How Doctor.com reviews bring patients to your practice

A Doctor.com profile helps gather reviews that count.

With plenty of resources available on the web, modern patients expect to be confident that you’re the real deal before they even consider stepping foot in your clinic. Your Doctor.com reviews can be your secret weapon for proving that you’re the right match.

When they’re figuring out which healthcare provider is the best in their area, people trust the experiences of their fellow patients more than any ad you and your competitors can put up. During their online research, they often regard online reviews as a reliable source for whether or not a doctor is up to their standards. In fact, your patients will want to read an average of 10 reviews before they feel like you own a practice they can trust.

One major destination for patients seeking reviews is Doctor.com, which means you need to get reviews on the site to fully maximize your online presence. In this article, we’ll show you how to do so and how to incorporate Doctor.com review management into your operations.

Why Doctor.com reviews matter

Online patient reviews play a huge role in building your credibility as a healthcare practitioner. While searching for a new doctor, more than three-quarters of patients will reference online reviews before anything else. This means that your reviews—or lack thereof—on whatever site they land on can make for a great first impression or an unfavorable (or unmemorable) introduction.

Keeping your online reputation healthy with abundant, positive patient feedback on diverse review sites like Doctor.com, which receives millions of monthly visitors, will help you draw in as many new patients as possible. Potential patients specifically trust Doctor.com reviews because the platform publishes verified badges that signify an “authentic patient of this provider” on each doctor’s profile.

Plus, the leads you get from Doctor.com are the qualified leads you actually want. Patients searching for doctors on industry-specific platforms tend to be the ones in immediate need of healthcare and are actually more likely to make an appointment than the leads you gain from Google or Facebook. These patients are already convinced that they need your services, so you just need to convince them to choose you over your competitors.

That said, your Doctor.com reviews—much like your Healthgrades reviews—may be the final push that your potential patients need to take action and contact you straight from the platform.

It’s also important to pay attention to your Doctor.com reviews because you’re getting them no matter what. As long as you’re a certified healthcare provider, the odds are that you’re already listed on the site, which means your reviews may already be stacking up. By claiming your profile, you can keep your contact information updated, maintain a direct relationship with current patients, and actively work to boost your average ratings for potential patients.

Setting up your Doctor.com profile

In order to get reviews on Doctor.com, you first need to create your healthcare provider account. Doctor.com profiles are completely free to claim and customize, and they’re guaranteed to boost your visibility on the platform. Claiming a profile also lets you respond to the reviews that patients have already left for you.

To claim your Doctor.com profile:

1. Head to the “Find a Doctor” page on Doctor.com.
2. Tap “Search by Name” under the “Find a Doctor” button.
3. Fill in your first name, last name, and the zip code of your doctor’s office.
4. Select your listing from the search results.
5. Tap the yellow “Claim Your Profile” button on your profile.
6. Fill in your email address, practice name, and phone number. Then check the box to agree to the terms of use, and tap “Claim My Profile.”

Once you’ve verified your practice, you can start customizing it with your profile picture, biography, and more. The more you fill out, the more Doctor.com ProfilePoints you’ll get, which means your practice will show up in more search results. We recommend updating or filling out your name, location, specialty, and accepted insurance plans before anything else, as these are factors patients can use to search for you.

Healthcare providers who can’t find their listing can manually create their profiles by filling in this form and selecting “Add New Provider” on the following page. You’ll be required to share your National Provider Identifier (NPI) number.

If you want to further expand the impact of your profile, you can consider purchasing Doctor.com’s full software, which costs between $3,000 and $10,000 for private practices, and up to $2 million for large-scale hospitals. This includes a premium listing that places you at the top of relevant search results, removes competitor ads, and unlocks more review management tools. However, this isn’t necessary to make your profile and Doctor.com reviews effective.

Sample Doctor.com review management process

Once you’ve set up your Doctor.com profile, you should have three primary goals in mind. These goals are:

• Collecting more positive reviews for your Doctor.com profile
• Developing great relationships with your patients
• Maintaining an attractive profile for Doctor.com visitors

Below, we’ll guide you through a process that you can use to get more Doctor.com reviews and start achieving all three goals.

1. Invite patients to leave reviews

To attract as many potential patients as possible, you want to have several reviews. Having more reviews helps you be seen as a legitimate business and can balance out negative feedback to keep your average star rating high.

Getting reviews from your current patients on Doctor.com—or any review site, for that matter—is as easy as asking. Follow up with your patients after appointments manually or by setting up an automated email to ask them to leave a review. Since text messages are more likely to be opened, you can use a tool like Podium Reviews to automatically sends review invites via SMS. This makes leaving Google, Facebook, and industry-specific reviews even more convenient for your patients.

2. Respond to reviews

When your patients have already taken time out of their days to review your practice, the least you can do is acknowledge their feedback. As soon as you see a notification that you’ve received a review, log in to your practitioner account to respond. Just a quick thanks will do for positive reviews, while negative reviews may require a more thoughtful (and professional) acknowledgement of your patient’s feedback.

No matter what, make sure that your responses are always HIPAA-compliant. Even if your patient mentions personal details, never share details about a specific case in your own response. Take the conversation offline if needed.

Keeping up with reviews takes discipline and organization, but it’s worth the effort. This demo of Podium Reviews shows how to make this process easier. However you do it, responding to each review ensures you never leave a patient hanging and always show them you care.

3. Evaluate patient reviews

Developing a lasting relationship with your patient requires more than a response—it requires action, too. It’s important to evaluate your Doctor.com reviews at least a few times a year to consider where you need to improve and where you’re already doing well.

Luckily, Doctor.com quantifies your success in a number of categories your patients care about. In addition to giving an overarching star rating, patients can leave ratings for the following areas, which you can see when you open full review details for an individual review.

• Ease of Getting an Appointment
• Courtesy of Practice Staff Office
• Appearance & Atmosphere
• Handling of Billing Matters
• Willingness to Spend Time with You
• Accuracy of Diagnosis
• Listening Skills
• Clear Explanations
• Trust in Decision Making
• Post Visit Follow-Up

The average wait time in your clinic, based on patient feedback, can also be viewed on your profile.

As you make improvements directly based on your patient reviews, you may find your average star ratings will rise, encouraging patient loyalty and new customers.

Become your area’s preferred provider

Taking advantage of Doctor.com reviews to boost your online reputation can help you gain more visibility and become a preferred healthcare provider in your area. With millions of monthly users on the platform, your opportunities to engage with current and future patients will grow the more you develop your profile and ratings.

Helping patients find you on the web requires more than great online reviews. Read our guide to SEO marketing for doctors to learn how you can gain more leads with a well-developed search engine optimization strategy.