Introducing A New Reputation Management Program
We are pleased to announce that Starling is piloting a new Reputation Management program. Here is some information about this exciting initiative.
What is Reputation Management?
Reputation management refers to influencing an individual’s or company’s reputation. Online reputation management specifically refers to improving or restoring your brand’s good standing by minimizing negative feedback online and enhancing it with more positive material to improve your credibility and customers’ trust in you.
Improving the online reputation of our providers and surveying our patients is a key priority for the Starling Board and the Marketing committee.
Why is This Important in Healthcare?
Internet reviews sites, such as Google reviews and Healthgrades, have a growing influence on doctors’ reputations and abilities to attract new patients. Eighty-two percent of patients surveyed consult a reviews website with some frequency to view or post comments and ratings of healthcare staff. Almost three-quarters of patients use online reviews as their first step in finding a new doctor, so your online reputation is often a first impression for many patients.
Don’t Let Good Reviews Out the Door
For many patients, good quality care is the expectation. When it is received, many don’t take the time to acknowledge it. However, those who are unhappy are more likely to leave a negative review. Therefore, if a provider has only a few reviews that are negative, they can have a damaging impact without being reflective of the doctor or practice. It is critical to actively capture positive reviews about the patient experience at the point of service.
Why We Are Engaging With a Company to Help with Reputation Management
Starling prides itself on delivering healthcare the way it should be. In order to consistently uphold our high standards, we need a way to ensure that patients across our large practice are satisfied with their experience.
We are engaging with BirdEye, a leading online reputation management company that provides all-in-one customer experience software to improve patient experience and business reputation.
How BirdEye Will Help Starling Gain Valuable Feedback
BirdEye will integrate with Starling’s practice management systems to automatically send real-time text or emails to patients right after a visit. Patients will receive a brief survey about their experience. Those who respond positively will be prompted to leave a review on healthcare sites like Google, Facebook, Healthgrades, or RateMD. Those who have a negative experience will be asked to provide details so that practice managers and leadership team can determine improvement opportunities. Negative feedback will not be made public.
Starling will have an integrated dashboard that will show daily when reviews are posted for providers across hundreds of review sites. We will have a central place to respond to reviews. For positive feedback, we can thank people. For negative comments, we can take the conversation offline so we can find out more about how we can improve.
Ensuring Data Accuracy
Another key benefit of BirdEye is that they will work with Starling to clean up all business listings for providers on over 70+ sites and directories. This will ensure your patients find accurate and timely information. It also will help online search engines, such as Google, rate you higher in search results.
Piloting the New Program
We are piloting this new program starting November 1st with a cross section of 70 providers throughout the organization. This will help us assess the response rate from our patients, whether we are dramatically improving online ratings, and how we can best respond to patient feedback in a timely manner.
Stay tuned for updates!