what is called an Enhanced Profile (need to average 100 user visits per month), they can pay $75 per month to have Yelp put up a video that shows on their review page. At the bottom of their reviews, please note the number of filtered reviews that Yelp has taken off their page. You can see that most of those reviews are by one time reviewers. For the most part, the ones that stay on their page are done by patients who have written multiple Yelp reviews. But no worries–they continue to work hard to get more reviews and they keep replenishing their page.
It is so important–whether it is with Google or Yelp–to strive to get positive reviews from your patients. The volume and quality of reviews are a major ranking factor in search engine ranking criteria. A recent study showed that 34-46% of online traffic was drawn to the first listing on the page, and 12-29% was drawn to the second result. So being in first or second position is HUGE!
The web world is a tough one. Consumer reviews sites are here to stay. Managing them to your advantage is one of the biggest challenges facing your dental practice.
The Big Squeeze
August 5, 2012
My last two blog posts outlined why, in my opinion, it is important to accumulate Yelp reviews. These posts generated more feedback than anything I’ve ever written. Numerous dentists took the time to email me or call me about their negative experience with Yelp. I was referred to the Dentaltown message board and read over thirty negative stories from unhappy dentists describing their history with Yelp.
The common thread is that these dentists believe that Yelp manipulates reviews. They say that a practice will have a number of legitimately obtained positive patient reviews disappear fairly quickly – leaving only a negative one visible – when the doctor chooses not to advertise on Yelp. I spoke to Yelp representatives who swear up and down that there is a firewall between these two aspects. They claim that Yelp is a public company that would be severely penalized by these actions. In fact, Yelp may be protected by law. In a class action lawsuit, Yelp was accused of offering to remove or downgrade negative reviews if the business in question purchased advertisements on the site. According to a Wall Street Journal article on October 28, 2011, the law suit was dropped when the judge in the case ruled that Yelp’s choices for which user-generated reviews to display is protected by the Communication Decency Act, a 1996 law that shields websites from being sued for publishing user-generated content. I would encourage you to take the time to read a very thoughtful article on the credibility of online reviews authored by my good friend Isaac Gorin, a principal at Web Marketing for Dentists.
In their defense, Yelp claims that they use a sophisticated filtering mechanism that tries to distinguish between fake reviews and legitimate reviews. On further questioning, it seems that Yelp defines a review as being suspect when one of your patients writes a nice review but then rarely ever writes another review for any other business on Yelp. So the best review to get is from a frequent Yelp reviewer, perhaps someone who actually found your office on Yelp – had a good experience in your office – and then writes a review. Yelp’s position of course is that more patients will find you on Yelp if you advertise on Yelp. Is this the classic example of catch 22?
If you think that Yelp is rewarding its advertisers, I believe that because of the Apple partnership, you have to seriously think about playing “the game” with Yelp and consider an advertising campaign in order to protect your reviews. In actuality, I think that advertising on Yelp could be a pretty good deal. The cost is reasonable, and if you do advertise with them, you have the benefit of appearing above all the reviews, and other advertising dentists do not appear on your page when your reviews are opened.
Usually when evaluating any marketing expense, the consideration is whether or not there is an adequate return on investment. So strictly from that perspective, you would have to decide if Yelp can deliver the number of promised impressions – and then whether or not there is a good enough click through rate. But in this instance, because of the unquestioned strong connection between numerous quality reviews and high ranking, the positive return on investment is secondary to the protection of your hard earned patient reviews on a search engine that will be increasingly important and relevant. Whether you think this is fair game or not is inconsequential. I’d love to know what Apple thinks about all of this!
In my next post, I’d like to analyze why so many dentists have this negative impression of Yelp and how that might be changed.