Why Your Reputation Is More Important Than Ever
These days, the online presence of a practice is where we form our first impression of that practice. We aren’t able to walk past a shop front, and we’re unlikely to physically stumble upon your practice. But beyond an online ‘shop front’, we have all lived through a particularly difficult time, which means that reputation has become more important to the survival of a practice than ever. Let us explain why!
What is Brand Reputation?
Brand Reputation is how the particular brand of a company is perceived and viewed by patients and the market as a whole. It’s all about the emotions and ideas a patient associates with your brand, which can be the result of your values as a practice, the experience a patient has had with you, as well as any visual or written communication they’ve received from you.
There’s an opportunity to further your reputation as a practice from the very first moment a potential patient discovers you, right through to after an appointment, and beyond.
Why is Brand Reputation important right now?
Technology has really changed how we interact with and think about brands, as every little detail is very much available to us at our fingertips!
From websites to social media and email, there are so many more touchpoints with your patients. This also means, however, that the experience people have with your practice is much more visible too – brands have to be more cautious about their every expression and how it will affect the minds of patients.
Your Brand Reputation plays a huge role in the following:
Trust
A positive reputation generates trust in the minds of your existing and your prospective patients. It’s the belief that your practice is here to fulfill its promises!
Patient Loyalty
Through more trust with your patients, loyalty is built. Instead of looking to competitors, patients will stick by you and your services.
Standing out from the crowd
You enjoy a competitive edge against other practices by standing out for what you do. Patients are likely to return to a place their friends and family believe in, that has stood the test of time.
True fans
Word of mouth is really important, and if you can create brand ambassadors from your patients, that is a really powerful way to market your practice.
Retaining your employees
With more confidence in your service, you can expand your offering, and help retain staff. Not only do patients want to associate with a great brand, but so do employees!
Okay, with that covered…
What can you do to build your brand reputation?
On average, consumers read around 10 product or service reviews before they make a purchase. You’ve got a few opportunities to help sway them to pay your practice some attention and get to know what you stand for!
1. Get your content marketing into gear
This is all about engagement. Content marketing is really important to your brand reputation. This means producing great educational content and solving problems for your audience. It’s important to keep communicating with your audience, but also to listen – discuss what they need and keep updating your service in response.
This doesn’t have to be sales orientated. In fact, it is often better that it isn’t! You can produce eBooks, videos, blogs, and anything else you think will provide value to your audience. Empowering your patients is really important, and it will definitely improve your reputation.
2. Provide real patient satisfaction, from experience to support
This sounds obvious, but happy patients make for returning patients. You want to help build up those positive testimonials and positive online chatter about your practice. So make the patient experience your focus. A great experience is overtaking product offerings and even price in determining a patient’s decision to make a booking with a practice. Put yourself in the shoes of the patient – what do they need from you? How can you help them become a regular patient?
You might consider checking in regularly via email, sending out surveys to show you’re listening, implementing feedback, and delivering great support if patients need your help. It’s all about transparency and open communication.
3. Respond to negative feedback
It’s so important to show you care and want everyone to have a great experience with you. But it’s entirely possible that not everyone will be a happy patient. It’s then important to respond quickly and clearly. Don’t let negativity spread. Use your social media platform to show you care about concerns and don’t get defensive. Being helpful and humble will demonstrate you are a human-centered brand.
4. Personalise your service
Get to know your patients’ challenges, needs, interests, lifestyle choices, and more. Reaching out in a personal way is really important – you can create email campaigns that speak to certain subsets of your audience, for instance. Or you might create a health course that responds to a particular request for more information. Whatever it might be, try to keep things personal and specific to the people who want to engage with you.
5.Create advocates for your practice
As we mentioned above, happy employees and word-of-mouth fans make for great brand advocates. Don’t overlook ways to increase employee satisfaction. You might create a volunteering effort as a team, develop a bonus program, or even take time to ask your employees for feedback and suggestions. Pool your knowledge and show you appreciate new ideas from your team.
And then, you have patients. If a patient loves your service enough, they will talk about it. Make sure you check in with your patients and ask for feedback as well as testimonials – give patients an opportunity to say what worked well and what didn’t work, not just the positives.
With so many practices out there trying to grab attention, a good reputation has never been more critical. We can help you make sure you have a positive, upbeat social media presence that speaks to your audience. We can also help you create those campaigns that keep the discussion going with your audience.
Invest in your brand reputation today and reap the benefits for years to come!