6 tips & strategies for more & positive patient reviews

Why patient reviews are so important

According to one Bitkom study 55% of Internet users find out about doctors or medical facilities before making their choice. 57% of patients state that reviews are “very important” or “rather large” when choosing doctors. 37% find reviews about medical institutions as valuable as personal recommendations from family or friends.

These figures clearly show that patient reviews play a significant role. But of course, this is not just about quantity. Eine RepuGen survey shows that 83.23% of patients require a minimum rating of 4 stars to consider a healthcare provider. Almost all patients (95.94%) would only consider providers with a rating of at least 3.5 stars.

Conclusion: Authentic and positive reviews can convince potential patients that they are in good hands in your practice. In a competitive market, positive reviews are the difference that sets you apart from other practices.

Other benefits of patient reviews:

• Improving online visibility: Search engines like Google take reviews into account when evaluating and ranking search results. A high number of positive reviews can help your practice appear higher in search results, resulting in more website visitors and potentially more patients.
  
• Patient satisfaction & quality assurance: Reviews provide valuable feedback on patient satisfaction and the quality of your services. They can identify weaknesses and make improvements to improve patient well-being and optimize practice operations.
  
• Patient Engagement: By actively managing and responding to reviews, you can build stronger relationships with your patients. This shows that feedback is important to you and that you care about their concerns, which can lead to higher patient loyalty.

The main criteria for good patient reviews

Patients are usually unable to assess a doctor's professional qualifications because they lack medical expertise. Their reviews are therefore based on their subjective impression of the level of service and treatment they experience during their visit.

According to the Bitkom Research survey, patients pay particular attention to these following criteria:

• 86%: availability of appointments
• 79%: Proximity to your own place of residence
• 76%: Easy to reach
• 69%: Recommended by friends/acquaintances
• 57%: Nice and appealing practice rooms
• 45%: Make appointments online
• 29%: Significant homepage
• 13%: Profile in social networks

Of course, you cannot influence the proximity to the patients' place of residence, but most other factors can be specifically improved and optimized.

Also important: Since we live in a time when patients are looking more and more closely at the quality of service, other aspects such as waiting times or digital services are also becoming increasingly important. We'll look at this in more detail in the next section.

‍Last but not least, it is also crucial: Empathy, attention to the patient's needs, and the doctor's communication skills also play a significant role. We ourselves know from experience that there are some very capable doctors out there who receive very poor doctor reviews due to a lack of soft skills and empathy. This discourages patients from consulting them, even though they could really help patients on a high level.

6 strategies to increase patient satisfaction

Satisfied patients are the basis for good reviews, so all aspects of their visit to your practice must be optimally designed. In the following section, we will therefore first focus on how you can ensure an outstanding patient experience. We then explain how you can use this positive patient experience to actively obtain positive reviews.

First, the most important points for optimal patient satisfaction:

1. Quick appointments & easy accessibility

Quick telephone availability is essential so that patients can easily get in touch to clarify questions or make appointments. At the same time, appointments should be available promptly so that the patient does not wait unnecessarily long.

In addition, the ability to make appointments online plays an important role. A user-friendly online booking system makes it easier for patients to access free appointments and is rated particularly positively by them.

2. Efficient processes ensure more available appointments

Smooth organization and efficient processes are crucial for patient care. This not only ensures that you reduce patient waiting times (which increases patient satisfaction) and relieves your team, but you also have more appointments to offer.

They remember: According to the Bitkom survey, the availability of appointments is a decisive criterion for choosing a doctor.

Our recommendation: Use modern technologies like electronic health records, digital document management, electronic invoicing and appointment management systems to minimize administrative work and optimize your work processes.

With Nelly Can you integrate these technologies seamlessly into your practice management system integrate and thus implement tailor-made optimizations for your practice.

Other relevant measures for practice optimization include:

• Digital anamnesis
• Digital patient education
• digital signatures
• Digital factoring

Also in this regard Nelly will be happy to advise you without obligation.

3. Practice equipment

The practice environment has a major impact on patient evaluation. A positive impression starts with a clean and well-maintained appearance of the practice, which conveys professionalism and well-being. Well-thought-out practice equipment, including a clean toilet, cozy waiting room and modern amenities such as WiFi, also contribute to satisfaction. These factors create a pleasant atmosphere and increase the overall assessment of the practice.

4. Interpersonal communication on equal footing

Doctors who place particular value on communication and humanity usually receive the best reviews. And that is not surprising: A doctor who is open, friendly and in a good mood creates a pleasant atmosphere in which patients feel comfortable. Clear and understandable communication is just as important to avoid misunderstandings and build trust.

Don't forget: They talk to patients, not to other doctors or medical professionals. For example, make sure to explain or reduce unknown technical terms in simple terms if they are not necessary. There is more about this in our Article about patient communication.

5. Time & understanding for patients

It is just as important for a positive patient evaluation that doctors take sufficient time for their patients. This includes time for detailed explanations, thorough investigations and precise diagnoses. It is important to ask lots of questions in order to fully understand patients' needs and concerns and alleviate their fears.

When patients see that their individual problems are being taken seriously, they feel valued and well cared for. A guide that addresses common concerns and questions and is available online can also help provide patients with valuable information even before the visit.

In order to be able to provide this time for patients, here are a few tips for managing appointments:

• Plan more time for complex cases, frail patients and initial consultations: Especially for complex cases, new patients and elderly or frail people, they should plan a bit more time.
  
• Distinction between different appointment types: Classify appointments by types, such as preventive examinations and acute appointments. Adjust the duration of appointments according to the respective requirements in order to optimally meet patient needs.
  
• Schedule time buffers for appointments: Schedule appointments with additional time buffers of 5 to 15 minutes. This enables flexible adjustment to unforeseen delays and ensures efficient appointment management.

6. Respond to feedback

Of course, not all negative feedback has to be unfounded. If patients repeatedly complain about similar points, for example that the practice is too hectic, then you should take this feedback seriously. You can use it to improve your practice and therefore the patient experience.

If the practice is perceived as too hectic and stressful, your staff is probably overburdened. Here, for example, you can use digital solutions such as those from Nelly, which offer you helpful functions to relieve your team and free up more time for better patient care.

4 tips for actively soliciting patient reviews

As soon as you offer your patients an optimal experience, you will get more and more reviews on your own, even without asking.
However, it is also a fact: A great many people don't rate when they've had a positive experience, but are instead much more likely to rate when they've had a negative experience. This phenomenon is known as Negativity Bias referred to. The negativity bias describes the tendency of people to pay more attention and weight to negative experiences and information than positive ones.

For this reason, it is important to actively channel positive patient experiences into positive patient reviews. You can achieve this in a variety of ways. Here's how it's done:

1. ‍Direct demand: Ask for feedback at the end of a treatment. Hand out cards, flyers, or QR codes that patients can easily use to leave reviews. In doing so, explicitly point out the possibility Reviews on platforms like Google and hand over Jameda
2. ‍ Email inquiries: Send personalized emails after your practice visit asking for feedback. Integrate links to surveys or review portals, in particular to your Google or Jameda profile. ‍
3. Feedback boxes: Place anonymous feedback boxes in your practice to capture spontaneous and honest opinions from patients.‍
4. Social media usage: Use your social media channels (if available) to motivate patients to provide feedback. Actively interact with your followers and thank them for every review.

Automatically receive patient reviews

How can you ensure that your satisfied patients leave reviews without any additional effort on your part?

That's where Nelly comes in. With our new “Practice Rating 5/5” feature, you can automatically and risk-free achieve an excellent rating score on Google.

Nelly practice review 5/5 — that's how it works

Nelly makes it easy to build a good review score for your medical practice in three easy steps:

1. First contact

When checking in digitally at your doctor's office, the patient uses the medical history flow to indicate how they became aware of your practice.

2. Evaluation reminder

After treatment, the patient automatically receives a reminder to rate your practice. You can set the time and channel of the reminder yourself; by default, this is done 24 hours after filling out the anamnesis or after paying a bill.

3. Google invite

If the patient has given at least 4 or 5 stars, they automatically receive an invitation to a public review on Google. This increases the likelihood that the patient will positively review your practice.

With this system, you can collect positive doctor reviews on Google without additional effort in everyday practice and at the same time protect your online reputation.

Your benefits with Nelly at a glance

With Nelly, you maximize the potential of patient feedback and Google reviews:

• Improved search engine placement: Profiles with lots of reviews rank higher in Google search.
  
• Direct feedback: Formulated feedback about Nelly allows you to learn from your patients without affecting your public profile.
  
• More desired patients: Use the information about how patients became aware of your practice to to optimize your practice marketing.
  
• Effective marketing: Positive reviews are a cost-effective and effective way to attract new patients.
  
• Controlled publication: You can view the reviews before publishing them and decide for yourself which reviews should be published.

This gives you valuable insights and allows you to get a higher number of reviews without risk. You can proactively address negative feedback to make improvements to your practice and increase patient satisfaction.

How to deal with negative patient reviews?

Despite all efforts, has a negative review crept into your public profile? This is annoying, of course, as potential patients can see this review on your Google company profile or the respective doctor review platform. This lowers their rating average and ensures that potential patients are more likely to choose another doctor. How should you handle this situation?

First of all: Stay calm! It's understandable that you feel personally attacked, but avoid acts of affect. Instead, check to see if the negative review might be deleted.

A review on Google can be deleted if it:

• Abusive criticism contains
• Name employees with real names
• False facts claimed

A review on Jameda can be deleted if it:

• Includes personal insults
• False facts claimed
• contains inappropriate content, such as explicit content or hate speech
• Multiple reviews from the same person are
• There are conflicts of interest, e.g. reviews from family members or employees

If one or more of these criteria are met, there is a good chance that the unfair Google rating can be deleted.

Delete negative doctor reviews (Google, Jameda & Co.)

Delete negative doctor reviews on Google

1. Sign in to your Google business profile.
2. Click on the appropriate review
3. Report the review using the three-point menu.
4. Explain why the assessment is contrary to applicable law and/or the Google policies violates.

Unfortunately, Google doesn't always respond to every report. Sometimes this is due to Google, but sometimes it is also because the reason for removing a non-legal entity does not have a sufficient legal basis.

In some cases, lawyers offer fixed prices (often around 150 euros) for canceling valuations. So if you're unsure or Google Support doesn't respond to your request, you can contact a lawyer to delete the doctor's review.

Delete negative reviews on Jameda (and similar platforms)

Note: The procedure described here can also be applied in a similar way to other patient evaluation portals. We deliberately chose to describe it using the Jameda platform, as this (together with Google) is the most important portal for doctors.

Here's how to proceed:

1. Log in to your Jameda profile.
2. Go to the review and click “Report a problem.”
3. If the review isn't removed, contact Jameda Support.

If your efforts are not successful, it may also make sense to hire a lawyer here. First, if possible, collect all evidence and document the violations of the Jameda guidelines.

A lawyer can then send a formal warning to Jameda and request that it refrain from publishing it. If this is not sufficient, the lawyer may file an injunctive action. In some cases, the lawyer may also claim compensation from the author of the review.

Conclusion: Patient reviews are the turbo for your practice marketing

Positive patient reviews on Google and doctor review portals such as Jameda are more important today than ever. Therefore, ensure that you get lots of good reviews so that occasional bad reviews don't lower your rating average. This is how you attract new patients and also increase your visibility on the Internet. Because positive reviews also improve your rankings in search engines. Use the full potential of online reviews with Nelly — completely free and risk-free. We will advise you without obligation about your individual case.

Common questions

Which doctor review portals are there?

There are several doctor review portals in Germany where patients can share their experiences. Among the most famous are:

• Jameda
• Sanego
• Physician information
• Doctena
• DocInsider

Google reviews should also be regarded as a separate doctor review platform, as Internet users also often make decisions based on Google reviews.

Which is the best review portal?

Jameda is the largest and most well-known doctor review portal in Germany. It provides comprehensive information about doctors and practices as well as many reviews from patients. But portals such as Sanego or Doctor Information are also very useful and offer valuable insights and reviews that can help you select a suitable doctor. Google reviews are also extremely important because they have a wide reach and are often the first point of contact for many patients when looking for doctor reviews.

Who is behind Jameda?

Since 2021, Jameda has been part of the DocPlanner Group, a global provider of healthcare services and online appointment booking. Jameda was originally founded in 2007 and was part of Burda Digital, a subsidiary of the Hubert Burda Media Group.

How reputable is Sanego?

Sanego is a reputable doctor review portal in Germany that takes transparency and data protection seriously. Users must register to submit reviews, which supports the authenticity of the reviews. Despite occasional criticism of the authenticity of reviews, Sanego offers extensive information and a user-friendly platform for finding a doctor. It is still advisable to consider multiple sources.