Do Online Reviews Drive New Patient Appointments? (Hint: They Should)

70% of patients say that online reviews are as important as the dentist’s credentials.^[1] It’s clear that prospective patients rely on online patient reviews as a key influencer when choosing a new dental care provider. The challenge for practices is to ensure their patient reviews get in front of the right audience, at the right time in their purchase process —those actively seeking to find a new dental care provider and schedule an appointment.

For many dental care providers, the practice website is the sole destination for reviews they solicit from their patients. Even when practices do “syndicate” their patient reviews, they are published on microsites that prospective patients rarely visit. As a result, dental practices are relying on search engine optimization to drive traffic to these reviews, putting a cap on their value.

By using a Healthgrades Enhanced Profile from Sesame, your online reviews become a powerful tool to drive new patient acquisition. Healthgrades.com has more than 20 million annual searches for a dental care provider. More significantly, 54% of visitors to Healthgrades.com will schedule a new patient appointment! With an Enhanced Profile your verified, high quality patient reviews can get in front of the prospective patients that matter—those that are highly qualified and ready to schedule appointments. Even better, these prospective patients are able to request an appointment with a click of a mouse or dial the number prominently displayed. While it is very difficult to know if your current online reviews are driving new patient appointments to your practice, Sesame will track and report back to your practice on all appointment requests (email and phone) so you have quantifiable timely ROI data.

To learn more about a Healthgrades Enhanced Profile click here.