When it comes to physicians, they consistently rank within the top five of the general public’s most trusted professions. Online reviews, however, tend to always tell a much different story. In fact, studies show that attorneys are approximately 44% more likely to receive a more favorable five-star review than doctors are.
Additionally, a further study of approximately 35,000 online healthcare reviews found that 96% of patients who were unhappy are either content or satisfied with the amount of care that they received; however, what they don’t care much for are basic customer service issues, such as general wait times and phone hold times.
One healthcare marketing and management consulting firm had the following to say in regards to these studies:
“A lawyer is 72% less likely than a doctor to receive a 1-star review. The average Yelp star rating for a doctor is 3.5. For a lawyer, the average is 4.2.”
When it comes to both wait times and phone hold times, however, both of these are issues that are never absolutes. On the contrary, they are actually variables that are able to be both improved and refined. Furthermore, they should also be strongly both considered and accepted as a form of continuous challenge since the benefits that would end up being created and the stress and negativity could be either mitigated or eliminated altogether will also be considered as well.
Some of the most common questions that practices should always ask themselves include the following:
*Do we truly realize everything that goes into the overall quality of the general experience for both patients and families alike? Do we care about what really matters the most to them?
*Is it really reasonable for patients to have all of these expectations of both courtesy and empathy in terms of wait times, phone hold times, and exchanges that are more pleasant with personnel who work in the practice?
*It is worth our time to commit to making improvements that are more small and specific in nature?
*Should doctors really be receiving much less favorable reviews than attorneys are currently receiving online?
The reality is that practices should always regularly take the time to make improvements that are continual and small in nature in order to ensure that they are able to overcome all of the more problematic and inaccurate perceptions as it pertains to the general quality of their practice itself, as well as all of the physicians who work there. As a result of doing this, patient relationships will end up being greatly improved, as will their overall viewpoints about the practice itself. This will then lead to fewer negative online reviews being left about the practice thanks to the continuous build of both relationship reputation and relationship quality.
Engaging in continual improvement for your practice is something that never has to be difficult at all. All it really requires is a decent amount of vision for all of the different benefits created, as well as commitment to a certain mindset.
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